Gentle Italian music will charm your ears at Café Balthasar in Vienna’s 2nd district, while the warm interior takes care of the rest; its rough pastel-specked walls, blue and white mosaic counter and hardwood floors make it a place you’ll want to stop for a while and drink coffee after coffee until you go owl-eyed.
‘La Marzocco’ is the beast of a coffee machine boldly straddling the counter like it owns it, while nine times out of ten, right next to it you’ll find Otto Bayer, a former star chef from Tyrol turned barista heavyweight, now serving up sustainable fair-trade coffee out of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Brazil, with beans roasted by an artisan German company.
If you turn up here more than once, the baristas will mostly likely remember your order, which is a very attractive detail of any local coffee shop. They’re the friendliest crowd, here.
The Kleiner Brauner is strong, without bitterness, yet smooth – putting your head in the right place. From slowly filtered, to finely aerated flat whites are created here. You can tell Otto knows his shiny coffee machine, as intimately as his own bellybutton.
