Obsthunger From "Apple Store" to Coffee Shop

What's wrong with starting the day with cake? On display is a sheet cake topped with juicy apricots, next to it apple pie that has risen to the top. Baked by "ladies from the neighbourhood" and so tempting that you want to have a slice as early as eight in the morning.

There are also fresh pastries from the bakery and - on weekends and holidays - a breakfast that in its simplicity is a pleasant change from the increasingly fancy creations: coffee, pastries, sweet (jam from the region) or vegan spread and "an apple from the region".

They started as an "Apple Store", as owner Werner tells us with a laugh. When the previous owner retired, he took over the stand on St. Elisabethplatz in the fourth district. "Fruit, vegetables, tropical fruits" is still written on the façade. Regional fruit and vegetables are still there - a tribute to the previous history.

The stand now functions as a café and wine bar in its second life. Over coffee, fruit juice, spritzes, and wine (savoury snacks are also served in the afternoons), you can watch the hustle and bustle of the square. In summer, at the small tables in the shade of the church, on cooler days behind the large window front, which turns the restaurant into an open living room.

1 | 3

Werner says the stall is also intended to help revitalise the square. It should be a communicative place. And it is communicative: Warm greetings; chatting at the cake counter; a melange pushed over the counter without being asked.

The coffee comes from sustainable cultivation projects that pay fair wages and protect ecosystems. Instead of separating the beans from the pulp using large amounts of water, the coffee cherries are slowly dried in the sun.

Considering the origin of the coffee, the name of the restaurant - Obsthunger - makes double sense: outside, the fruit lies in wooden boxes to take away, inside it ends up - refined into desserts, wine and coffee - on the plate, in the glass and in the cup.

Verena Carola Mayer

Author Vienna and Berlin