Café Sperl has been on Gumpendorfer Straße since 1880 and remains one of the most intact Viennese coffeehouses in the city. The interior is everything the tradition requires: dark wood panelling, red damask upholstered banquettes, a billiard table in the rear room, the afternoon light arriving through the tall arched windows at an angle that was clearly considered. Brahms and Falco are both claimed as regulars. The coffee is Viennese — Melange, Kleiner Brauner, Einspänner — and the cakes arrive on a Teller without discussion. The newspaper rack by the entrance is replenished daily.
Mariahilf, Vienna, Austria