Café Leopold

Description:

• This cafe and restaurant is within one of Vienna's museums. It's a postmodern version in architectural form of the Viennese expressionist paintings (including many by Egon Schiele) that are exhibited within the museum that contains it. Set one floor above street level in the Leopold Museum, and with a schedule that operates long after the museum is closed for the night, it's sheathed in the same pale pink sandstone as the museum's exterior and enhanced with three tones (jet black, "Sahara cream," and russet) of marble. There are a minimalist-looking oak-trimmed bar, huge windows, vague and simplified references to 18th-century baroque architecture, and a chandelier that cynics say looks like a lost UFO suspended from the ceiling. During the day, the place functions as a conventional cafe and restaurant, serving a postmodern blend of mitteleuropaïsche (central European) and Asian food. Examples include roasted shoulder of veal with Mediterranean vegetables, Thai curries, Vietnamese spring rolls, and arugula-studded risottos. Three nights a week, however, from around 10pm till at least 2am, any hints of kitsch and coziness are banished as soon as a DJ begins cranking out dance tunes for a hard-drinking denizens-of-the-night crowd.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010