Before World War II, my maternal grandparents owned an Auskocherei and then a Gasthaus in the Ottakring district of Vienna. About the first restaurant, my uncle wrote:
“My family’s little restaurant offered some specialties once in a while. My father decided to make apple strudel for sale by the piece. He had a big wooden box made which held a number of baking pans with spaces in between. The strudels were made four to a pan. The pans were slid into the box and then carried to the bakery across the street on the corner, where they were baked in the afternoon, when the ovens were not used (they were kept hot round the clock). When done the strudels were brought back in the box. The restaurant had a deep enough window to display a pan with strudels. . . “
My grandfather learned how to cook during World War I, in the Austrian army. He became a successful manufacturer in America, but he made strudel for us more than once and for my Bar Mitzvah reception in California in 1967. The dough was rolled out until it was paper thin, carefully stretched across our entire dining table. Sliced apple and walnuts (I think) were rolled into the dough, which was then sliced into individual pieces.
.
strudel for sale in the window of an outdoor café at the Meidlinger Market
My mother was also a very good cook. Her general preferences were Californian, that is healthy and simple, but she inherited a taste and a skill for some of the food of her childhood.
However she did not like baking. Diet and health conscious, she limited what was brought into the house, and northern California in the 1950’s was a wasteland for good baked goods. (Remember Sarah Lee in the freezer case? The opening of a European bakery, circa 1970 in downtown Los Gatos, was a big deal.)
Nevertheless my mother had very clear ideas of what was and was not good. “Too sweet” she often said about the cakes we were served in the United States. It is Vienna that formed her standards, but our exposure to it was limited.
For my entire adult life, I have enjoyed reading with a cup of coffee and a good piece of cake. It is an idealized leisure, a frequent goal, a fantasy. Finding the right place and table and sitting undisturbed was a problem in my many years in New York. The cafés were crowded and noisy, the cakes too sweet, the coffee made too quickly, and time at the table was limited. So I have brought my dream with me to Vienna, and I am exploring this fantasy against the background of my mother’s tastes and history.
Following is a series of essays and photographs of Vienna’s cafés or kaffeehäuser. This is a work in progress; I revise and add to it from time to time. I have and will be writing about a variety of places, including some that are famous and historic. But my interests are broader than that, and my tastes incline to the somewhat less-well-known.
Of course there is the food, but I am equally interested in the context, that is the rooms, the service, the street and the neighborhood. My learning curve is steep; I am new to the city; my German is poor; Austrian food is complex and sophisticated, and yet not everything is as wonderful and delicious as I had imagined. My mother passed-on some idea of what is good, but I struggle to define it. Nevertheless, there are many interesting places in Vienna for stopping and talking, and reading and eating at leisure with a cup of coffee.
.
CAFÉ GOLDENER PAPAGEI
November 2022
I am living right now in Leopoldstadt, about a five minute walk from the old city center. This was a largely Jewish neighborhood, until the late 1930’s, and there are again a significant number of Orthodox Jews. My grandmother was a sheitel macher before her marriage, that is a wig maker for orthodox Jewish women. She lived in Leopoldstadt after leaving Galicia (then part of Austria, presently divided between Poland and the Ukraine), and started her business here. Her parents also lived here, as did cousins, but I do not know where.
I have briefly rented a nice apartment from a young Austrian economist, living in Paris, and from his place, I walk to supermarkets, to the well known Karmelitermarkt, past some kosher places that cater to the Orthodox or older classics, like an ancient church or an 18-century Apotheke (pharmacy) each about two blocks away. Most of what I see are neighborhood stores of no particular character. But there are also some new and carefully designed places that cater to a visually more sophisticated and younger crowd. Thus Café Goldener Papagei, which means Golden Parrot.
Café Goldener is located on the Praterstrasse, where it narrows and becomes a neighborhood street, before continuing to Donaustrasse and the Danube canal. The café sits where Praterstrasse meets Kirkusgasse and opens up into a small plaza, framed with handsome older buildings, and with a statue of Johann Nestroy, a great 19th century playwright, actor and singer. I’ve been to the café now twice; it is a lovely windowed space, with outdoor seating for warmer weather. And I have chosen the same seat each time, at a window looking out to the statue.
Nestroy
.
I saw and ordered an apple cake, apfelkuche, at the display counter and eventually two cups of coffee, americano, that is espresso with extra hot water. The cake looked a bit like a tart, with a crumb crust and a crumb top. The middle was a thick layer of sliced apples with a thin layer of sliced almonds. The cake was good–a little more fruit a little less crust would have been ideal (after discussing it with my friend Stefani). But I could have sat there endlessly. My book was new and engaging; and the crowd was young, and as you can see, attractive.
