Ultimate Guide to Vienna's Coffee Renaissance

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A visit to Vienna seems incomplete without a languorous mid-day spent in a traditional coffee house. The vaulted ceilings, warm atmosphere, and storied tradition of these historic spots have justly earned them their reputation, even amidst the other grand cities of Europe. Vienna's first coffee houses were started in the late 17th century and became the stomping ground of writers, artists, and intellectuals over the course of the next 300 years. That era is gone, and visitors today will find the seating a little threadbare, waiter jackets a little worn, and tourists at nearby tables rather than the literati. The coffee quality is relatively poor, and few can properly brew espresso. For all the celebrated faded grandeur of the city's coffee and cake- serving living rooms, the actual drink was an afterthought.

Ironically, a city so culturally identified with coffee only recently embraced the "Third Wave," the specialty coffee movement in which the origins and microclimate of the crop predominate. Luckily, Vienna now has more choices than ever with a burgeoning specialty coffee scene. From its inchoate stages in 2006, when Johanna Wechselberger, Vienna's "mother of coffee" founded the Vienna School of Coffee to offer barista training, certifications, and roasting, the movement has now gathered significant momentum.
CLUSTERED AROUND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
CAFFÉCOUTURE


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Started by a former barista competitor and espresso-based mixologist, CaffeCouture is one of the original specialty coffee cafes, opened eons ago in 2010 by Georg Branny. Its modest sign beckons to a white-washed, Quonset-hut shaped room with a communal table. The look evokes a friend peddling coffee in the corner of a creative, co-work space (which is essentially what it becomes). The bright space and blonde wood accents feel vaguely Scandinavian, save for the cherry red vintage fridge in the corner. This may be the only café in Vienna that sells beans not just from Brazil and Colombia, but also atypical countries like India. A second café opened a 15-minute walk away on the other side of the University, to the southeast, in Vienna's first district.
COFFEE PIRATES



Opened in late 2012 on a street corner near the University Medical Center, Coffee Pirates stands out due to its two different common areas: a larger, wood-paneled main room features a generously proportioned communal table ringed by two-tops along the walls, good for laptops, and lingerers. A cozy adjacent room feels more like a friend's living room, though one blessed with a roasting machine in the corner and a floor-to-ceiling blackboard for scribbling playful notes.
PEOPLE ON CAFFEINE



Perhaps the friendliest and quirkiest in design is People on Caffeine. Opened in September 2011, the shop looks as though it has lived through a few parliamentary elections. The cafe strives to be a public living room, with taxi-yellow metal stools across from a couch, spaced narrowly enough for customers to shake hands. Water carafes and potted plants grace wood tables. The space is designed to promote client and staff interaction, and feels cluttered but convivial. Owners rotate local artwork monthly—vaguely erotic lithograph prints recently adorned walls—and bake their own cakes. Directly across the street, a hip wine bar Achtundzwanzig beckons for a post-caffeine imbibe. The setting would fit seamlessly in Brooklyn.
KAFFEEMODUL



Essentially a walk-in closet with bench seating for three, Kaffeemodul still manages to offer pour-over cups in addition to espresso-based drinks, and achieve a sense of design in its tiny space. Opened in May 2012, the café has earned a reputation for quality among specialty coffee shops in Vienna, but visitors on weekend jaunts to Vienna are out of luck for a Saturday morning brew; the shop is only open Monday through Friday.
CAFFE A CASA

Caffe a Casa leans a tad too clean-cut in appearance, epitomizing a polished, well-lit café that strives to build a brand. Founded in 2010 in Vienna’s ninth district, the café boasts a sophisticated online presence, wholesale and coffee club offerings, and a newsletter. The shop was refurbished in 2014, and continues to expand its brew bar options to include a siphon (vacuum) coffee maker and Chemex.
AROUND THE REST OF VIENNA
KAFFEE FABRIK
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A relatively long-standing third wave cafe, having opened in October 2010 in the Vienna fourth district close to the city center, Kaffee Fabrik (German for "coffee factory") is also one of the smallest. This neighborhood joint has its share of customers who buy their beans for home use and have them ground in the shop. Those who want to linger can squeeze into one of the four tables inside or snag a roomier seat outdoors, an attractive option when the weather is pleasant. The shop roasts its own beans in the Burgenland region south of Vienna (also famous for its indigenous red wine grapes).
BALTHASAR



