Viennese Coffeehouse Culture

The Viennese Kaffeehaus is an extended living room. It is ideal for people who need company to be alone. It is both a stage and a private space. People sense that they are following in a great tradition of leisure and creativity, and love it because it is always reinventing itself. Around 1900 a group of authors went down in history as coffee house literati.They not only socialised in the Kaffeehaus, but used it as their workplace. One of them, Peter Altenberg, wrote the address of his local Kaffeehaus on his visiting card and in return the Café Central has a monument to him. Before writers claimed the Kaffeehaus as their own, composers discovered its charms for themselves. Johann Strauß and his father before him introduced new works here. Even Mozart and Beethoven performed in a Kaffeehaus.

Cakes and pastries are of course a special attraction of every Kaffeehaus. They are almost always home-made, often to carefully guarded house recipes. The „SperlSchnitte" at Café Sperl is just one such delicacy, or the cake of the house at Café Alt-Wien. Café Korb, admired for its original 1950s fittings, serves the best Apfelstrudel in the city. On the other hand Café Hawelka, which boasts Jugendstil decor almost overlooked in a room full of patina-darkened wood, serves the "Buchteln mit Powidl", a bun with plum jam. Hot from the oven at 10 in the evening, it very quickly disappears. For whatever reason the Viennese go to a Kaffeehaus - to relax, to chat, to snack, to read, to play, to do business, to see and be seen - they always get something out of it. The Kaffeehaus is an elixir of life - the longer you stay, the better it works.