Vienna - The Long Pause

Vienna resists the pace its visitors bring to it. Even the Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard encircling the old city, was designed as a promenade, a circuit for walking rather than for cutting through. Coffee here is not a commodity but a ritual, with its own architecture of cups and saucers and table time. The city asks you to stay a little longer, and most who arrive with a full schedule find themselves conceding the point.

Where to stay

Rosewood Vienna, near Stephansplatz, spreads across four connected historic buildings and is quieter inside than its address suggests. Contemporary artworks alongside considered furniture throughout, and the Neue Hoheit Brasserie on the top floor for Austrian fare and cocktails above the rooftops.

Grand Ferdinand on the Ringstrasse announces itself with a Lobmeyr crystal chandelier in the lobby, the glassmaker having dressed Vienna's grandest spaces for two centuries. The Meissl & Schadn restaurant on the ground floor is where to eat schnitzel before the theatre, and the sixth-floor terrace with its pool is worth staying for long after checkout would have come.

Magdas Hotel Vienna City in the Landstrasse district occupies a former priests' dormitory on Ungarngasse, its rooms furnished with upcycled pieces and its staff drawn partly from refugee communities. It is the kind of hotel with a clear position on things, and the position holds.

Where to eat

Zum Schwarzen Kameel on Bognergasse has been trading in various forms since 1618, its current Jugendstil interior of dark wood and green tiles dating to 1901. The open sandwiches with cured fish, soft cheese, and seasonal toppings are the correct order. There is also an impressive wine cellar to work through afterward.

Skopik & Lohn in Leopoldstadt takes Austrian cooking closer to France, with beef tartare and coq au vin alongside seasonal dishes. It is off the main tourist track, and Augarten park is three minutes away for the walk afterward.

Reznicek in the Alsergrund district is the rare modern Wirtshaus with both a hearty kitchen and an extensive wine list. The menu changes regularly; the cordon bleu stays.

Where to drink

Café Prückel in the Innere Stadt has the best 1950s interior in a city that takes mid-century design seriously. The waiters are famously consistent, the coffee is correct, and the apple strudel is worth the wait. Tables set aside for longtime regulars still hold on weekday mornings.

Volksgarten Pavillon, open from April to September, sits inside the greenery of the Volksgarten in a 1950s pavilion that hosts barbecues, jazz evenings, and occasional techno nights. It is one of the better places in the city to understand how a summer evening can be organised.

What else

The Naschmarkt food market runs between the 4th and 6th districts with stalls selling fresh fish, spices, and locally produced Gegenbauer vinegar. On Saturdays a flea market fills the surrounding streets. At the far end, the Secession building's gilded dome marks the edge of the market. Inside, Klimt's Beethoven Frieze occupies an entire room and is among the most undervisited things in Vienna.

In the Innere Stadt, the Loos American Bar on Kärntner Durchgang was designed by Adolf Loos in 1908 in a space of roughly 27 square metres. The scale is deliberately tight and the effect is complete. In Neubau, Atlas Bar & Kunstgalerie occupies the former Wratschko space that Anthony Bourdain once praised, with natural wines, contemporary art, and a wooden bar that has not moved.

Vienna does not reward the traveller who arrives with a full schedule and the intention of clearing it. It rewards the one who orders a second coffee and stays.