Willkommen bei Julius Meinl

Vienna's coffeehouse tradition in Chicago

Die Presse
Leading Austrian newspaper
July, 2003
BY Petra Haiderer

Vienna is especially proud of its coffee house culture. Often written about, it is where much famous literature has originated. The coffeehouse is an important part of Viennese self respect. This difficult-to-copy cultural phenomenon has never really succeeded in establishing itself elsewhere. Leading coffee houses in Munich serve hot chocolate with water! And even outside Vienna, in many cases they forget to serve coffee with the important glass of water. Even in Vienna, the center of coffeehouse culture, modern practices have infiltrated the coffee drinking scene with coffee shops, that are the very opposite of the classic Viennese coffeehouse.

Now, "the Empire strikes back" with the opening of the first authentic Viennese coffeehouse in Chicago. "It is the start of a counter-revolution" says Stephan Visy, Executive Vice President Finance of the Julius Meinl Group. "When Starbucks came to Vienna the cultural clash was a shock to many. But a couple of years ago we had already decided to take Austrian coffee drinking culture to the United States."

Authentic "Melange"

This begins with the interior. Tables, chairs and the wooden paneling were supplied by an Austrian company from the Vienna area, each silver tray on which the "Wiener Melange" coffee is traditionally served with its glass of water were air freighted from Austria. The authentic Vienna coffeehouse atmosphere is further enhanced with pictures from "Old Austria".

From opening day on the coffeehouse with its 70 seats was full. Located on the corner of Southport and Addison avenues, in the old German Quarter, the coffeehouse also offers expat Austrians a bit of home. For Americans it is a confirmation of what they've been expecting. "Different from To Go coffee shops our visitors should stay a while " says Stephan Visy. "You can read American or Austrian papers at leisure. People are often surprised that they can take their time over their coffee and pastries and that they don't get their check straight away as an invitation to move on."

New aspects have crept into old traditions. Early morning customers of the Julius Meinl coffee house at 6 am are a city garbage collection crew who come in and enjoy their cup of coffee and a peek into the daily papers. On the menu are most Viennese coffee specialties ranging from Melange to Eiskaffee. Pure water is an important part of making good coffee and no effort has been spared to make good water available. Special filters were installed to remove any chlorine trace from the city's water which feeds in from Lake Michigan.

Where do you buy farmer's cream cheese on Lake Michigan?

What would Viennese coffee be without a good pastry? "Apple Strudel is a hit", says manager Beatrix Mayer. "Our biscuit roulade is very popular, not to mention Mohr im Hemd. You need to wait 15 minutes for this delicious warm specialty with molten chocolate but it's worth the wait. Another favorite is our Millennium chocolate cake. This specialty you only get in Vienna and Chicago!"

Making authentic Topfenstrudel is a problem. "You don't get real Topfen here. We need to help ourselves mixing cream cheese with farmer's cheese." says native of Austria Beatrix smiling.

The Chicago coffee house doesn't quite do without paper cups. "About 30% of our coffee sales are To Go", says Stephan Visy. "This is low compared with about 80% at Starbucks. Our retail shelves offer customers the same range of coffee packs to be found at our gourmet store on Vienna's Graben."

A paler Mohr

"Political correctness is important in the USA and so the Mohr's face turned golden in Chicago. The well known Mohr figure that sits at the bottom of the stairs in Meinl am Graben in Vienna is present in the Chicago coffee house in off-white. Only on the steaming hot Mohr im Hemd does the Meinl Mohr melt in dark chocolate.