.
CAFÉ PRÜCKEL
November 2022
A lot has been written about Café Prückel. The Wikipedia entry is detailed, and the café has a fully explanatory website. I’ll try not to repeat too much of it.
The café was founded under another name shortly after 1900 and has retained its spatial grandeur. Some may regret the 1950’s re-design, but the old style can be seen elsewhere, specifically at the back of the café, where it has been restored, or in Cafés Landtmann and Central.
The redesign by Oswald Haerdtl is both exceptional and unusual. Haerdtl (1899-1959) worked in Josef Hoffman’s studio in the 1920’s and designed a couple of World Exhibition pavilions for Austria in the 1930’s. He became prominent, a professor and eventually architect of the Museum der Stadt Wien among other projects (1959, now being enlarged).
Haerdtl also designed furniture, cutlery, and dishes and other cafés (now demolished). Among these was the Café Arabia on Kohlmarkt Street, designed for Alfred Weiss in the 1950’s and currently the subject of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum on Judenplatz.
The interior of Café Prückel is light filled and modernist, in an old and timeless way, with small tables, chairs, banquettes, and lamps. The upholstery is worn and comfortable, and there are several newspapers to choose from.
I have been to this café a number of times, and it is a favorite. It is at the quieter, southern edge of the inner city, although it can be busy, especially on weekends. The waiters are old-school and in black tie, but not unfriendly, and the crowd is largely Austrian. The choices are extensive, with both à la carte and a daily menu. The food is traditional and good, the cake selection not overly complex. There are music and cultural events, but I have not yet been to them.
This afternoon, I walked in for lunch, found a good corner banquette table, and ordered wiener schnitzel and a green salad, followed by very good mohn-weischel strudel (poppy seed and cherry filling) and black café americano. The bill, including tip, was 30 euros.
mohn-weischel (poppy seed) strudel
oudoor seating on Luegerplatz, MAK Museum for Applied Arts, across the avenue at the rear
The café wraps around the outside corner of its Ringstrasse building, with a main corner entrance, and outside seating along Luegerplatz. Karl Lueger was the popular and populist anti-semitic politician and mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. Repelling and fascinating, the statue still stands in this plaza, its base spray- painted with “Schande” (shame) since September 2020.
But at Prückel, it is easy to forget that openness and tolerance are more critical to civilization than refinement or good food.
Karl Lueger
THE SCHLOSS CAFÉ
Spring 2022
One weekend afternoon my destination was the Belvedere Palace. The train left me at the back entrance to its park, whereas my preference would have been to enter from the heart of the city at the front. So I walked through the rear formal garden, past the huge profile of the upper Belvedere, through a still-more-formal French garden to the lower Belvedere, the original house, and the front gate.
As I passed the side of the upper Belvedere, I saw a sign for the “castle” or Schloss Café; the day’s menu included a pork schnitzel with parsley and potatoes, and so I decided to return after my walk.
A side of the upper Belvedere Palace
The schnitzel was my first good one in Vienna–light and tender, tasty and crispy. It covered the entire plate with a small portion of cranberry sauce and, underneath, a few blanched or boiled potatoes, sprinkled with parsley. I had it with a small bottle of sparkling water. This was a fairly quick one-course meal, with the usual polite and professional service; but there is never a rush. The bill was 17.90 euros including tip.
The room is plain; which is to say that it is presented with only a few important elements. It has a marble floor, plain café tables and banquettes, a vaulted ceiling, a chandelier, and a large portrait, perhaps of the Empress Elisabeth.
the schnitzel
the Schloss Café dining room
CAFÉ BEAULIEU
Spring 2022.
I had tried a number of coffee houses, or Kaffeehaüser, but my first entry for this article was lunch at Beaulieu, a French café in the Ferstel Passage in the Innere Stadt (Inner City). This place does not match the Kaffeehaus definition, but a Brazilian-born acquaintance and friend, who has lived in Vienna for many years, told me to stick to the side streets in the Innere Stadt, to find the places where the Viennese go, and where we tourists do not. A French café in the Ferstel passage met this definition. The passage is in an Italian-Renaissance-style building that dates from 1860, and originally housed a stock-exchange and a bank.
Entrance to the Café Beaulieu
A larger view of the Ferstel Passage
The interior of the café is a bit less extraordinary than the entrance; nevertheless it is a lovely and intimate place. It is entered through a small retail section, that sells French wine, cheese and pastry. This opens to a long double-height room with clothed tables, and at 1PM it was busy with Viennese at lunch.
I was given a table on the mezzanine level, where I ordered quiche and salad, followed by a macaron and coffee. There was nothing exceptional in my choices, but the quiche was unusually creamy and tasty, and the salad was very fresh and good. The earthenware plates were unexpected, but the service was careful, professional and friendly, and the waiter spoke French–after seeing my French language guidebook. The cost of the whole thing was about 20 euros, including tip. Since it’s not typically Austrian, I’m not sure that I would recommend this place during a short visit, but mine is not a short visit, and this is very near to the Bank Austria Kuntsforum, where I saw the David Hockney show, right afterwards.
.
SLUKA CONDITOREI
May 2023
There are two Sluka cafés in Vienna, one on Kartnerstrasse in the inner city, the Innere Stadt, and the other on Rathausplatz, which translates to city hall place. I chose to go to Rathausplatz, in the mid-afternoon, assuming it would be quieter, and mostly that was the case.
the interior of café Sulka on Rathausplatz
This café has a traditional and not overly large interior, not as grand or crowded as some others, but with an attractive and visible pastry case. I had been told that the strudel is good here, so of course I eyed all three: apple (apfel), cheese/curd (topfen), and apricot (marillen).
the pastry case, not including the strudel
The interior is charming in a conventional old-fashioned way, red and gold with thonet chairs. But the windows are large, and the outdoor setting and seating are extraordinary.
Rathausplatz is centered on a very large and gothic city hall, and on a park, which in turn faces the Ringstrasse, the wide 19th century boulevard that replaced the old city walls and is lined with classical apartment houses and major public buildings.
Sluka is located under the grand arcade of one of these apartment houses. The arcade is tall with muscular columns, ornamented, and vaguely gothic. The weather was cool and gorgeous.
In Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, Karl Schorske refers to Rathaus quarter architects “concealing businesses or store fronts beneath costly arcades, in the manner of the rue de Rivoli in Paris… “, but the rue de Rivoli is now lined with cheap curio shops and filled with T-shirts on display. This arcade, facing the park, is at a larger scale with a more dignified appearance.
Sulka, outdoor seating under the arcade
But Sulka is not as big, as crowded, or as old as Angelina, the famous café on the rue de Rivoli, and its pastry is not as delicate. My sister and I both ordered strudel: I the marillen, she the apple. The fruit was superb and the schlagobers (whipped cream) perfect, that is not too sweet. But the crusts, we agreed, were elastic and damp.
Vienna’s coffee houses and restaurants
Before World War II, my maternal grandparents owned an Auskocherei and then a Gasthaus in the Ottakring district of Vienna. About the first restaurant, my uncle wrote:
“My family’s little restaurant offered some specialties once in a while. My father decided to make apple strudel for sale by the piece. He had a big wooden box made which held a number of baking pans with spaces in between. The strudels were made four to a pan. The pans were slid into the box and then carried to the bakery across the street on the corner, where they were baked in the afternoon, when the ovens were not used (they were kept hot round the clock). When done the strudels were brought back in the box. The restaurant had a deep enough window to display a pan with strudels. . . “
My grandfather learned how to cook during World War I, in the Austrian army. He became a successful manufacturer in America, but he made strudel for us more than once and for my Bar Mitzvah reception in California in 1967. The dough was rolled out until it was paper thin, carefully stretched across our entire dining table. Sliced apple and walnuts (I think) were rolled into the dough, which was then sliced into individual pieces.
.
My mother was also a very good cook. Her general preferences were Californian, that is healthy and simple, but she inherited a taste and a skill for some of the food of her childhood.
However she did not like baking. Diet and health conscious, she limited what was brought into the house, and northern California in the 1950’s was a wasteland for good baked goods. (Remember Sarah Lee in the freezer case? The opening of a European bakery, circa 1970 in downtown Los Gatos, was a big deal.)
Nevertheless my mother had very clear ideas of what was and was not good. “Too sweet” she often said about the cakes we were served in the United States. It is Vienna that formed her standards, but our exposure to it was limited.
For my entire adult life, I have enjoyed reading with a cup of coffee and a good piece of cake. It is an idealized leisure, a frequent goal, a fantasy. Finding the right place and table and sitting undisturbed was a problem in my many years in New York. The cafés were crowded and noisy, the cakes too sweet, the coffee made too quickly, and time at the table was limited. So I have brought my dream with me to Vienna, and I am exploring this fantasy against the background of my mother’s tastes and history.
