The Herrengarten is an oasis in the middle of Brixen: summer asters and perennial phlox grow behind low boxwood hedges, but also rows of cabbages, spring onions and parsley. A pair of pigeons drink at the bronze fountain, and Pope Pius VII examines the Renaissance gardens with a marble view from the niche under the city wall. Until the 1990s, the complex next to the prince-bishop’s Hofburg was reserved for the clergy. Today everyone can look for peace and quiet here. And Florian Fink even looks for herbs and vegetables: “The lavender on our tables in the restaurant comes from the Herrengarten,” says the South Tyrolean. “And also the rosemary, which I currently use in my cooking.”
How practical that the garden is only a few steps away from the Kleine Lauben in Brixen’s old town; So Fink doesn’t have to go far from his more than 600 year old Fink Inn. Florian and his wife Petra Fink are the fourth generation to run it. Since the end of July, the innkeeper couple has also been welcoming overnight guests in their two adjoining arbor houses, which have since been significantly called “Fink Restaurant & Suites”.
Petra and Florian Fink are the fourth generation to run the house.
(Photo: Fink Restaurant & Suites)
Since the renovation, on the ground floor, under the arcades, the view through the floor-flush glass extends far into the restaurant, onto the exposed walls and the historic cross vault. A wellness area and nine purist suites have been set up on the upper floors, some of which are decorated with frescoes. They are a splash of color in the otherwise reduced hotel rooms, some with ceilings well over three meters high and odd walls that do well without right angles.
Hand-filled lime plaster, oak floors, the view from the bay windows of the nearby arcade houses opposite: all of this gives the room a dust-free and yet almost ancient feeling of care. “During the restoration, we treated all rooms with as much respect as possible,” says Petra Fink. There’s also a pause in the wellness area: “Here you don’t go swimming, you go bathing,” the 37-year-old explains the use of the Roman warm water pool. “Everything is at rest, without movement – there is no whirlpool.”
Three meter high ceilings, lime plaster, bay window – view from one of the suites.
(Photo: Fink Restaurant & Suites)
The hotel clerk and her family have been anchored in the South Tyrolean hotel industry for generations; she runs the five-star forest resort Forestis on the Plose, Brixen’s local mountain. From there she brought the architects from the Brixen office Asaggio with her, who underlined the monastic atmosphere in the Fink with simple, high-quality minimalism.
The ideal backdrop for the host’s cooking, which is inspired by monastery cuisine. “My mother was already closely connected to the Poor Clares and to this day cooks for the sisters when their own cook is unavailable,” says the 39-year-old, who now works with an organic farmer in Brixen and the surrounding monastery gardens. His wife, on the other hand, says that the monasteries in Brixen used to be overcrowded for a few years and that the Fink was used as a branch for the nuns. “The monastery concept was an obvious choice for our house,” says Petra Fink. “It has been the case for a while now that the clergy are becoming fewer and can no longer eat everything that grows among them.”
The extensive absence of meat on the menu corresponds more to monastic fare than to long-established South Tyrolean inn culture. Florian Fink serves his vegan tartare spectacularly under a smoking hood, the smoke from spruce wood, herbs and juniper settles into the vegetable tartare with beetroot and carrot. Plucked chamomile flowers on top and small dabs of vegan mayonnaise whipped with carrot green oil – you can go into raptures, even as a non-religious person.
Meat is largely avoided in the “Fink” kitchen.
(Photo: Fink Restaurant & Suites)
A short city walk away, on the edge of the old town in Runggadgasse, the Poor Clares, Franciscans, Capuchins and the Tertiary Sisters have their headquarters. The latter were founded around 1700 by the Brixen mystic Maria Hueber. “For years we have been bringing the leftover food from our inn to the Tertiary Sisters’ food distribution, which is what many businesses in Brixen do,” says the innkeeper. Since the hotel opened, guests have also been able to help out. Anyone who foregoes housekeeping and places a sign on their room door that says “I donate a plate of warmth” finances a lunch or dinner for those in need.
The exchange with monasteries is not new territory for Florian Fink: “Our collaboration with the Neustift Monastery probably even began with my grandparents through wine.” Vineyards were already part of Neustift when the monastery was founded in 1142. Florian Fink’s grandfather not only gave his grandson good connections to one of the oldest active wineries in the world, but also impressive decoration for the staircase: a replica of the Celtic menhir from Tötschling am Pfeffersberg stands there, as tall as a man, discovered by Hans Fink in 1955. Today the original is in the Archeology Museum in Bolzano, “where Ötzi is,” says Florian Fink. His grandfather was actually a butcher, but after an illness he was no longer able to practice his profession and specialized in South Tyrolean folklore. “He was a landlord, as he is in the book,” Maria Gall remembers the 2003 deceased. “And a great storyteller.” The doctor of social sciences is a tour guide. She knows Brixen and the local customs very well. “You used to recognize a good landlord by having your own butcher’s shop,” adds the university lecturer. “Today there’s less of that.” At the Fink there is still a shop under the arcades, right next to the newly designed entrance to the hotel. The butcher shop is run by the landlord’s cousin.
Florian Fink, meanwhile, was particularly taken with the instructions given by the naturopathic Benedictine nun Hildegard von Bingen. “I’ve read through many of her books.” So at the beginning of the menu, to open the stomach, he offers a herbal decoction made from fennel, galangal root and bertram powder, the latter of which was already a central seasoning and remedy for the monastery woman. “The Bertram plant has a lot of bitter substances that stimulate digestion,” he enthuses. He also likes to use catchfly. “The leaves also have a lot of bitter substances, which makes the food more digestible. Today they are used in tomato soup.” He also plucks one of the flowers from the herb and lets it burst with a loud pop on the back of his hand: “That’s why we call it the meadow carnation.”
An easy life has never done anyone any good, is one of the ascetic wisdoms that Hildegard von Bingen is often quoted as saying. And that is perhaps the only principle of the polymaths that does not apply to Fink.
Travel information:
Fink Restaurant & Suites, Kleine Lauben 4, 39042 Brixen, Italy, double room with breakfast from 320 euros/night, fink1896.it
The research trip for this article was partly supported by tour operators, hotels, airlines and/or tourism agencies.