Roast rib of beef - Was ist das?

I want a proper roast rib of beef for Christmas. Easy, right? Just order the cut at your favorite butcher, right? WRONG. For the past three years the Viennese butcher landscape has denied me my wish. Why? Apparently that specific cut of meat, the fore rib or Hochrippe (in  German), is not very popular in Austria (should someone know the reason behind, please share, I only got shrugs when I asked).
What seems to have complicated my quest is that I insisted on the cut being french trimmed - i.e. beautified by exposing the ribs and removing any fat, skin or meat from them.



This year, however, I was more determined than ever to put an end to this blemish on my culinary endeavors. I decided to search the Web for a picture of the exact type of meat  I wanted and take and hit the butchers:

Two weeks before Christmas I went straight to Vienna's most famous chain of all things meat: Radatz. They recognized the cut but didn't have. However, they were very helpful and promised to ask their central distribution facility whether they could somehow get hold of that specific cut.  A couple of days later I received a call... We are very sorry, but we are unable to get you the meat you wanted (Nooooooooooo...), but a colleague of mine may know where you could get it (Yaaaaaaaaayyyy....).

I was told to try a butcher store on Naschmarkt, aptly named Daniel's. Sensing success (c'mon, a butcher with my name!!!!) but fearing another setback I called ahead to confirm whether they actually had what I was looking for.  And they DID. A few hours later I was on my way to Naschmarkt to reserve... in person, just to make sure... the roast rib of my dreams for pick up on Christmas Eve day.

And here it is, all 3.4 kg of beautiful 4-rib, french-trimmed, fore rib of beef: