Cafe EL.AN: a place to find your calm café and caffeine Zen - Vienna Würstelstand

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Cafe EL.AN: a place to find your calm café and caffeine Zen

Upon our visit, a trio of elegant Viennese ladies are there having their afternoon cake and coffee: ‘Ohhhh, the coffee is luuuurvely’ (said in sacher-torte-sweet Viennese dialect).

While a booted and suited business guy dashes in and out with coffee in hand, the whole time glued to his phone. EL.AN is one of the first to break the third-wave coffee dam that encircles Vienna’s old city center, and it is attracting one and all in the area.

The owners and baristas, Elke and Anna (EL.AN – get it?), are as sweet and smooth talking as their coffee, which they source from CafféCouture owner and veteran coffee sommelier, Georg Branny.

Coffee is the main focus here, with two different espresso roasts always on offer. Upon our visit they had a balanced Brazilian blend with bittersweet hints of cocoa, and another intense and fruity Arabica out of Costa Rica. You can choose from a variety of state-of-the-art brewing techniques – from the good old Espresso machine, the slow-drip filter coffee, to the AeroPress – a penis-pump-like interpretation of the French press – and the Siphon Pot – which looks like some high-tech lab tool you could use to synthesise crystal meth. But rather than lose your teeth and develop a nervous twitch that makes you constantly yell ‘bitch!’ the coffee will tamper with your taste buds like top-notch coffee should when made by third-wave coffee scientists.

To fill your belly, EL.AN offers a cake of the day, and vegan and vegetarian sandwiches. Those of you who are already a little hyper from all the caffeine and are trying to climb the rusted steel rod décor on the walls, you should probably try one of the organic teas on offer.

When it comes to the interior, the place practices in the art of calm café Zen. Less is more, and seating is well spaced and minimal, meaning three things – coffee to go is popular here, it’s not easy to bag a table, and you have plenty of space to relax amongst the cushions at your funky table propped up by rusted steel rods. Where do these people get their ideas from?

I think we’ll go for the clean, minimalist design fused with the construction site look.
BY

Pure genius. And it works like a charm in the bright airy space of EL.AN.

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