FAMOUS VIENNA CAFÉS & CONFECTION
Traditional Café Culture and the Sweets Life of Vienna
Yes,
there is more to do in Vienna than going to the opera and visiting museums.
Relax in a café, read the paper and savor a mind bending
sweet confection and watch the world go by. Vienna is the city of the
café - there are well over two thousand of them in the central
city and outer districts. The Viennese virtually invented the concept
of the street side coffee house and the European cafe lifestyle, to enjoy
the day with conversation over a demitasse cup of caffeine.
The café (Kaffehaus)
was born of the imperial age. Those of property who did not have to labor,
and those waiting for advancement with a nod from the emperor, flooded
Vienna in the golden age - artists, composers, scientists, capitalists
and even a famous communist
or two sat at the tables, indoors or outside on the street corners in
good weather, signaling to the waiter with the
traditional "Herr Ober" for the frothy creme style of brew
of the Viennese cafe. Waiting for an audience with the court took time,
one needed a place to relax and network with others of culture and stature
hoping to advance in society. The café became in the grand 19th
Century - the spot to see and be seen (see Zum
Schwarzen Kameel). Today,
a visit to the imperial city would not be complete without partaking
of
that
particular
Viennese
institution, the café and the confiserie. Vienna’s classic
cafes also serve food as well as coffee and sweets.
Mozart Cafe
The
Mozart Café at the Opera is located opposite from the Albertina
Museum, around the corner from the Imperial Palace and State Opera on
the Albertinaplatz plaza. Mozart never stepped foot in the place, it
was built three years after the composers death (see Where
Mozart Died) and
was named for him in 1929 when fever for the city's favorite son was
growing.
First opened in 1794 as the Cafe Katzmayr, the café was the favorite meeting place for artists in the Beidermeier age (see Saxe-Coburg and Strudel). Steeped in tradition, the Mozart Café is perhaps most famous from the movie “The Third Man” where Holly Martin waited to hear news of his presumed dead friend, Harry Lime. Graham Green worked on his screenplay sitting at one of the cafe's booths. The Mozart Café is across the plaza from the Vienna Hotel Sacher, known for its signature sweet, the Sacher Torte (see Sacher Torte and Cafes), which can be purchased in the little sweets store attached to the famed exclusive hotel. Cafe Mozart
Café Central
Located on Herrengasse street, the Cafe Central is perhaps one of Vienna's most famous for its turn of the last century gathering of noted intellectuals, writers and revolutionaries meeting in discussions which would change the world over a cup of Kaffe Maria Theresa and a strudel. At its tables in the courtyard of the Palais Ferstel, Goethe contemplated Dante's journey into the inferno, while exhiled Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky kibitzed over coffee while hatched a new order and rejoiced in the news of revolt in mother Russia, signaling the beginning of the end of empires - at least royal ones. Cafe Central
Landtmann at the Burg Theater
An institution since opened in 1873 by Franz Landtmann, this café at the Rathausplatz next to the Burgtheater was Vienna’s largest, expanded with a terrace and conservatory since its historic days. The Landtmann Café has seen many a famous patron at its tables from Sigmund Freud and Marlene Dietrich to Paul McCartney and Hillary Clinton. Cafe Landtmann
Café Diglas
Viennese
café tradition is alive at the Café Diglas, in
the center of the city, a step away from the bustle of the museums crowd,
100 steps away from St. Stephens Cathedral, with warm woods and cozy
classic booths, the Café Diglas features their own pastry deserts
as well as fine wines from breakfast to midnight 365 days a year. On
summer evenings live piano music accompanies the coffee in this Vienna
meeting spot since 1875. Cafe Diglas
Café Prückel
Opposite the Museum of Fine Arts on the Stubenring, not far from the golden statue of Vienna’s Waltz King – the Pruckel Café offers a variation from the traditional with its 1950s “moderne” interior, a bit more casual, like a living room, with piano music on occasion, a bridge card room and plenty of newspapers and magazines to while away the day. Cafe Pruckel
K. & K. Hofzuckerbäcker Demel
To
watch the sweets being made before your eyes, step to the view window
of
the Demel,
where the confectioners have created the sugary masterpieces
of their art for over 200 years, now being a bit more inventive, creating
custom cakes and desserts to order, some in decidedly curious shapes.
The Demel is not only a café, but a dessert shop worth a stop
to take home a sweet swirly Zimtschnecke. Demel
Vienna
Kleines Cafe
If the Landtmann
is the largest of its kindred, the Kleines Cafe is, well, the smallest,
(Kleines means small), if one doesn't count the modern
take-out window which in current times compete with the classic cafe
for our urgent hustle schedule. The Kleines Cafe, around the corner from
the Vienna apartment house where composer Amadeus Mozart died a pauper, now an office building and shops (see Where Mozart Died), is best when the skies are blue and
the sun warm, as the inside space is limited, but outdoor tables fill
the little square of Franziskanerplatz, where Mozart possibly spent his
last coins after the gambling debts piled up. The Kleines Cafe had its
own starring role in the modern bohemian film "Before Sunrise" with
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke chattering away in one of those endless conversations
which have fueled the Viennese cafe life for a few hundred years.
Freud Cafe
Have a cup of Viennese coffee under the watchful eye of Dr. Sigmund Freud at the little cafe next to the museum dedicated to the father of Psychoanalysis (see Sigmund Freud Museum).
The Vienna Card available from tourist office or at many hotels offers discounts at most of the cafes mentioned. Internet Cafes and Starbucks have been supplanting the traditional Vienna Cafe coffeehouse, and they can be found all about the city if the traditional style isn't your personal cup of java, but a visit to one of the elegant shops of the grand age should be on your list of things to do at least once while in the home of the opera and the waltz. © Bargain Travel Europe
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SEE ALSO:
SCHONBRUNN - IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE
TWO UNIQUE RESTAURANTS OF VIENNA
VIENNA'S FERRIS WHEEL OF "THE THIRD MAN"
VIENNA'S BUTTERFLY HOUSE & CAFE
