12 CAFÉS WHERE TO GET YOUR THIRD WAVE COFFEE IN VIENNA

Third wave coffee is conquering the world, one bean at a time. What the hell is it? Well, it’s when coffee goes artisanal, and baristas are artists frothing and aerating milk to a creamy perfection, and coffee drinkers are connoisseurs.

The wave has hit Vienna in a big way, cheekily lecturing the city with its old and famous coffee culture on what a coffee is supposed to taste like. We hit the streets, drank a thousand coffees (and therefore were briefly admitted to a psych ward when trying to climb Stephansdom) to bring you this list of 12 cafés where to get your third wave coffee in Vienna. We also asked local coffee guru of the Independent Coffee Vienna collective, Amar Ca, to help us out in our search.

Fürth Kaffee
Where: Kirchengasse 44, 1070

Opening Hours
Tue–Sat: 10:30am–5pm

Fürth Kaffee is one of Vienna’s few coffee roasters, and they also have crazy good Third Wave Coffee skills. While also offering the coffee to taste at the shop in Kirchengasse, Charles Fürth is selling his own roasts not only to individuals with a passion for quality coffee, but also to gastronomy clients who understand the importance of offering high end beans to their customers.

The café is a sales platform, a showroom and a packing station. The coffee beans are filled and packaged at the café by the members of the team, after finding there way here from Fürth’s roast house in Lower Austria.

Inspired by finding a new purpose in life after 20 years of ad film production, and by the concept of helping famers through direct trade, Charles spent more than 3 years perfecting his coffee skills through workshops in England, reading a lot of books and ensuring his first coffee he was serving the best coffee he could, from the first coffee he sold.

We try the Espresso Macchiato – it makes our mouth water and hair curl just looking at it. After the first sip, we don’t want to ever spend another day without this coffee.

Price Guide
Espresso = 1.90€
Macchiato = 2.50€
Cappuccino = 2.80€
Aeropress (200–250ml) = 3.50€

We like … the living room atmosphere of the place.
We love … that you can watch the team in action, packing the coffee and catch a glimpse of the lovely brown beans before they’re liquefied.

Atmosphere: (comfy and creative)
Value for money: (great quality, great taste)
Service: (super nice people)
Coffee: (heavenly)

Kaffeemodul
Where: Josefstädter Straße 35, 1080

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 7:30am–5:30pm
Sat: 10am–2pm
Sun: closed

“What’s the secret to a good Flat White?”
“Good coffee and well frothed milk,” Valentin simply puts it in a no-bullshit kind of way. Only a modest natural can understate the skill behind the exceptionally good coffee he’s just whipped up for us. The coffee is so good here, coffee nerds seek this place out. One such nerd enters while we’re there and tells us, “You can’t get much better than this when it comes to coffee in this city.”

The two guys behind Kaffeemodul, Valentin and Boris, opened this coffee spitting shoebox of a place up in 2012 and have had a steady stream of caffeine craving regulars popping in – and a few minutes later – popping out with coffee in hand, ever since. There’s hardly enough space to stay anyway, as the place is as big as a chicken coop, but its coffee’s so good, you’ll see people crowing like roosters on their way out.

They source their beans mainly from the direct trade German Roaster, Quijote, and stock and serve a variety of different kinds, from fruity, to kräftig (strong) to filtered. They also sell all the filters, grinders and other coffee paraphernalia.

And while Valentin consecutively wins himself prizes at the Brewers Cup (2nd prize in 2015), he says him and Boris are always looking for ways to improve their quality.

“There’s plenty of cafés that sell everything you can think of, but here we just do coffee and we’re constantly on the look out for new small suppliers, and ways to improve our standards,” Valentin says.

They know their coffee here, so if you’re a Third Wave Coffee virgin, just ask for help and they’ll introduce you to your own bean and coffee style preference (sexual innuendo unintended … we think).