Otto Bayer opened this bright and cheerful café in April 2014 on a prominent road on the east side of the Danube Canal. Tiles in shades of the sea line the front counter, lit by crumpled gold foil pendant lamps, and customers have the option of a communal section or five circular Kartell tables along the windows. The café also has a bathroom, a bit of a luxury among third wave coffee shops, thus inviting one to while away an afternoon without fear of needing the loo. Choose from espresso-based drinks pulled from their La Marzocco Strada, a brew-to-order cup, or supplement your coffee with a glass of wine, of which they have several. Balthasar roasts its own beans, in this case, in neighboring Bavaria.
KAFFEMIK



The most recently opened café on this list tested a soft opening in March 2014 before officially opening in June. Kaffemik is a clean, bright space with tables and chairs reminiscent of a toddler pre-school set, but surprisingly comfortable for adults. The blue and white bar tiles are from Turkey, hand-laid by the hands-on owner. Kaffemik straddles a location ideal for tourists, just off the Mariahilferstrasse pedestrian-only zone dedicated to shopping. Founder Simon Huber named his café after the Greenlandic word describing a social gathering, an open house in which coffee is served in order to celebrate any occasion. This is the same spirit that Huber wants in his café—and it’s what Vienna's third wave cafes do best.

Fodor's Travel Tastemaker: wd~50 Chef Wylie Dufresne

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"I always try to make eating a part of wherever I am," says chef Wylie Dufresne of his travel strategy. “If I could pick a new place to go, I would pick somewhere that I could try either restaurants or food I haven’t had before.” He does have his favorites: Mugaritz in San Sebastián and Astrance in Paris, among others. Serious foodies might also name Dufresne's New York City restaurant wd~50, a pioneer in modernist cuisine, which closes its doors at the end of November.

There are currently no plans to re-open wd~50, but should you miss your opportunity, you can always catch Dufresne at his more casual spot Alder. Or just turn on the television, where there’s a good chance you’ll see him between spots on Iron Chef, Top Chef, and Top Chef Masters. We spoke with the chef about restaurants to visit internationally, his love for San Sebastián, and what it's like to close a dining institution.
YOUR RESTAURANT WD~50 IS CLOSING. WOULD YOU CONSIDER OPENING IT UP IN A CITY OTHER THAN NEW YORK?
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I would love to see if there’s some way some iteration of it could come back some time in the future, but I don’t imagine that being in another city. I have long thought that wd~50 would be great in London, but that is something that I gave up on a long time ago. This was before Alder, at a time when I thought London was really trying to ramp up its level of dining, which it has since done.
WHERE DO YOU RECOMMEND EATING IN LONDON?

Off the top of my head I’d say any of Fergus Henderson’s places: St. John, St. John Bread and Wine, also The Ledbury, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. All of these places are tons of fun and worth going to for actual British food. There’s some great Indian food and some amazing Japanese, but I say if you’re going to London, you should go for what those guys are up to.
SAY I WANT TO DO A GLOBAL TOUR OF MODERNIST CUISINE. WHAT RESTAURANTS SHOULD I VISIT?

Well you have Albert Adrià, and all of his restaurants in Spain, primarily in Barcelona. You go toTickets and 41º. If you hurry, you’ve got until November 30th to come here to wd~50. Alinea, I guess.Moto maybe, in Chicago. You know, the funny thing about modernism is that basically the places I just rattled off were sort of first-level modernists, and now there’s so much of modernism that has found its way into other menus. So, this isn’t really answering the question, but I’m proud of the fact that it has made inroads rather than, “These are the four or five places that you must go if you want to see it.” You should go see what they guys at Mugaritz in Spain are doing. You should go see what Alex Atala is doing in Brazil. You should go see what René Redzepi is doing at Noma. This is going to be an expensive trip.
WHAT’S THE MOST MEMORABLE MEAL YOU'VE HAD WHILE TRAVELING?

