Vienna · Herrengasse, Palais Ferstel
Café Central
The coffee house of the century
Café Central in the Palais Ferstel is the Viennese coffee house of literature, Freud, Trotsky and Zweig under vaulted ceilings, with a pastry counter at the entrance that sells the house tortes and strudels to a queue on the Herrengasse.
The café opened in 1876 in the arcaded Palais Ferstel and became the living room of Viennese intellectuals; the vaulted hall with its columns, the piano in the afternoon and the newspaper holders survive. The pastry counter at the entrance is a full Konditorei: tortes, strudels, the Central-Torte, seasonal cakes, and the pieces served at the tables with a Melange. The queue on the Herrengasse is long; the counter takes you past it.
It is the coffee house to sit in once, and the strudel is the order.
The signature
The Apfelstrudel and the Central-Torte
What to buy
- A slice of Central-Torte
- The Apfelstrudel
- The Topfenstrudel
- A Melange at the table
