Article created on: 05.10.2018 Last updated: 26.07.2024
TU Graz’s Campus Alte Technik, which includes mainly the buildings in Rechbauer-, Lessing- and Technikerstraße, all of which you can almost count on one hand, is small but fine, and you could say the same for the location’s culinary offers. Simply said: Café KORK in Lessingstraße 25 with lunch menus and its modest selection of eatables and drinkables put together with loving care – also for those with special eating habits – is fine in the sense of cosy. The pub-styleBar28 at Gartengasse 28, opposite Alte Technik, offers menus, burgers, sandwiches and snacks, with outdoor tables facing the street in the warmer months. But you have to look the facts in the eye: there are more vending machines than eateries on the Alte Technik campus.
In this series, TU Graz’s News+Stories team gives you the low-down on the food and drink options at the university’s Campus Alte Technik, Campus Neue Technik and Inffeldgasse sites – covering everything from the catering providers to the vending machines. You will find part two, focusing on Campus NeueTechnik, here.
A small study of vending machines
Technikerstraße 4 (reading area of the TU Graz Library), Lessingstraße 25 and Wastiangasse 6 each have two vending machines. Insert money to get your chilled drink selection from the provider ‘Coca Cola’ which includes Coca Cola, iced tea, Cappy spritz and Emotion. Right beside it there is a Dallmayr vending machine which also takes cards and has a surprisingly big selection of sustainable coffee to go and chocolate drinks.
But Rechbauerstraße 12 with its three vending machines in an alcove on the lower ground floor is the front-runner. The above offers are supplemented here by a wide selection of sweet and salty snacks from the For 4 you snack vending machine. This includes chocolate and muesli bars, jelly babies, Manner Schnitten (wafers) and Zotter chocolate, peanuts, chewing gum, mineral waters, fruit juices, and assorted energy and soft drinks.
KORK: more than just coffee
While tasting the dishes in the quiet outside terrace at Lessingstraße 25 in the park behind the Alte Technik, I quickly realise it’s more than just a café here. And the coffee is nothing to run away from either – on request served with house-baked cake. “From Monday to Thursday, we serve two different lunch dishes every day, one of them vegan including soup for 13.90 euros, the other with meat or fish including soup for 10.90 euros. On Fridays, a vegetarian dish is on the menu, says manager Mischa Mendlik, explaining the culinary concept of Café KORK.
Coffee served with homemade cake from the kitchen.
In the evening, KORK mutates into the ideal warm-up venue close to the university district. “In the evenings and at weekends, I can recommend our alternating stews – usually chillies or curries – and our sandwiches with pulled pork or cream cheese and kimchi as a snack or main meal. French fries are on the menu as a snack.” Long-time bartender Mischa Mendlik serves speciality beers from smaller breweries, Club Mate as a non-alcoholic option and selected scotches, whiskeys and bourbons. His special passion is the harmonious choice of music that not only the regular clientele appreciate. And as special events, there are concerts, brunches and other events that are always announced on the KORK Facebook page.
Because customers did not appreciate early opening hours, KORK opens at 11 a.m. Monday to Friday and at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
‘CORK should be a cosy place where each person feels good.’ (Mischa Mendlik)
Bar28: meeting place (not only) for sports fans
Just a stone's throw from the campus, at Gartengasse 28, directly opposite the Alte Technik building, is Bar28. On weekdays, from 11am to 2pm, the team serves international lunch menus and homemade burgers, sandwiches and snacks until 9.30pm. The lunch menu costs €11.90 with soup or dessert. If you want to take the menu away, you can pay one euro for the disposable containers or bring your own takeaway dishes.
After a long day of studying or working, you can stop in with colleagues, choose from a wide range of drinks, have fun playing pool or poker, or watch live international sport on one of the many TV screens. Please note: On Saturdays and Sundays, guests are only welcome after 5pm.
A weekly menu overview for numerous restaurants near the campus of Graz University of Technology can be found on the website https://today.tugraz.at/.