Austria is known for its traditional kaffeehausen, and keeping to my promise of spotting stylish and historical cafes while travelling, I moved on to the next item in my agenda: Café Tomaselli. I’ve read about this oldest kaffeehaus in Salzburg (circa 1705 and still in business!) and I was quite curious to experience it.
Tomaselliums Kaffee please?
Now if you have been reading my travel diaries, you’d probably know that I am into strong coffee and liqueur coffee, and it is a must to have my cafe spotting + espresso fix + people watching during my travels. When its winter or a bit colder like on a rainy spring day, I prefer a lil bit of vigour in my hot drink. Like when I went to Copenhagen, Denmark last spring, I ordered twice an Irish coffee, at an outdoor terrace on Nyhavn and at Café Hovedtelegrafen with a beautiful view of the old city centre. It’s May in Salzburg and it’s a cloudy with bands of light showers moving about type of day so I scanned the menu to see what coffee would best fit for this type of somewhat greyish day. I saw ‘Tomaselliums Café’.
Hmm, Tomaselliums Kafee… a concoction of mocha coffee, Mozart liqueur, whipped cream and shavings of almonds. Now that sounds like the coffee I’d like to drink in Salzburg on a showery day.
In genuine coffee houses, an order of coffee always comes with a glass of water, and here at Cafe Tomaselli, it comes on a silver tray as well.
This white milky substance is the Mozart liqeuer and it is very nice. However, I had no idea how to drink this. Drink it separately? Add it to my coffee? Well, I tried both just to make sure, hehe.
The café’s website says that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used to come here to drink his almond coffee, as well as his widow Contanze from time to time for a cuppa.
The tourist crowd have discovered Cafe Tomaselli so it is always busy here, but even with that I have noticed that they still have the local regulars, usually the older ones.
The café is perfectly situated on the old square with a lovely veranda on the first floor (second floor for you non-Europeans) where you can see the everyday musings of Alter Markt down below. The veranda obviously is only open when the weather permits. Unfortunately when I was there I did not have any view as I was seated in the middle on the ground floor, but I was in a good seating position to witness how these established and well-poised waiters gracefully sway, duck and move about while serving the clientele.
You will not see young waiters here at Cafe Tomaselli, only established ones with years on their foreheads, which I think makes the cafe quite special and elegant. This is definitely not your local Starbucks or Coffee Bean story.
Traditional Oompah Band and Alter Markt (Old Market Square)
Outside on Alter Markt people were busy taking pictures of the St. Florian Fountain, the historical buildings on the square and listening to an Austrian folk oompah band.
The Alter Markt goes back to the 13th century. On this square is the smallest house in Salzburg on 10a (beside Café Tomaselli), the Furst confectionery who first made Mozart Kugeln chocolates and the ancient pharmacy of the archbishop.
Travel Period: May 2013
Destination: Salzburg (Salzburg), Austria
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)