Following is a series of essays and photographs of Vienna’s cafés or kaffeehäuser. This is a work in progress; I revise and add to it from time to time. I have and will be writing about a variety of places, including some that are famous and historic. But my interests are broader than that, and my tastes incline to the somewhat less-well-known.
Of course there is the food, but I am equally interested in the context, that is the rooms, the service, the street and the neighborhood. My learning curve is steep; I am new to the city; my German is poor; Austrian food is complex and sophisticated, and yet not everything is as wonderful and delicious as I had imagined. My mother passed-on some idea of what is good, but I struggle to define it. Nevertheless, there are many interesting places in Vienna for stopping and talking, and reading and eating at leisure with a cup of coffee.
.
CAFÉ GOLDENER PAPAGEI
November 2022
I am living right now in Leopoldstadt, about a five minute walk from the old city center. This was a largely Jewish neighborhood, until the late 1930’s, and there are again a significant number of Orthodox Jews. My grandmother was a sheitel macher before her marriage, that is a wig maker for orthodox Jewish women. She lived in Leopoldstadt after leaving Galicia (then part of Austria, presently divided between Poland and the Ukraine), and started her business here. Her parents also lived here, as did cousins, but I do not know where.
I have briefly rented a nice apartment from a young Austrian economist, living in Paris, and from his place, I walk to supermarkets, to the well known Karmelitermarkt, past some kosher places that cater to the Orthodox or older classics, like an ancient church or an 18-century Apotheke (pharmacy) each about two blocks away. Most of what I see are neighborhood stores of no particular character. But there are also some new and carefully designed places that cater to a visually more sophisticated and younger crowd. Thus Café Goldener Papagei, which means Golden Parrot.
Café Goldener is located on the Praterstrasse, where it narrows and becomes a neighborhood street, before continuing to Donaustrasse and the Danube canal. The café sits where Praterstrasse meets Kirkusgasse and opens up into a small plaza, framed with handsome older buildings, and with a statue of Johann Nestroy, a great 19th century playwright, actor and singer. I’ve been to the café now twice; it is a lovely windowed space, with outdoor seating for warmer weather. And I have chosen the same seat each time, at a window looking out to the statue.
.
I saw and ordered an apple cake, apfelkuche, at the display counter and eventually two cups of coffee, americano, that is espresso with extra hot water. The cake looked a bit like a tart, with a crumb crust and a crumb top. The middle was a thick layer of sliced apples with a thin layer of sliced almonds. The cake was good–a little more fruit a little less crust would have been ideal (after discussing it with my friend Stefani). But I could have sat there endlessly. My book was new and engaging; and the crowd was young, and as you can see, attractive.
.
CAFÉ PRÜCKEL
November 2022
A lot has been written about Café Prückel. The Wikipedia entry is detailed, and the café has a fully explanatory website. I’ll try not to repeat too much of it.
The café was founded under another name shortly after 1900 and has retained its spatial grandeur. Some may regret the 1950’s re-design, but the old style can be seen elsewhere, specifically at the back of the café, where it has been restored, or in Cafés Landtmann and Central.
The redesign by Oswald Haerdtl is both exceptional and unusual. Haerdtl (1899-1959) worked in Josef Hoffman’s studio in the 1920’s and designed a couple of World Exhibition pavilions for Austria in the 1930’s. He became prominent, a professor and eventually architect of the Museum der Stadt Wien among other projects (1959, now being enlarged).
Haerdtl also designed furniture, cutlery, and dishes and other cafés (now demolished). Among these was the Café Arabia on Kohlmarkt Street, designed for Alfred Weiss in the 1950’s and currently the subject of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum on Judenplatz.
The interior of Café Prückel is light filled and modernist, in an old and timeless way, with small tables, chairs, banquettes, and lamps. The upholstery is worn and comfortable, and there are several newspapers to choose from.
I have been to this café a number of times, and it is a favorite. It is at the quieter, southern edge of the inner city, although it can be busy, especially on weekends. The waiters are old-school and in black tie, but not unfriendly, and the crowd is largely Austrian. The choices are extensive, with both à la carte and a daily menu. The food is traditional and good, the cake selection not overly complex. There are music and cultural events, but I have not yet been to them.
This afternoon, I walked in for lunch, found a good corner banquette table, and ordered wiener schnitzel and a green salad, followed by very good mohn-weischel strudel (poppy seed and cherry filling) and black café americano. The bill, including tip, was 30 euros.
