Café Prückel

Café Prückel opened on the Stubenring opposite the MAK applied-arts museum in 1903 and was refitted in 1955 by Oswald Haerdtl, the architect of the Vienna World's Fair pavilions — the 1955 fit-out is the version that survives, and the Federal Monuments Office has it listed under heritage protection. Banquette seating in red, mirrored columns, the Haerdtl light fittings; live piano Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 19:00. The Stubenring location next to the MAK and a five-minute walk from the Stadtpark makes Prückel the third or fourth kaffeehaus the audience books on a four-day Vienna trip — the one with the cleanest 1950s atmosphere and the most space to read for an hour.