Cafés and coffeehouses are a prominent feature of towns and villages across Austria. Tempting displays of cakes and desserts fill the windows to lure passers-by, but locals have long treated their coffeehouses as social institutions.

Livelier than a library, but less boisterous than a bar, a café is an ideal place to catch up on the latest news and gossip, to meet friends and acquaintances, and to debate and share ideas, all for the price of a cup of coffee and – maybe – a slice of cake…