8 old & new indie bakeries you need to try if you love bread

The bakery, Öfferl Dampfbäckerei, began in a small town outside of Vienna in Gaubitsch, Lower Austria. It was founded in 1968, but ever since the son, Georg Öfferl, took over the business from his mother a few years ago, he decided to introduce a fresh new/old way of baking to the company, which attracted a lot of attention to the small family company. They started to be THE bakery supplying the hip restaurants and cafes around Vienna, until they became so much of a hit, they decided they’d open their own flagship bakery slash cafe in the heart of the city. Their location on Wollzeile in Vienna’s first district has proven popular – to the point that most days it’s full – since it opened as their bread had already earned itself a reputation amongst the Viennese bread-loving crowd.

Unique features
+ all the breads have creative names eg. Madame Crousto, Robert de Vino, Rainer Roggen, Meister Wenzl, Rotraud von Oberkulm
+ you only find the bread at special places and markets all over Vienna, so it feels even more special when you manage to get your hands on these creations

Best bread: Madame Crousto – 80% wheat, 20% rye = 7.90€
Specialty: The use of rare grains, and a special steam oven

Felzl is a young and hip Viennese bakery living in the trendy parts of town. It all started in the 7th district with one of their green bakery cafes, and within a couple of years, 3 other stores opened up in the 5th, 7th and 1st district.

They call themselves, the “bakery for urbanites,” and bake up daily a spread of beautiful breads, with a lean towards Mediterranean baking traditions. This is reflected in sortiments like the Tuscan loaf, the tomato and olive rolls, Pane Pugliese, Panini, and other creations.

The shops are situated in hot spots around the city and the interiors are inviting and comfy – the kind of place that invites you to sit for a while. The breakfast options at the Felzl cafes are original and include highlights of their baked good range and other organic bits and pieces like delicious marmalades. They also bake daily delicious quiches, cakes and pastries.

Unique features
+ There is a Brotautomat (bread vending machine) on Schottenfeldgasse that is stocked daily at 8pm with bread for the those that are craving bread out of hours (they are also planned to pop up at all shops in the near future)
+ You can also order slices of each bread at what ever quantity you want
+ They’ve got the best Mini-Schokoguglhupf in the city!
+ In a city lacking in places stocking interesting sandwiches to go, Felzl do a good job in this department

Best bread: Baguette (French style, made with only wheat flour, yeast, salt, malt and water) = 2.50€
Specialty: French and Mediterranean influenced recipes, broad spectrum of all kinds of bread, as well as Weckerl and a neat selection of sweet alternatives (also cake and tartes)

Joseph Brot was one of the first bakeries in Vienna to embrace the revival hype of artisan bread and baked goods. Artisan baking was an endangered art before characters like Joseph turned up with their highly stylised cafes/bakeries, their organic sour dough and traditional recipes.

Their first small shop in the city center boomed, so Josef Weghaupt – the man behind the bread brand – opened a cafe, also housing a bakery and patisserie, on Landstraßer Hauptstraße in 2013, which was followed by the opening of a few more bakery & patisserie shops in recent years.

The creations they make out of flour, sugar and whatever other organic ingredients they’re throwing in are truly outstanding in taste. Meanwhile, good bread here comes at a price.

Unique features
+ Exceptional quality and taste, that also comes with a price to match
+ Long opening times at the shop on Landstraße which is also open on weekends and public holidays
+ They have one of the best Mürbes Kipfel in town!

Our favourite bread: Bio Walnuss Sauerteig Laib = 6.90€/kg
Specialty: Sour dough that is baked twice, old traditional Austrian bread recipes, a vast of different bread, Weckerl, Semmel, Croissants and outstanding pastries and tarts

Gragger & Cie is a bakery practised in the arts of wood oven baking. It also prides itself on the artisan handmade craft it practices religiously, alongwith what it does with sour dough and organic ingredients. The bakery aims to make ye’ ol’ baking traditions sexy again, especially the craft used in Upper Austria, which has an origin in its history from 18th century France.  Whatever they’re doing, their bread and other baked goods are delicious.
Their flagship store is on Spiegelgasse, where the bread is made fresh daily. There’s a huge oven out the back where the magic happens. The prices are a bit higher than at the usual chain bakeries, but what you’ll get is an unparalleled quality and intense flavour in return.
The shop in the first district also offers daily lunch menus (Mon–Fri), including soups, and of course, Gragger’s bread bits.

