Since 1880
A story that lives on.
A house full of encounters. And a piece of Vienna that has stayed.
- 1880
A coffee house is born.
Gross and Jelinek, the architects of the Ronacher theatre, design the café. In December the Sperl family takes over, and the café receives the name it still bears today.
- 1884
A name remains.
Adolf Kratochwilla takes over. His family runs the Sperl until 1968.
- 1895
Art at the regulars’ table.
The Siebener Club meets at the Sperl. The Hagengesellschaft also makes it their regular haunt.
- 1897
The dawn of modernism.
The Vienna Secession emerges from this circle of artists.
- 1929
A winter brings Vienna to a standstill.
Bitter cold and frozen water pipes force even the coffee houses to close for a time.
- 1941–45
The war years.
Blackouts and rationing shape everyday life. In 1945 Mariahilf becomes part of the French occupation zone.
- 1950
New times, new cafés.
Espresso bars begin to compete with Vienna’s traditional coffee houses.
- 1968
The Staub family.
On 1 June, Manfred Staub takes over Café Sperl.
- 1983
Preserving what endures.
The restoration keeps the café’s time-honoured atmosphere and uncovers the original parquet floor.
- 1988
International acclaim.
Roy Ackerman names the Sperl coffee house of the year.
- 1999
In first place.
In the Tafelspitz ranking, the Sperl receives the highest rating of all coffee houses.
- 2012
A golden coffee pot.
Manfred and Monika Staub receive the Golden Coffee Pot award for the Sperl.
- Today
The Sperl remains the Sperl.
Time for a Melange. For a conversation. For a new chapter that begins with a visit.
Visit us
A living cultural treasure
History has a seat at the table.
A coffee house lives through the people who visit it. Between newspapers, billiards and the piano, an afternoon becomes a memory.
Inside the Sperl