Price Guide
Espresso = 2€
Flat White = 3.50€
Filter Coffee = 3.50€

Atmosphere: (like a neighborhood coffee shop)
Service:
Value for money:
Coffee:

Our coffee guru says: My favourite here is the Espresso. You can decide whether you want to follow the new “light roast” trend, or if you just want to enjoy the classic medium roast. The two will always make sure you find something you like.

Kaffee von Sascha
Where: Pilgramgasse 3, 1050

Opening Hours
Mon, Wed–Fri: 8:30am–5pm
Sat & Sun: 10am–4pm
Tue: closed

Kaffee von Sascha’s owner Oleksandr “Sascha” Iamkovy and his wife came to Vienna about 5 years ago, for one very good reason: “Life is short, so why not live in the most beautiful place in the world”.

His memories of a book about coffee he read as a child, paired with his warm feelings for Vienna, sparked the idea to open his own coffeeshop.

Specialising in only coffee (even though there’s also cake), the café offers the usual Third Wave Coffee sorts, from Chemex and Aeropress, to Arabic mocha pot, to a skilfully prepared espresso on a La Marzocco. We’re not sure if it’s the handmade furniture, the plants scattered around the interior, or Sascha’s open and friendly ways, but the experience here is just the right amount of familiar and personable.

We enjoy our Espresso Macchiato and try one of the Ukranian sweets, while gazing onto Pilgramgasse through the tall window.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2€ (Macchiato 2,50€)
Cappuccino = 3€
Cold Drip/Brew = 4€

We are impressed … by the 3rd place trophy from the Austrian Barista Championship.
We love … the Ukrainian Gorischky filled with caramelized condensed milk and walnuts!
We love even more … the sign above the back door saying “no toilets” in bold letters.

Atmosphere: (very calm and relaxed)
Value for money:
Service: (Sascha is super nice)
Coffee:

kaffemik
Where: Zollergasse 5, 1070

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 8am–6pm
Sat: 10am–6pm
Sun: 12pm–6pm

Small, neat and pure looking – kaffeemik has light blue and white tiles and a clean interior. The small shop doesn’t overdo with the decor and furniture, yet exceed in their coffee skills.
The people behind kaffeemik are a group of friends that realised their long-held dream to revive Vienna’s dormant coffee taste buds, with high-quality coffee sourced from small European roasters.

We try as much coffee as Simon serves up until we can’t hold the cup anymore in our shaking hands. The milky variations, like the Cappuccino and Flat White are creamy, with that sweet and bitter coffee taste in the middle.

We’re still walking on clouds hours later, wide-eyed from the great taste and the coffee’s ability to make us feel like the most amazing person in the world. We’ll surely be seen at kaffeemik again, next time going for the filter coffee –the underrated achiever in the coffee crowd when it comes to depth in flavour and value, according to Simon.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2€
Flat White = 3€
Filter coffee = 4€

We are impressed … by the amount of people walking in during our visit.
We love … their company name – “A bunch of nerds KG”.

Atmosphere: (small but homey)
Value for money: (we won’t say it out loud, but we’d even pay more for a coffee this good)
Service: (super nice, attentive and helpful)
Coffee: (we’re lost for words)

Our Coffee guru says: Simon always has a surprise. The coffees are regularly supplied by different roasters, and so there’s the chance that you’ll come across something different every time. My favourite here is definitely the V60 pour-over coffee.

Jonas Reindl
Where: Währinger Straße 2–4, 1090

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 7:30am–10pm
Sat: 9:30am–10pm
Sun: closed

Jonas Reindl is a fresh, and despite its cosiness, very vibrant coffee shop. Lots of young people find their way here in a break between classes at the nearby university, but the great location also brings walk-in customers, tourists and other randoms.

Philip Feyer, the owner, learned everything about coffee at the Berlin School of Coffee to make sure to share this passion with other coffee lovers as best as possible. He works closely together with the Rösterei Süßmund that supplies his café with high quality beans directly obtained from fair trade farmers.

