in Vienna The social practices, rituals, and elegance create the very specific atmosphere of the Viennese café. Coffee houses entice with a wide variety of coffee drinks, international newspapers, and pastry creations. Typical for Viennese coffee houses are marble tabletops,
Thonet chairs, newspaper tables and interior design details in the style of
historicism. The Austrian writer
Stefan Zweig described the Viennese coffee house as an institution of a special kind, "actually a sort of democratic club, open to everyone for the price of a cheap cup of coffee, where every guest can sit for hours with this little offering, to talk, write, play cards, receive post, and above all consume an unlimited number of newspapers and journals." Zweig in fact attributed a good measure of Vienna's cosmopolitan air to the rich daily diet of current and international information offered in the coffee houses. In many classic cafés (for example
Café Central and Café Prückel) piano music is played in the evening and social events like literary readings are held. In warmer months, customers can often sit outside in a
Schanigarten. Almost all coffee houses provide small food dishes such as sausages, as well as desserts, cakes and tarts, like
Apfelstrudel (
apple strudel),
Millirahmstrudel (
milk-cream strudel),
Punschkrapfen (punch cake), and
Linzer torte. Unlike some other café traditions around the world, it is normal for a customer to linger alone for hours and study the omnipresent newspaper. Along with coffee, the waiter will serve an obligatory glass of cold tap water and during a long stay will often bring additional water unrequested, with the idea to serve the guest with an exemplary sense of attention. == History ==