Notas del episodio
In 1913 Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler all lived in Vienna, and all were regulars at the same institution, the Viennese coffee house. UNESCO describes it as a place where time and space are consumed but only the coffee appears on the bill. The episode breaks down how the room was built for lingering: historicist interiors, marble tabletops, bentwood Thonet No. 14 chairs you can sit in for hours, pastries like apple strudel, Punschkrapfen, and Linzer torte, and the Einspänner served in glass under cold whipped cream. Above all, a glass of water arrives with every coffee and is refilled unasked, signaling that nobody will rush you.
Vienna credits its first coffee house to Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, who supposedly got sacks of beans left by the retreating Ottoman army after the 1683 siege, beans soldiers took for camel feed. Historians say an Armenian, Johannes Diodato, opened the first one in 1685, with Greek merchants expanding the trade. Stefan Zweig called the coffee house a democratic club where one cheap cup bought a day of international newspapers. Nazism and the Holocaust destroyed its clientele, and television and fast Italian espresso bars brought the 1950s coffee house death, while Trieste kept the tradition alive.
- Early cafes showed customers a color chart and mixed milk and coffee to the shade they pointed at.
- Poet Peter Altenberg used Café Central as his mailing address.
- Karl Kraus wrote much of his journal Die Fackel at cafe tables.
- Freud favored Café Landtmann, and Trotsky preferred Café Griensteidl.
- Today Café Sperl and Café Schwarzenberg thrive again, and Vollpension employs senior citizens as bakers and hosts.