While chatting with him, we completely forget that there’s a world beyond coffee. This floating feeling might also come from the perfectly fitting Flat White – two shots of espresso topped with just the right amount of milk to make our insides hum.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2€ (doppio 2.60€)
Cappuccino = 3€
Americano = 2.20€
Filter coffee = 3.60€

We like … that Jonas Reindl is also a bar for chilled evenings and is opened until 10pm!
We love … their delicious offerings of fresh croissants, brioche and cakes.

Atmosphere: (charming but maybe a bit packed)
Value for money: (nothing to fault)
Service:
Coffee:

ZÅMM Coffee
Where: Westbahnstraße 13, 1070

Opening Hours (Winter)
Thu–Fri: 1pm–6pm
Sat: 11am–5pm
Sun–Wed: closed

The name ZÅMM makes us think of the sound of lasers as we take our first sip of the coffee – the perfectly concocted mix of bitter sweet beans and creamy milk has us silent, savouring our Flat White for a moment.

Maximilian Huber, a graphic designer from Vienna, opened ZÅMM a few years after touring the world and meeting Third Wave Coffee in Australia and New Zealand. He brought it to town where he now ‘educates’ the Viennese coffee lover in all things about quality coffee, sustainability and social responsibility. He’s supplier in the good stuff is the socially and environmentally responsible Berlin roaster, Five Elephant, who source their fair trade beans from farmers in Africa and South America.

The pleasant space with a grey colour scheme in ZÅMM is a nice spot to down a coffee, while also gathering inspiration for your new living room. Plenty of paraphernalia for coffee nerds fills the shelves, but there’s also a micro concept store, full of living room items, attached to the small café.

ZÅMM sums itself up with a play on Oscar Wilde’s words, “coffee, books, flowers and the moon.” While the moon is rarely in stock, ZÅMM’s thoughtfully displayed products range from coffee brewing gear, skin care products, pretty little notebooks, plants, cups and other random lifestyle accessories. And everything you see here – including the shelves, excluding the barista – is for sale. And the vast collection of niche interest magazines – mainly travel – from around the world will go perfectly with your coffee.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2.20€
with milk = 2.90€
more milk = 3.50€
extra shot = 1.30€

We love … the huge selection of great magazines for reading and buying that you rarely find anywhere else in Vienna.

Atmosphere:
Value for money:
Service:
Coffee:

Our coffee guru says: There’s always something happening with Max. It shows, as the café is always full of joyful and lively people. In ZÅMM, you can enjoy a perfectly brewed Aeropress coffee, which is my favourite. Max also launched an initiative called “Coffee Swap” when which he exchanges a brand and type of coffee with another coffee shop from abroad.

CaffèCouture
Showroom & Roasting Lab: Garnisongasse 18, 1090
Café: Freyung 2, Palais Ferstel Passage, 1010

Opening Hours
Showroom & Roasting Lab
Mon–Fri: 8:30am–5pm
July/August/September: Mon–Fri: 8:30am–3pm

CaffèCouture District 1
Mon–Fri: 8am–5pm
Sat: 10am–5pm

CaffèCouture’s showroom/roasting lab in Vienna’s 9th opened 5 years ago, showing off La Marzocco’s latest coffee equipment, as well as serving seasonal specialty coffees to take home with you, or enjoy at the café. The owner, Georg Branny, is not only a very talented barista with endless knowledge and skills that wins awards, he’s also a coffee entertainer, with a talent for coffee-based cocktails.

Their second shop in the 1st district’s Palais Ferstel Passage, opened in September 2013. They have their own 100%-arabica-roast and a seasonal blend mixing 3 different sorts, directly obtained from farmers. The quality of the beans, the roasting and the skilful preparation are noticeable in every sip.

And while we enjoy our Espresso, we watch people passing by outside, admiring the Parisian feeling of the neat 1st district passageway.

Price Guide
Espresso = 1.90€
Kleiner Brauner = 2.20€

We love … La Marzocco with its see through side that shows you her “intestines”.
We admire … the location in Ferstel Passage that makes you feel like being in Paris.

