Viennese Coffeehouses

The coffeehouse culture is as much a part of the Austrian soul as Mozart is. There are more than 1,600 coffeehouses in Vienna, and its café culture has spread throughout Europe, even all the way to western Ukraine. The Wiener Kaffeehäuser—the cafés known for centuries as "Vienna's parlors," might be facing competition from places like Starbucks in recent years, but nothing will ever diminish the place coffeehouses hold with Austrians. Newspapers were started and run from them; revolutions started within them. Nothing else can replace the traditonal coffeehouse experience: their sumptuous, red-velvet-padded booths; the marble-top tables; the rickety yet indestructible Thonet bentwood chairs; the coffee served on small silver platters, and, with it, a shot-sized glass of water; the waiters, dressed in Sunday-best outfits; the pastries, cakes, strudels, and rich tortes; the newspapers, magazines, and journals; and a sense that here time stands still. Set aside a morning or an afternoon, and settle down in the one you've chosen. Read awhile, catch up on your letter writing, or plan tomorrow's itinerary: there's no need to worry about overstaying your welcome, even over a single small cup of coffee.

In Austria coffee is never merely coffee. It comes in countless forms and under many names. Ask a waiter for ein Kaffee and you'll get a vacant stare. If you want a black coffee, you must ask for a kleiner or grosser Schwarzer (small or large black coffee, small being the size of a demitasse cup). If you want it strong, add the word gekürzt (shortened); if you want it weaker, verlängert (stretched). If you want your coffee with cream, ask for a Brauner (again gross or klein); say Kaffee Creme if you wish to add the cream yourself (or Kaffee mit Milch extra, bitte, if you want to add milk, not cream). Others opt for a Melange, a mild roast with steamed milk (which you can even get mit Haut, with skin, or Verkehrter, with more milk than coffee). The usual after-dinner drink is espresso. Most delightful are the coffee-and-whipped-cream concoctions, universally cherished as Kaffee mit Schlag. A customer who wants more whipped cream than coffee asks for a Doppelschlag. Hot black coffee in a glass with one knob of whipped cream is an Einspänner (literally, "one-horse coach"—as coachmen needed one hand free to hold the reins). Or you can go to town on a Mazagran, black coffee with ice and a tot of rum, or Eiskaffee, cold coffee with ice cream and whipped cream. Or you can simply order eine Portion Kaffee and have an honest pot of coffee and jug of hot milk. Most coffeehouses offer hot food until about an hour before closing time.