The café wraps around the outside corner of its Ringstrasse building, with a main corner entrance, and outside seating along Luegerplatz. Karl Lueger was the popular and populist anti-semitic politician and mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. Repelling and fascinating, the statue still stands in this plaza, its base spray- painted with “Schande” (shame) since September 2020.
But at Prückel, it is easy to forget that openness and tolerance are more critical to civilization than refinement or good food.
THE SCHLOSS CAFÉ
Spring 2022
One weekend afternoon my destination was the Belvedere Palace. The train left me at the back entrance to its park, whereas my preference would have been to enter from the heart of the city at the front. So I walked through the rear formal garden, past the huge profile of the upper Belvedere, through a still-more-formal French garden to the lower Belvedere, the original house, and the front gate.
As I passed the side of the upper Belvedere, I saw a sign for the “castle” or Schloss Café; the day’s menu included a pork schnitzel with parsley and potatoes, and so I decided to return after my walk.
The schnitzel was my first good one in Vienna–light and tender, tasty and crispy. It covered the entire plate with a small portion of cranberry sauce and, underneath, a few blanched or boiled potatoes, sprinkled with parsley. I had it with a small bottle of sparkling water. This was a fairly quick one-course meal, with the usual polite and professional service; but there is never a rush. The bill was 17.90 euros including tip.
The room is plain; which is to say that it is presented with only a few important elements. It has a marble floor, plain café tables and banquettes, a vaulted ceiling, a chandelier, and a large portrait, perhaps of the Empress Elisabeth.
CAFÉ BEAULIEU
Spring 2022.
I had tried a number of coffee houses, or Kaffeehaüser, but my first entry for this article was lunch at Beaulieu, a French café in the Ferstel Passage in the Innere Stadt (Inner City). This place does not match the Kaffeehaus definition, but a Brazilian-born acquaintance and friend, who has lived in Vienna for many years, told me to stick to the side streets in the Innere Stadt, to find the places where the Viennese go, and where we tourists do not. A French café in the Ferstel passage met this definition. The passage is in an Italian-Renaissance-style building that dates from 1860, and originally housed a stock-exchange and a bank.
The interior of the café is a bit less extraordinary than the entrance; nevertheless it is a lovely and intimate place. It is entered through a small retail section, that sells French wine, cheese and pastry. This opens to a long double-height room with clothed tables, and at 1PM it was busy with Viennese at lunch.
I was given a table on the mezzanine level, where I ordered quiche and salad, followed by a macaron and coffee. There was nothing exceptional in my choices, but the quiche was unusually creamy and tasty, and the salad was very fresh and good. The earthenware plates were unexpected, but the service was careful, professional and friendly, and the waiter spoke French–after seeing my French language guidebook. The cost of the whole thing was about 20 euros, including tip. Since it’s not typically Austrian, I’m not sure that I would recommend this place during a short visit, but mine is not a short visit, and this is very near to the Bank Austria Kuntsforum, where I saw the David Hockney show, right afterwards.
.
SLUKA CONDITOREI
May 2023
There are two Sluka cafés in Vienna, one on Kartnerstrasse in the inner city, the Innere Stadt, and the other on Rathausplatz, which translates to city hall place. I chose to go to Rathausplatz, in the mid-afternoon, assuming it would be quieter, and mostly that was the case.
This café has a traditional and not overly large interior, not as grand or crowded as some others, but with an attractive and visible pastry case. I had been told that the strudel is good here, so of course I eyed all three: apple (apfel), cheese/curd (topfen), and apricot (marillen).
The interior is charming in a conventional old-fashioned way, red and gold with thonet chairs. But the windows are large, and the outdoor setting and seating are extraordinary.
Rathausplatz is centered on a very large and gothic city hall, and on a park, which in turn faces the Ringstrasse, the wide 19th century boulevard that replaced the old city walls and is lined with classical apartment houses and major public buildings.
Sluka is located under the grand arcade of one of these apartment houses. The arcade is tall with muscular columns, ornamented, and vaguely gothic. The weather was cool and gorgeous.
In Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, Karl Schorske refers to Rathaus quarter architects “concealing businesses or store fronts beneath costly arcades, in the manner of the rue de Rivoli in Paris… “, but the rue de Rivoli is now lined with cheap curio shops and filled with T-shirts on display. This arcade, facing the park, is at a larger scale with a more dignified appearance.
But Sulka is not as big, as crowded, or as old as Angelina, the famous café on the rue de Rivoli, and its pastry is not as delicate. My sister and I both ordered strudel: I the marillen, she the apple. The fruit was superb and the schlagobers (whipped cream) perfect, that is not too sweet. But the crusts, we agreed, were elastic and damp.