Looking for some opulent / beautiful interiors, comfortable seating, not primarily frequented by tourists, spectacularly delicious pastries, and of course - amazing coffee - where we can sit and read the paper and people watch for a while.
Anyone seen the series "Vienna Blood"? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9179616/
1900's Vienna. That's the aesthetic/time period we're trying to experience with coffee! :)
We enjoyed lunch and beautiful pastries at Demel.
You won't get all features at the same place.
opulent / beautiful interiors, comfortable seating,
These are in every tourist guide.
spectacularly delicious pastries
In my opinion the best: https://oberlaa-wien.at/en/
As a takeaway: 30+ kinds of handmade chocolates.
Demel is very traditional for pastries, lots of tourists.
where we can sit and read the paper and people watch for a while.
https://www.cafesperl.at/en_home.html
More and more tourists, unfortunately, as my son reported to me.
amazing coffee
Everywhere, at least compared to US standards. :-)
As wmt1 says, you won’t find all three in one place. Coffeehouses are not really about the pastries or coffee, it’s the ambiance anyway. The pastries are for the tourists and the coffee is just coffee. I won’t name my favorites here because they will be spoiled. I think what you are looking for can be found at Sperl, Landtmann and Hawelka. Don’t waste your time at Sacher, Demel or Central as these are all now tourist factories full of obnoxious Instagram influencers.
Emily if you don’t wish to divulge the names of your specific places (I understand) could you tell us what sets them apart from the central touristed places? Are any of your favorites in the first district? Are any clustered in another district?
I second Emily regarding Café Landtmann which is possibly the best combination of all the features you are looking for. It is an old traditional café (since 1873) with lots of newspapers, but has been "upgraded" over the time, e.g. having white table cloth, providing lunch and dinner, added a winter garden, alas, attracting more tourists and having higher prices, though.
The owners have acquired two other cafés (besides some other places) over the time, and they operate the café in Schönbrunn Palace. The have an own cake and pastries factory where you can buy everything over the counter at more moderate prices. Therefore the pastries are the same and of the same high quality at all their locations.
Hi Mona - My favorites are scattered around the inner districts (2-9). I have one in the 2nd, two in the 4th, one in the 6th and one in the 7th. I also have about four fairly undiscovered gems in the first.
The thing is, the coffeehouse culture, which is UNESCO heritage recognized, is a way of life that is not limited to the tourist favorites and definitely not limited to the first district. In fact most Viennese don’t live live or even set foot in the first district for possibly months. I would say that these days no Viennese would even set foot in Demel, Sacher or Central.
I think what sets them apart is 1) they are around the corner from where you live, 2) you don’t have to queue for a table, 3) you can linger and 4) the prices are normal.
Thanks for giving some further guidance wmt1 and Emily. I think I see an Oberlaa in our very outer district, XII. We’ll try it as we work our way into the more central districts to explore each day. Good luck mm with your quest too.
@ Emily and @ wmt1 are all over this - I would only add that all of these "old" world Cafes have knock-your-socks-off interiors and can be worth the visit - if not for the ambiance.
Mona , The Oberlaa you see is actually in Bezirk 13 ( Hietzing ) . Apart from the pastry and coffee ,it has an historical significance as well . This is Dommayer's ( now operated by Oberlaa ) the place where both Viennese composers , Johann Strauss ( Father and Son ) got their start in the mid nineteenth century https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Dommayer
@ mm....The series "Vienna Blood" is set behind the historical backdrop of Vienna in 1906, very revealing historically, attitudes culturally, racially, etc.
If you want that sort of ambiance in a cafe, I have one place away from the so-called tourist places to suggest to you, passed by it myself, checked it, very pre-1914 and all that. Most likely, you will find this cafe frequented by locals almost exclusively.
The cafe is called "Kaffee Konditerei Monarchie" located at Nußdorferstraße 69. I got there by taking public transport., don't know about credit card/cash payment options.
Heiner in Wollzeile, on the back of the Cathedral (two minutes if you cross a courtyard with the Catholic book selling shop). A former Imperial family dealer like Demel, but much smaller and intimate, without crowds.