I would say my meal with my wife at El Bulli was a wonderful experience that ranks up there, but I would also say one of the most impressionable dining experiences I’ve ever had was at two in the morning in Sakai, Osaka, at a restaurant that only served chicken—in the middle of a fish market. We had nowhere to eat and our guide said, “I found this place that just serves chicken. You guys wanna go eat some chicken?” We get there and it’s tiny. And they start serving us chicken in all sorts of different forms and it was incredible. And it was there that I had one of the weirdest things I’ve ever eaten, which was raw chicken testicles. Not something maybe that you think you should eat, unless you’re super hungry. I put it in my mouth and it was delicious.
HOW ABOUT MEMORABLE STREET FOOD?

Probably the most exciting street food I’ve had was in Singapore. The hawker stands of Singapore I think are not to be missed, if you have that opportunity. I’m not sure I’m down with some of that funky skate that they do, but there’s a lot of good stuff on sticks and skewered food that’s great.
YOU ARE A FREQUENT VISITOR TO SAN SEBASTIÁN. WHAT DO YOU LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT IT?

San Sebastián is one of my all-time favorite cities. I’ve been there 9 or 10 times in the past 12 years. It’s a coastal town—and I’m not really a water guy, but it’s such a cool coast. I don’t enjoy sitting on the beach, really, but it’s very pretty on the water, and it immediately goes up into these rolling hills. It also gets really cold in the winter, which I like. It’s got great food; at one point, it had the most Michelin stars per capita. The region has so many fine-dining restaurants, but also some amazing pintxos and local places that are great.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE HOTELS IN SAN SEBASTIÁN?
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I like the Londres y de Inglaterra. It's is a bit older and bit fun and kind of funky, with a nice vibe I think. It’s in a good spot on the boardwalk which is good for first-timers. If you're looking for views, theMonte Igueldo, at the high point of the city, is spectacular. It's just a bit out of the way and kind of a pain in the ass: you can’t just walk out of your hotel and grab a bite to eat. The Maria Cristina is probably my favorite place to stay. With the Marina Cristina and the Londres you can do the pinxtos tour and have a little too much red wine and stumble back to your room, but with the Monte Igueldo you’ll need a cab.
WHAT ARE SOME CAN'T-MISS RESTAURANTS THERE?

You should eat at Mugaritz, you should eat at Arzak, you should eat at Portuetxe. It’s a 400-year-old restaurant! And you actually have to drive down to it because in 400 years the ground has been built up many times, so it’s lower than everything around it because the world has literally grown up around it. It’s amazing to me to eat in a restaurant—and it's simple food, you’ve gotta get the baby squid with onions, the langoustine, the steak—and realize that it's older than your country. You’ve gotta go to Elkano for turbot—they do it on the wood grills out front. It’s a special place.
HOW ABOUT FOR MORE CASUAL DINING?

You go to the old part of town to do the pintxos crawl. And then you go to the sidrerias, the cider houses, with enormous casks of cider. The Basque areas are just ripe with apples, so in the harvest time they make cider. You go there and line up and they open up a spigot on the top of these barrels that are like 12 feet high, and you put your glass underneath a stream and you fill your glass and keep walking. They also have great cod omelettes; the fortune of the Basque is made of cod.
WHAT COUNTRY'S FOOD SCENE WOULD YOU SAY IS UNDERRATED?

I would say America! We have maybe not contributed as much to the food scene as a lot of other countries have, by volume, but think of barbeque, think of the diner; those are things that don’t really exist in other countries, and I think are incredible, valuable contributions to the culinary landscape. I don’t know if we’re just too big, and too spread out, but it’s a great time to be eating in America.