{"id":2804,"date":"2024-11-02T21:05:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T21:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2804"},"modified":"2024-11-02T21:05:26","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T21:05:26","slug":"cafe-central-and-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2804","title":{"rendered":"Caf\u00e9 Central and Others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vienna is a city that was built to be the capital of a vast empire, one that had reigned over great swaths of Central Europe for centuries.  Then the Austrians fought on the wrong side in two disastrous World Wars.  The empire disappeared but the imperial grandeur of Vienna remained.  What was a good Viennese to do in these circumstances?  The answer is obvious: stop for a coffee and have some cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dotted throughout the city are caf\u00e9s and konditorei<\/em> (bakeries specializing in pastries, as opposed to bread).  Many of them were built more than a century ago and continue to serve strong coffee, often with steamed milk or mit<\/em> schlag<\/em> (with whipped cream).  If you want the 50-50 coffee and steamed milk, ask for a m\u00e9lange<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Caf\u00e9 Central in Vienna, with the usual line of tourists waiting to be admitted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most noted of Vienna\u2019s coffee houses is Caf\u00e9 Central, located in an elegant building that once housed the Stock Exchange.  The interior seems more like a movie set than any Starbucks would ever dream of.  With its marble columns, vaulted ceilings, globed chandeliers and parquet floor, Caf\u00e9 Central looks like a little bit of an idealized 19th<\/sup> century that just decided not to go away.  Which it is.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The interior of Caf\u00e9 Central, with one of its pastry cases and Peter Altenberg waiting up front.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today you are as likely to hear American accents at the table next to you than German ones.\u00a0 But there\u2019s an echo of Grand Dukes, intellectuals, revolutionaries, movie stars and spies that you can imagine you can hear.\u00a0 Andy why not?\u00a0 Caf\u00e9 Central was frequented by many other influential minds of the last century including Stefan Zweig, the novelist; Artur Schnitzler, the dramatist; Sigmund Freud; and Leon Trotsky, who was evidently a demon chess player before he got back to Russia.\u00a0 One of them, the poet Peter Alternberg, was such a Caf\u00e9 Central<\/a> <\/a>habitu\u00e9, that there is now a statue of him sitting by the door, waiting for a table no doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can get a meal in many coffee houses, including Caf\u00e9 Central, but there are better places to eat.  It\u2019s the pastries that are the pride and joy of Vienna.  Chocolate!  Crumble!  Mousse!  Jam! Nuts!  All spun together in miraculous inventions and fantasies of sweetness.  Desserts stand alone as a reason for living in Vienna, so it seems, and it\u2019s very easy for a visitor to get right into the swing of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the best known Viennese pastry is apple strudel, with its flaky crust and a hint of cinnamon.  Then there\u2019s something called kaiserschmarrn<\/em>, which translates roughly to \u201cthe emperors mess\u201d.  It\u2019s a thick, chopped-up pancake served with powdered sugar and preserves.  Evidently Emperor Franz Josef loved it, as did we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Service at Caf\u00e9 Sacher.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pastry most closely identified with Vienna is called Sachertorte<\/em>, invented at and still proudly served at Caf\u00e9 Sacher.  It\u2019s a two-layer, dense chocolate cake with apricot jam between the layers and a thick fudgy icing.  Served mit schlag<\/em>, of course.  Don\u2019t leave Vienna without trying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Caf\u00e9 Central and Sacher are very popular with tourists, so there\u2019s often a long line outside waiting to get in.  It\u2019s worthwhile to make a reservation and skip the line, but it\u2019s not that easy to book a table at the times you might want.  You won\u2019t do badly at any of the hundreds of other caf\u00e9s in town, but patronizing the best known ones is part of the charm of a trip to Vienna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vienna is a city that was built to be the capital of a vast empire, one that had reigned over great swaths of Central Europe for centuries.  Then the Austrians fought on the wrong side in two disastrous World Wars.  The empire disappeared but the imperial grandeur of Vienna remained.  What was a good Viennese … Continue reading Caf\u00e9 Central and Others<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2809,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804\/revisions\/2809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}