Whole books have been written at and about this prototype of a classic, smoky cafe, that represents one of the last great Central European traditions of writer and artist coffeehouses as exemplified in Vienna by Café Central before the First World War and Café Herrenhof before the Second.

The interior decoration, done by a pupil of the renowned Jugendstil architect Adolf Loos, has remained untouched and the cafe is still run by Leopold Hawelka and his family. Trust generations of Viennese artists and try Miss Hawelka’s legendary buchteln!