Unique features
+ You’ll find Gragger’s bread being served up at several restaurants and cafes around Vienna
+ The impressive huge wood oven in the middle of the shop in the first district, where the bread is baked
+ The huge flat and round shape of most of their breads looks impressive when carrying it home under your arm

Best bread: Mühlviertler Vollkornbrot = 2.70€ (500g) / 10.8€ (2kg)
Specialty: Old, traditional recipes and sorts of bread that are usually eaten in Upper Austria, offers bread variations as well as Weckerl, Semmeln, Kipferl, as well as sandwiches to go

Thie is the choice for the baked goods fanatic – the award-winning Rieppel bakery is a secret spot, hidden deep in the 15th district. It’s been quietly gaining a reputation as a bakery par excellence for a number of years. In fact, the Würstelstand has been told stories that the bakery’s vans have been chased down by customers desperate to find the holy source of the bread, and although this is difficult to verify, we wouldn’t be surprised.
Its interior belies its outstanding bread – it certainly doesn’t have any of the hipster touches of other post-bobo Rudolfsheim establishments around the Meiselmarkt. It’s old-fashioned to the point of painful, and that includes the excellent, friendly customer service from the two counter girls, neither of whom seem to ever go home.

Unique feature
+ Half an hour before closing time, everything is reduced by 50%

Best bread: the dark breads are delicious. The nut/carrot/vollkorn (€3.15) ensemble in particular is hard to beat.

This is the queen bee, spießig, the most noble bakery on the list – Wannenmacher. It can be found on the 19th district’s charming Sieveringer Straße. This is perhaps the connoisseur’s choice of bakery. Its noble and yellow, looks like a little cottage, or Heuriger, and boasts a certain fanatic following amongst those in the know.
The bread is predictably good across the spectrum. The crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, Tuscan rolls particularly caught our eye, and our tastebuds. And Wannenmacher has more to offer than just its bread. One of the best features of the place is its wonderful coffee – we don’t think we’ve ever managed to leave without a piquant Kleiner Brauner.  This is a place to linger for a while and soak in the atmosphere.

Unique features
+ This is a bakery that is also a café and a restaurant. While it’s primarily concerned with baking daily bread, Wannenmacher is a cafe with a very pleasant Gastgarten
+ It offers a great opportunity for a post-, or pre-, bread stroll in the gorgeous nearby Vienna woods.

Specialty: According to the manager, identifying their specialty is, ‘a very simple question with a very complicated answer.’

Keeping up appearances for the 15th district, Özkaya is just one of the many fantastic Turkish bakeries in the area serving a plethora of breads, savoury pastries and irresistible baklava. The great thing about the shop is that it never seems to shut. It’s excellent, competitively-priced and with the softest white bread hanging out on their racks. The Turkish sesame encrusted bread rings, the Simit, baked here are also a welcome (and tasty) alternative to the Austrian bakery selection. The wealth of cookies up for grabs is also a treat.

Unique features
+ Besides the 24/7 opening times (perfect for those lazy Sunday brunches), the sheer range of baked goods is astonishing.
+ Look out for their delicious borek

Best bread: The olive ring. It’s an obligatory accompaniment to any loaf, not to mention the perfect appetiser for a DIY Oriental brunch at home = €0.90, bargain

The beacon bakery of Vienna’s relatively new neighbourhood of Aspern out by the lake (stepping out of the U2 at Seestadt, if you’ve never done it, is like going to a parallel universe of Vienna), Leo Aspern has the modern flair of a café combined with the old-fashioned look of an old bakery. Young parents in the thirty-something crowd seem to be the regulars here (might have something to do with the demographics of people living out here). Leo delivers on all counts, with delicious bread etc. baked daily.

Unique feature
+ It’s open on a Sunday, and while it’s a long way to visit a bakery on Sunday, it’s worth it.

Best Bread: Handsemmel = €0.80