moderne gemütliche wohnzimmer
if one of your travel highlights is finding placesyou can tuck into for a cozy meal or drink and just steeping in the cultureof the place you’re visiting then this video is for you. i’m willing to bet that when you think backon some of your favourite memories of not just travel but of life,that eating and drinking, particularly when coupled with peoplethat you care about, rise to the top. at least that’s the way it is for me. and in this video, i’m going to show yousome of my favourite coffee houses in vienna and a very unique restaurant –actually the only one that i know of of its kind -
where i had a meal that willforever stand out in my memories. t.s. eliot wrote about measuring out lifein coffee spoons – so nice – and i feel like such a lifecould definitely be lived in vienna, austria. vienna coffee houses are often referred toas ‘public living rooms.’ coffee runs through the city’s veins andcoffeehouses are so essential to viennese culture that unesco actually included themon their list of intangible cultural heritage and described them as places "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill." how lovely a description is that?! i asked my friends who live in vienna where they,as locals, would go for a nice coffee house experience
and they said caf㩠sperl. this place was established in 1880 and it has a long history of servingthe viennese intelligentsia of architects, artists, musicians, actors, singers,and vips like archduke josef ferdinand himself. it was built according to the design of thesame architects that built vienna’s famous ring road. caf㩠sperl embodies what i’d call ‘casual grandeur’ – you’ll find high ceilings, elaborate carved details with gold trim, and chandeliers that give away its old roots.
but the busy servers and cluttered dishes also remind you that this is very much a current place where people come to just read the paper or play pool,or have a rest while their children play. we had a traditional viennese treat of coffee and cake. and the thing to order in vienna is called a mã©lange – oh my god, can’t you just almosttaste the word as you say it? ugh it's so beautiful...mã©lange. it’s a mocca with foam and to eatwe had a divine chocolate cake called sachertorte. one of my favourite parts ofcoffeehouses in vienna is the presentation.
coffee always comes on a silver traywith a spoon and a little glass of water. it gives the whole experience thiswonderful sense of occasion. and i took great pleasure in takingevery lovely piece off the silver tray and arranging it just so on the table,which felt very satisfying. i loved caf㩠sperl but my number onefavourite coffeehouse in vienna is caf㩠hawelka which i’ll always feel nostalgic about because i went there on myfirst trip to the city when i was 18. and i was so excited to take marc backand make a new memory with him. hawelka is kind of tucked away and you couldprobably walk by it without even realizing it.
and what i love most about this placeis that it feels really authentic and cozy and i swear to god you can feel the history in your boneswhen you breathe the air in there. it’s dimly lit and it feels worn inlike your favourite sweater that no new sweater could possibly replicate. the tables are just a little too close together which means you might accidentallybrush someone’s coat as you walk by or need to say excuse me –all of which makes it feel more intimate. the coffeehouse was started by a couplenamed leopold and josefine hawelka who opened for businessthe day after their wedding in the 1930s.
leopold lived to be one hundred years oldand josefine until age 91. i actually met josefine on my first visit there – she was still serving coffee andtaking care of customers at over 90 years old which i’ll never forget because i found it really inspiring. our server this time was dressed in a tuxedoand he was lovely to chat with. i had a coffee, marc had hot chocolate, and we were lucky enoughto enjoy it all on a coveted sofa seat. the best meal i had in viennawas at an icelandic restaurant called home.
our friends suggested it because,if you didn’t know already, marc and i met in iceland on a programfor people whose family background is icelandic. the restaurant sign has a picture of an arctic tern –called a kria in icelandic – which is really funny because in iceland you have to be careful of these birdsdive bombing your head from the sky. our meal was super simple but absolute perfection. homemade bread with a generous padof salted butter, a few greens, and a heavenly fish soup. honestly this was one of the mostmemorable meals i’ve ever had –
i can almost taste it now if i concentrate hard enough! we had a nice moment at the endwhen we were leaving, too. i said thank you to the waiter in icelandic,because he was obviously from iceland, and he was really startled and said back in icelandic– do you speak icelandic!? i replied yeah a little and thenwe switched to german and then to english. he was so surprised and happy to hear icelandic and it made us feel really good to have thaticelandic connection in austria of all places. i don’t know about you but i definitelyneed a coffee and a snack after talking about all thesedelicious places to go in vienna.
i hope you guys enjoyed this video –give it a thumbs up if you did. i’d love to hear about one of your mostmemorable meals or coffee experiences so leave a comment down below –tell me where and what it was. make sure to subscribe to my channel for more videosand thank you so much for watching!