Forsterbräu
This lively beer garden, owned and operated by South Tyrol’s brewery, is just what you would hope for: good beer and hearty food served in an attractive outdoor courtyard under the shade of large chestnut trees. Dishes include Tiroler Speckknödel, racketball-sized bread dumplings studded with diced bacon ($5); Schlutzkraphen, a ravioli stuffed with cheese, herbs, then drizzled with brown butter ($5.50); and thinly sliced veal fried in beer batter ($15). The menu also recommends beers to accompany a multicourse meal: Pils with the appetizer, a pale beer for the main course, and a double bock with dessert.
Contact: Forsterbräu, Freiheitstrasse 90, 39012 Meran, tel +39/0473/23 65 35, fax +39/0473/21 25 35, open Wednesday-Monday 10am-11pm.
Rating: Quality 14/20, Value 13/20

Meran also has two notable coffeehouses. Located on a cobblestone plaza next to the river and the former Kurhaus, the Italian-style Café Darling (Winterpromenade 5) has a bar that serves wine made from its own vineyards. Café König (Freiheitstrasse 164), an Austrian-type Konditorei, is a grandmotherly sort place to go during the day for coffee and a pastry (open Monday-Saturday 9am-6:30pm).

Restaurants in Brixen

Elephant (Editor's Choice)
In addition to quality accommodations and a tranquil garden, the Elephant also has an exceptionally good restaurant, which provided the best meal of the trip. The menu features Tyrolean specialties served with a gourmet flair. I began with a plate of flavorful Schlutzkraphen ($12) dusted with freshly grated Parmesan. Next came a delicious pile of sautéed portabello mushroom slices stacked on top of a tender venison steak and bathed in a reduction sauce ($24). Both were a delight.

Accompanying the meal was a very good red wine bottled especially for the hotel by a local vintner. Reserve a table on the terrace during the summer or in the centuries-old tavern room in winter.
Open Tuesday-Sunday, on Monday opened for hotel guests only, noon-2pm and 5pm-10pm.
Rating: Quality 16/20, Value 15/20

Restaurant-Künstlerstübele Finsterwirt-Oste Scuro
This restaurant has two parts. The first serves rustic Tyrolean cuisine in a pretty, tree-shaded courtyard, or indoors in an attractive tavern. The second part offers a fancier, more refined mix of Tyrolean and international foods upstairs in the richly decorated Künstlerstube.

Tyrolean dishes include a creamy and very delicious wine soup with cinnamon flavored croutons ($6), tender dumplings filled with mushrooms or spinach ($9) and a heavy venison goulash ($17). International dishes include such fantasies as an appetizer of scallops in Riesling sauce with black band noodles and eggplant cakes ($20) and, as a second course, rack of lamb baked in an herbed potato crust ($22).
Contact: Finsterwirt-Oste Scuro, Domgasse 3, I-39042 Brixen, Italy, tel +39/0472/20 06 21, fax +39/0472/20 89 73, email info@finsterwirt.com, webpage www.finsterwirt.com, open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-11pm, closed first two weeks in July.
Rating: Quality 14/20, Value

Chorherrenstift Neustift
Gemütlichkeit highly recommends a visit to the 12th-century Augustine monastery in Neustift, known for its excellent white wine. The scenery is lovely, especially on a walk up the vineyards or along the river leading to the monastery.

Tours can be made of the 18th-century library at select times, and visitors are free any time to wander around the courtyards and visit the church and cloister.

Chorherrenstift wine can be purchased either by the bottle in the small wine shop in front of the monastery, or enjoyed by the glass at a small wine tavern just across the way.

In addition to its white wines – the Sylvaner is particularly good – the monastery also serves a fruity burgundy and a dense, slightly bitter Lagrein, a local grape variety. Simple accompaniments include a board stacked with thinly sliced Speck and brown bread ($8).
Contact: Chorherrenstift Neustift, tel/fax +43/01/36 189, open Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm.
Rating: Quality 13/20, Value 12/20

One of the best dinners in Tyrol was gathered from small shops in Brixen and enjoyed in the evening on the balcony of my room at the Hotel Elephant. Here’s where to go to assemble such a meal.

There are also many small fruit shops selling perfectly ripe Italian produce.

(Editor’s Note: When telephoning Italy from abroad, do not drop the zero before the area code as is the case with other European countries).