Cafe Alt Wien

I discovered it during my first visit to Vienna when I was researching my book and spent most of my evenings there, writing. During my second visit, during a film shoot, I spent one evening there and found that the waiters were not as friendly. In fact, I felt really unwelcome. It was a disappointment. Still, I'll always go back, and I'm featuring it the screenplay I'm currently writing.

ALT WIEN, DIE BAR, Wunderbar, ect..
mostly i miss DIE BAR, however... ALT WIEN was where you met them all: from Kippenberger to Qualtinger ...
as far I remember I had my first RINDFLEISCH mit KERNÖL there about 1982 or so. delicous. ...

But somehow I came to dislike it more and more these days. I think mainly it is due to the waiters who seem to be getting increasingly unfriendly (not in the charming grumpy Viennese way but rather in the general sense of the term) and that they tried to rip me off with tips various times does not make it any better.

Also I had the most horrible Topfenstrudl there lately - hard bitten as if it had been re-heated in the microwave several times plus some whipped cream that was just on the edge of getting really sour.

For the crowd, I get the impression that a lot more tourists come there today, which takes away a lot of the relaxed, charmingly fucked up atmosphere that I enjoyed there. But maybe my old memories of the place are nostalgically biased.

Just as a side note, it is also one of the smokiest places in Vienna I know. Even the Chelsea (before the air condition installation) did leave less of a smoke stain on your cloth and hair than this place does.

i like it because you can forget time in there.

An ideal stop for a cup of coffee if you're in the first and want to avoid the horrid Starbucks pits which are popping up around the area.

Full of history, the Alt Wien was started by the Hawelka family in the late 30s before the start of their famed Cafe Hawelka (http://tupalo.com/spot/144) and is always a pleasant treat to visit and witness a different take on Vienna's coffee culture.