Café Hawelka

Café Hawelka stands in Dorotheergasse 6, in Vienna’s first district. The café opened in 1939 when Leopold Hawelka took over the former Chatham Bar. His wife Josefine ran the kitchen and later managed the café for sixty-six years. After the Second World War the building was still intact, so the café reopened quickly. The Hawelkas’ son Günther continued baking Buchteln using the original recipe. Today the third generation, Amir and Michael Hawelka, serve coffee and desserts in the same rooms. The café became a meeting place for writers and critics after 1955. Names like Heimito von Doderer, Albert Paris Gütersloh and Hilde Spiel gathered here regularly. After the Café Herrenhof closed in 1961, more artists joined them. The sixties and seventies marked the café’s peak as a centre of Viennese art life. A song by Georg Danzer in 1976 shows how deeply the place entered local culture. The Hawelkas’ hospitality turned the café into a living legend. Inside, the café keeps its traditional atmosphere. Small tables and worn banquettes recall past decades. The Melange is still served daily. Photographs on the walls show former guests and artists. The scent of fresh coffee mixes with the aroma of baked Buchteln. Outside, the narrow Dorotheergasse leads to other historic streets. The café remains a quiet spot where time seems to stand still.