8Café Schopenhauer
If an old-school and a modern Viennese coffeehouse had an offspring, it would look like Café Schopenhauer. High ceilings, oversized windows, marble-topped tables, creaking floors, yes, but also a sleek concrete counter, open kitchen, and fashionably dressed servers. The menu, too, reflects this fusion of old and new: avocado toast and soy milk matcha appear next to such Viennese classics as eggs in glass, frankfurters, and buttered kaiser roll.
The crowd leans fashionable Millennials, but upper-middle-class folks from the nearby neighborhood of Währing (District 18) also appear here. Reinforcing the intellectual ethos of the Viennese coffeehouse, there's an entire corner laid out with books for sale. The dishes are named after famous philosophers; my favorite is "Simone de Beauvoir" – espresso with a cigarette. Why Schopenhauer? The reason is disappointingly prosaic: the cafe is located right by Schopenhauer Street.
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