Atmosphere:
Value for money:
Service:
Coffee:

Balthasar – Kaffee Bar
Where: Praterstraße 38, 1020

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 7:30am–7pm
Sat: 9am–5pm
Sun: closed

Gentle Italian music will charm your ears at Café Balthasar in Vienna’s 2nd district, while the warm interior takes care of the rest; its rough pastel-specked walls, blue and white mosaic counter and hardwood floors make it a place you’ll want to stop for a while and drink coffee after coffee until you go owl-eyed.

La Marzocco is the beast of a coffee machine boldly straddling the counter like it owns it, while nine times out of ten, right next to it you’ll find Otto Bayer, a former star chef from Tyrol turned barista heavyweight, now serving up sustainable fair-trade coffee out of Kenya, Ethiopia and Brazil, with beans roasted by a artisan German company.

The Kleiner Brauner is strong, low in bitterness, high in smoothness ­– putting your head in the right place. From slowly filtered, to finely aerated Flat Whites are created here. You can tell Otto knows his shiny coffee machine, as intimately as his own bellybutton.

Their coffee specialty: the Flat White, currently conquering the world from Australia/New Zealand – an espresso/ristretto doppio with ‘minimally aereated milk’.

Price Guide
Espresso = 1.90€ (doppio 2.80€)
Kleiner Brauner = 2.20€
Flat White = 3.60€
Extra shot = 1€

We love … the naked walls mixing with the cautiously colourful chairs.
We admire … how Otto seems to handle the whole café by himself and still has the calmness to go out for a smoke.

Atmosphere:
Value for money:
Service:
Coffee:

Our Coffee guru says: This place has so much style, you’re almost forced to order an elegant Macchiato. But, Otto has a better surprise – the Cold Brew. Cold brew coffee is simply brewed in cold water for several hours. The results are amazingly complex – a nectar-like drink with highly developed aromas. In Summer, there is no better alternative, as the Otto’s garden offers the perfect location to enjoy a cold brew.

Kaffeefabrik
Where: Favoritenstraße 4–6, 1040

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 8am–6pm
Sat: 11am–5pm
Sun: closed

One of the smallest of Vienna’s Third Wave Coffee shops, it’s also the only representative in the 4th district – Kaffeefabrik opened four years ago, preparing coffee that makes you weak at the knees. They also sell their lovely, bubbly beans that are acquired directly from farmers in South America, Africa and India, and roasted in their small outpost in Burgenland.

The size of the shop makes it very homey, though the lack of seating might make you leave a tad sooner than anticipated. But we’re sure that as soon as the sun shines warm enough, their chairs and tables situated out front on a big stretch of sidewalk will make up for that.

The coffee goes down smoothly while we sit at the white metal chairs and chat with the barista. We’re almost inhaling the first shot and order another straight away.

Plus: they also serve Vodka – and we think that every coffee shop should have a bottle of vodka underneath the counter!

Price Guide
Espresso = 1.50€
Kleiner Brauner = 1.50€
Flat White = 3€

We are impressed … by their prices – 1.50€ for a drop of heaven!
We love … the white metal tables and chairs out front, which inspired us to sit outside.

Atmosphere:
Value for money: (never had a 1.50€ coffee that charmed our senses like this)
Service:
Coffee:

Coffee Pirates
Where: Spitalgasse 17, 1090
New shop: Währinger Straße 14, 1090

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 8am–6pm
Sat & Sun: 9am–3pm (Sunday only in Spitalgasse)

Some people are annoyed by the busy, bustling Coffee Pirates in Spitalgasse alongside the Uni campus. In our opinion, these freebooters are so good at what they do, and how they present themselves, that you get the feeling they deprive you from your god given right to criticise.

The carefully made coffee is close to perfection, and the place is one that screams ‘hang-out spot!‘: a grand, bright public living-room, offering a colourful mix of different seating areas (festive wooden table vs. window bar vs. cosy lounge area). It’s also one of the few coffee places that do their own roasting – and boy, do they know how to roast!

