Cafe Z – Vienna’s retro cafes

Once a much-loved, yet dark and dingy pastry shop, Café Z reflects exactly how people setting the zeitgeist in Vienna are doing so in the 15th. The owner, who’s a 15th district native and saw her neighborhood’s potential way back, has preserved the old retro charm of the café, yet given it a crisp, inviting modern attitude, and has managed to do all of this without alienating the Stammkunden, leading to the young and old mixing here. Filled crepes and breakfasts dominate the menu here, while there’s still delicious Austrian cakes in the counter cabinet, which are produced next door by the former owners. The Schanigarten, spreading out in summer on the square out front, also possesses an atmosphere as special as the inside.