![]() Bronstein (Leon Trotsky) sitting over there at the Cafe Central?” Despite repeated renovations, the Central has masses of atmosphere and is worth a visit, so long as the queues are not too long. Although opened “only” in 1876, the cafe’s historical legacy is powerful: Wikipedia says that when Victor Adler objected to Count Berchtold, foreign minister of Austria-Hungary, that war would provoke revolution in Russia, he replied: “And who will lead this revolution? Perhaps Mr. Possibly the most famous of Vienna’s traditional cafes, the Central occupies an exquisite space in the Palais Ferstel, originally built in 1860 to house the Austrian National Bank and stock exchange. The cavernous, welcoming interior of the Cafe Bräunerhof (all photos LT)Ĭafe Central (Herrengasse 14, 1st District). Apparently the Bräunerhof has a reputation for grumpy waiters but on numerous visits mine have been unusually fast and perfectly civil. Has a particularly enjoyable good “stepping back in time” feeling, with plenty of locals reading books and newspapers. Nestling in a back street near the tourist heart of Vienna, the Cafe Bräunerhof has nonetheless kept a wonderfully shabby and unrenovated traditional ambience, complete with uniformed waiters (don’t try and sit down until they’ve shown you to a table) and, when I visited once, a musical trio at no extra charge. My findings so far:Ĭafe Bräunerhof (Stallburggasse 2, 1st District). If a cafe does not appear in the list, that means either that I haven’t tried it yet or that I’ve tried it and am not absolutely desperate to return. Vienna Cafe Reviews: here they areĪll of the cafes reviewed below are ones I would happily to return to. I often review cafes suggested in the “Comments” boxes below – latest addition is the Cafe Museum. Check the menu and choose your cakes at the counter if you’re not sure. Viennese cafes also often serve terrific cakes and other food and drink, from sausages to breakfast and beer. In fact, immortality might be handy if you’re waiting to be served in some Vienna cafes. I even mention the slow service of Viennese waiters in my satirical thriller Eternal Life. But if they are less than brilliant, the combination can be suboptimal. ![]() ![]() Traditional waiters can be brilliant, if they know what they are doing. Many Vienna cafes have a wonderful, unrenovated charm, often accompanied by service which varies from the friendly and efficient (more common in cafes outside the first district) to a kind of studied clockwork stop-motion effect where waiters emphasise by their every action both their superiority to the customers and the fact that they will not deviate from their intended, inexorable plan of action under any circumstance.īut then, what do you want? Would you rather, in Vienna, have a traditional-looking Austrian waiter, who maybe doesn’t speak English and isn’t conspicuously polite, or a fast-moving identikit youth who could be in Seattle or Siena and maybe doesn’t speak German? It’s a tricky question. I particularly like the fact that many of them (not all, sadly) use old-fashioned Viennese coffee-types such as kleine Schwarzer, kleine Brauner, Verlängerter or Franziskaner, instead of, or sometimes in addition to, the world-conquering Italian descriptors (Cappuccino, Macchiato & Co). How should you do Vienna cafe reviews? Is it even fair for me to assess them, as a foreigner who has lived only six years in the city, all but the last year back in the 1980s? Vienna coffee types The entrance to the Cafe Hawelka – photo Leigh Turner Can you guess in which of the cafes reviewed below the scene occurred? Clue: it was not the Hawelka. If my host that day (then working in the Town Hall with Mayor Zilk) is reading this, do get in touch. This is a true story from Vienna, 1986 – I was there. Head Waiter (chatting to other waiters on the other side of the room) ‘If you’re in such a hurry, you should have stayed at home.’ Vienna cafe reviews – a story from 1986 Viennese customer (standing up, exasperated, after 20 minutes of trying to get the bill, in German) ‘Excuse me, Mr Waiter I’d like to pay, please.’ Vienna Cafe Reviews – a personal collection of my favourite Viennese cafes from the Hawelka to the Korb via the Sperl and the Eiles.
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