When Coffee Pirates’ co-captains, Werner and Evelyn, talk about their trade, they tell you vivid tales of their coffee-hunting trips around the world, and how they carefully select each direct and fairly-traded bean variant they have on offer. We even got a glimpse at their roast-curve-treasure-maps.

Their coffee speciality: the brew of the day – a speciality single origin coffee prepared in a Chemex filter, Aeropress or a drip decanter.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2€ (2.70€ double)
Kleiner Brauner = 2.40€
Flat White = 3.00€
250g bag of their roast = 7,90–12,90€

We love … the details – from the coffee sacks lying around everywhere to the wooden cabins that hide the toilets. And the fact that they now offer brunch on weekends (be sure to make a reservation).

You can also check out … their pop-up café, currently housed at Währingerstraße 14, 1090.

Atmosphere: (often crowded)
Service: (self-service)
Value for money:
Coffee: (it only scored 3 when compared to the others Third Wave Coffee places in this list. Nevertheless, they make damn good coffee.)

Our Coffee guru says: The Coffee Pirates offer an all-round experience. Werner carefully roasts coffee in the background, while Evelyn and her team prepare perfect cappuccinos. They also started serving a brilliant breakfast menu on the weekend. Thus, my favourite here is brunch with a cappuccino.

Cafe EL.AN
Where: Werdertorgasse 4 1010 Wien

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 8am–5:30pm

The owners and baristas, Elke and Anna (EL.AN – get it?), are as sweet and smooth talking as their coffee, which they source from CafféCouture’s owner and veteran coffee sommelier, Georg Branny.

Coffee is the main focus here, with two different espresso roasts always on offer. Upon our visit, they had a balanced Brazilian blend with bittersweet hints of cocoa, and another intense and fruity Arabica out of Costa Rica. You can choose from a variety of state-of-the-art brewing techniques – from the good old Espresso machine, the slow-drip filter coffee, to the Aeropress, and the Siphon Pot – which looks like some high-tech lab tool you could use to synthesise crystal meth. But rather than lose your teeth and develop a nervous twitch that makes you constantly yell ‘bitch!’ the coffee will tamper with your taste buds like top-notch coffee should when made by Third Wave Coffee scientists.

When it comes to the interior, the place practices in the art of calm café zen. Less is more, and seating is well spaced and minimal, meaning three things – coffee to go is popular here, it’s not easy to bag a table, and you have plenty of space to relax amongst the cushions at your funky table propped up by rusted steel rods.

Price Guide
Espresso = 2.20€
Cappuccino = 3.30€

Atmosphere:
Service: (very friendly and talented behind the coffee machine)
Value for money: (more expensive to the others on this list)
Coffee:

POC – People on Caffeine
Where: Schlösselgasse 21, 1080 Wien

Opening Hours
Mon–Fri: 8am–5pm

Almost 200 years ago, Beethoven’s body was waiting here for its journey six feet under. In this former funeral parlor of the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Vienna’s 8th district, Robert has built his small kingdom of coffee that he calls POC (People On Caffeine). Fortunately, today instead of decomposing composers, it features great coffee.

POC reminds us of the rustic charm of our grandfather’s workshop – everything seems a bit chaotic and improvised, all working surfaces and shelves are full of coffee accessories. But it’s chaos of a comforting nature. The small seating area with two tables blends seamlessly into the coffee kitchen. Two espresso machines from La Marzocco are employed, one for the everyday work, the other specifically setup to take on those experienced tastebuds of coffee nerds. A second room is due to open in spring, which will be furnished mostly with bar tables for the upright intake of coffee.

Price Guide
Espresso = 1.80€
Cappuchino = 2.50€
Coffee to go = 2.00€

We love … the intimate location and DIY atmosphere.

Atmosphere: (only 8 seats, and often crowded but really unique)
Value for money:
Coffee:
Service:

For more info on the third wave coffee movement in Vienna, and a cool ‘coffee map’, check out the Independent Coffee Vienna Facebook page.