Viennese Cafes

A brief interlude, while I tell you about the culture surrounding Vienna’s cafés.

It is said the Viennese living room is down the street at the neighborhood coffeehouse or café. A bow-tied waiter recognizes the regulars and ushers them to ‘their’ table. These regular Viennese order their coffee and/or meal and then wander to the racks of newspapers on wooden dowels, where they grab one, two or three newspapers and peruse the daily news while sipping coffee.

We went to this one – Lantmann — one of the oldest and least touristy in Vienna.

We sat inside to absorb the true café culture with the white table cloths and the neighbors. (The outside seating seemed to just students and a smattering of tourists.) It was early evening and a number of customers came in — some alone, some with friends. They nodded to one another, chose their table, then read their papers, sipping coffee, slowly enjoying their evening meal while listening to the café piano player.

The pastry choices are truly amazing at each and every café – here’s a sampling.

Another day we visited Café Sacher – home of the famous Sacher Torte. We’re such shameless tourists we even took photos. Husband had the original Sacher cake with coffee — the somewhat smaller tea cake with tea is mine, still not a coffee drinker. Inside of café and then the reading room connected nextdoor at the Sacher hotel.