Café Prückel

Review

Almost everything as before

Café Prückel is not just any Viennese coffee house. It is one of the last four of the 15 Ringstrasse cafés that created a completely new way of life as a social venue around the turn of the last century: strolling, seeing and being seen. Founded in 1903 as Café Lurion, the Prückel was not the oldest, but it was one of the most opulent coffee houses and, above all, the one that changed hands the quickest: after just one year it was called Café Miramonte, and in the same year it went to Wenzel Prückel, who only ran it for three years. The Prückel has a basement theater, which hosted rebellious cabaret until 1938 and the Pradler Ritterspiele from 1962 to 1996. And in 1955, Oswald Haerdtl was commissioned to modernize the lavish interior of the turn-of-the-century café, which he did. Haerdtl's "mid-century" design, which is ambivalently appreciated by Viennese and tourists alike and is now revered to the skies, miraculously survived all renovations. Floor-to-ceiling mirrors, armchairs, metal floor lamps, wooden appliqués and, of course, the coral pink ceiling with golden pinstripe - no other Viennese café looks like this. And this has probably also led to the Prückel having a different clientele than most Viennese coffee houses: a more mixed, younger, more student, more creative clientele. During the Viennale, for example, the Prückel belongs to cineastes. Christl Sedlar, the third generation of the family to run the café for 63 years, retired and handed it over to a consortium made up of wine merchants Unger and Klein, restaurateur Thomas Hahn and real estate developer Daniel Jelitzka at the end of the year. First things first: there's no need to panic. They washed the curtains, cleaned the floor, took down the countless "cash only" signs, and probably a few pictures too. They tightened up the menu a little, there are still mince pies, the staff remained the same. Hahn says that he wants to proceed very sensitively with changes, but has already noticed "a certain spirit of optimism" among the staff. No one has protested against the purchase of organic eggs, for example, and better ham for the unavoidable ham roll is also conceivable. And of course the coffee. Yes, for the time being it still comes out of the fully automatic machine and is just as horrible as it used to be, if that should reassure anyone. But that's about to change, with a portafilter machine and card payment on the horizon. Welcome to the 21st century! For the time being, the new takeover is hardly noticeable in what is perhaps the most beautiful café in the city. But the improvements will continue to be subtle in the future.

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