Summerstage
It could be said about the Viennese that the one thing they enjoy more than wining and dining with pleasant company would be doing the same outdoors. Even in the dead of winter, they seem to love standing around in the cold, with nothing save a warm mug of something strong. Now, at last, winter is [...]
Ride the Pony
You’re at a club. Over the din you hear the first riff of that tune from way back when, that cheesy, heavy-rotation song from your teens. But hearing it now makes your heart beat faster. You just can’t keep your feet still… Sound familiar? The DJs at Pony Club understand. Meet Katarina Cherabon, a freelance [...]
Dances with Wolf Whistles
It’s Sunday night at Vienna’s Café Leopold and something’s askew. It’s not the premises: It’s the same stark black and white interior and distinctive clear plastic chandeliers, lights dimmed so low they bathe the entire establishment in a pleasantly murky amber, to make anyone look good, even without multiple weiße Spritzer. And it’s not the [...]
Brothel Turned Bar
As the world’s oldest profession moves steadily towards Vienna’s city limits, a few of the older downtown establishments have been converted to bars or venues, like Morrison Club off the Naschmarkt, or the Arena Bar on Margaretenstraße. Another former house of (not so) ill repute in Vienna’s 6th has followed suit and now caters to [...]
Night Life Face Lift
It’s a late Saturday night as Vienna commuters descend into the Künstlerhauspassage at Karlsplatz to find themselves surrounded by flamboyant revellers. They are on their way to Rhinoplasty, one of the city’s least-secret parties. A quartet of bearded men dressed as Valkyries, with neon braids, hold court in front of Club-U – Top-40 hits and [...]
“Punsch” and Play
Advent in Vienna is a time for candles, cookies and Christkindlmärkte, and for Austrians the experience of this cold time of year wouldn’t be complete without Punsch and its cousin, Glühwein. And in the same way, live entertainment often sweetens the deal with carols, dancers and brass bands. Originally brought to Europe by the English East [...]
At Jean Nouvel’s New Sofitel Hotel: Pride goeth…
The top floor of the new Sofitel across from Schwedenplatz seems to hang from heaven. A vast back-lit ceiling floats above the all-glass walls, silhouetting tiny people seated at tables. It had been beckoning me for months. The hotel itself, a pile of trapezoidal black shapes slightly askew as if cut by a huge knife, [...]
Tenting at the WienerWiesn
What better way to ring in the autumn season then by downing frothy beer in massive tumblers, and frolicking to embarrassing music in a tent filled with bosomy dirndls and well-worn Lederhosen? While the tradition is originally Bavarian, Vienna has adopted their own version of the Oktoberfest, or as the Bavarian natives call it, die [...]
Let’s Go There Instead
Snippets of German, English, and French float in between bouts of hearty laughter where a small group of Malian refugees gather around wooden tables. Under a massive clock hanging from the courtyard wall, women chatter enthusiastically in Spanish. The Statt-Beisl in the WUK caters easily to the motley ebb and flow of locals: This is [...]
