For a taste of authentic Vienna away from the palaces and art museums, try one of the many neighbourhood cafés. Like the one near me: the lovely AlsCafé.
- Typical “Grätzel-Café” for Vienna
- Friendly staff, congenial atmosphere
- Small menu (changes monthly: hope for the brownie)
- Surrounded by local history
- Hurry: closes for good from June 29th due to renovation work
- Enjoy a classical concert* in Vienna
- See also:
A croissant & creativity
(Photo by Fiona-Livia Bachmann @fionalivia.arts)
Think of cafés in Vienna, and you probably imagine one of the famous city centre coffee houses that played host to philosophers, poets, and painters of the past.
But the café is part of the fabric of life across all Vienna. Particularly the Grätzel-Café, a term used to describe a neighbourhood café that serves as a community hub and cultural venue for the local population.
One such location is the AlsCafé in the outer district of Hernals: a quiet suburb stretching into the hills and not a stop on any hop on hop off buses.
Back in 2023, two locals (Juma Hauser and Eva Baumgardinger) opened empty premises in a turn-of-the-century building as the AlsCafé for a day as a contribution to a city project.
Thomas Huber was so taken by the idea that he turned the one-off concept into a personal project of the heart that became today’s café.
(A window full of event announcements)
As Thomas puts it, the AlsCafé is a place where locals can come together to chat, write, read or work without overt pressure to keep consuming. A kind of extended living room: a concept emphasised by armchairs and bookshelves in one part of the café.
As such, the AlsCafé is a place you might go to experience Viennese life away from the tourist areas. Especially on Saturdays, when locals drop in for refreshment after visiting the adjoining Alszeile open-air weekly market.
Consider it somewhere to sit and relax in congenial surrounds, with friendly staff and (in the time-honoured tradition of the Viennese café) no urgency to move on.
You might spot a retiree enjoying an espresso after walking the dog. Or young parents treating their kids to whatever cake is on this month’s menu. Or friends catching up on local gossip. (If you go, pray they have the nut and cranberry brownie…it’s that good.)
Thomas also supports local cultural and community activities with a dedicated room for events.
So you might come across, for example, a vernissage for a local artist (the art on the café walls changes every two weeks or so), a Q&A on a topic of local interest, a small craft market, or a beer & cheese tasting.
And you might spot a shy Englishman on a workday, when things are quieter, spending a weekly half-day writing without home office distractions, and playing a tiny role in preserving the decades-old tradition of Kaffeehausliteratur (literary works written in part or whole down the coffee house).
Same seat each week (by a window), same lunch (filled croissant with an egg and no ham), same coffee (melange, no sugar). So, yes, I am a creature of habit.
Of course, even here, in a comfortable café armchair in an outer district, you still can’t escape Viennese history.
Look out that café window and you see a reseda-green railway bridge designed by the great architect Otto Wagner.
(My workspace in the café)
The Vorortelinie (now the S45 city line) opened in 1898 to connect the suburbs (“Vororte”) in the west and north within the wider Stadtbahn city rail project.
A short walk down the Alszeile and you have Austria’s oldest working football stadium (built in 1904): the home of Wiener Sportklub. Albeit not working now as it undergoes a two-year renovation.
And across the Alszeile is the Hernals cemetery with its 19th-century gothic-style entranceway and the last resting place of Ernst Happel, who managed the Netherlands team that reached the final of the 1978 World Cup.
The cemetery also explains the wide open spaces in front of the AlsCafé. Thomas tells me that’s where the large horse-drawn carriages and horse-drawn hearses would park or turn.
So, yes, history and culture are everywhere in Vienna.
How to get there
The AlsCafé is a very short walk from the Hernals station on the S45 city train line. That station also has a tram stop served by the 43 line, which travels out here from the central Schottentor station on the edge of the old town.
Alternatively, catch the 2 tram from the old town to its final stop at Dornbach and walk down.
The café opens Wednesdays to Saturdays from 10am to 7pm (from 9am on Saturday). Sadly, renovation work on the building means the AlsCafé closes for good from June 29th, 2025.
Address: Schultheßgasse 7, 1170 Vienna | Website