Austria’s capital is back to its cosmopolitan best, says William Cook
09.00: Vienna’s international food market, the Naschmarkt, is a great spot for breakfast or brunch, with fresh delicacies on sale from virtually every country you can think of – and quite a few you cannot. Balkan cuisine is particularly well represented – hardly surprising, it is less than 100 years since Vienna was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire (1897-1918), which straddled Belgrade and Zagreb. You can eat outside if the weather is fine, or under cover if it is filthy, but the biggest pleasure is watching the rich mix of cultures at work and play. A century ago, Vienna was Europe’s most cosmopolitan city. Here you get a strong sense that it is becoming a world-class metropolis again.
11.00: Hidden in the courtyard of the old imperial stables, the new MuseumsQuartier is testament to how much the Austrian capital has changed. From the outside, it looks like yet another beautiful but redundant baroque relic. Inside, it has been transformed into an avant-garde cultural centre with two art galleries – the Leopold Museum (with the world’s largest collection of works by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele) and the Museum Moderner Kunst (with masterpieces by Picasso, Duchamp and Klee). But the MuseumsQuartier is not just for art buffs. Made up of an interesting range of architectural styles, and with plenty of shops and cafes, it is an ideal place to spend the morning and a useful rendezvous.
13.00: A suave, understated restaurant a short walk from the city centre, Artner serves classic Viennese cuisine with a modern twist (www.artner.co.at). They also make their own cheese and wine. If you prefer somewhere sleek and central, Fabios (www.fabios.at) is Vienna’s best Italian restaurant (and here that is really saying something) with light, refreshing dishes.
15.00: The best (and cheapest) way to take an afternoon tour of the city is to board a number one or two tram. It does not matter which: the number one runs clockwise, the number two runs anti-clockwise, and both go round the Ringstrasse, built along the old city wall and surrounding the old town. This ring road is lined with many of Vienna’s most spectacular buildings, including the flamboyant Italian Renaissance-style Opera House built in the 1860s, and the Hofburg, the rambling palace of the Habsburg dynasty. If you buy a 24-hour ticket – €5.70 ($9) from any ticket machine or tram station – you can break your journey as many times as you like along the way.
17.00: Languid and elegant, a Viennese kaffeehaus is more like a private club than a café. You are sure to find one to suit you – and in the meantime you can enjoy searching. Café Pruckel (www.prueckel.at) – a sophisticated slice of 1950s kitsch, just across the road from MAK, Vienna’s museum of applied arts – is a great choice.
19.00: Kim Kocht (www.kimkocht.at) is a delightful little hideaway near the Gürtel, Vienna’s grungy nightlife district. Half-Japanese, half-Korean, Sohyi Kim has travelled all over Europe and Asia, and it shows. Her idiosyncratic cooking is an invigorating cocktail of East and West – not the muddy mishmash you get in some fusion restaurants, but a vivid blend of contrasting styles. Her compact bespoke restaurant also houses a shop that sells her delicious sauces, and even a cookery school.
21.00: The Gürtel used to be an attractive name for a rather unattractive feature of Vienna – the outer ring road that encircles the city like a girdle, hence the name, but lately it has become synonymous with Vienna’s most fashionable clubs and bars. Built beneath the arches of the overhead railway, Babu (www.babu.at) is a bit of both. By day it is a debonair drinking den. After dark, it is a popular nightspot for the groovy dance floor crowd.
23.00: For a nightcap, head to Café Drechsler (www.cafedrechsler.at). This used to be a rudimentary café where late-night clubbers rubbed shoulders with early-morning Naschmarkt porters, but since it reopened last year, after a dramatic refit by Terence Conran, it is now Vienna’s smartest watering hole. The insomniac opening hours reflect its spit and sawdust origins, however. It only shuts for one hour every night, from 2am to 3am – with breakfast, and other eats, on offer. It is close to Das Triest (www.dastriest.at), also redesigned by Conran – a discreet boutique hotel, patronised by the likes of David Bowie. Alamy
