I’ll have one more cup of coffee for the road
Where do you go in Zurich if you’re looking for the best cup of coffee on offer in town? Sprungli, right on the city’s famous designer shopping street – Bahnhofstrasse – is the answer to that particular question.
Not only will you get a fine cup of coffee there, however, you’ll also be tempted by some of the most divine chocolates, pastries and macaroons that you have ever clapped eyes on in your life.
Although I had a busy schedule when I was in Zurich last weekend, I still managed to get myself to Sprungli on two occasions for one of their delicious ‘milchkafi’, which is exactly as it sounds, a lovely cup of warm and comforting milky coffee.
Although the ancient facade (the cafe opened in 1859) was given a bit of a makeover in recent years, inside, especially in the upstairs cafe, it’s still all little wooden tables and chairs and waitress/waiter service. And the views out over one of the priciest shopping streets – not just in Zurich or Switzerland or Europe, but in the world – are terrific. If you crane your neck from certain seats you can just about catch a glimpse of the lake that dominates the centre of Zurich.
I love to put in an appearance in the cafes that define a city whenever I travel anywhere. In Padua before Christmas I was intrigued by the Pedrocchi Cafe, much bigger than I had imagined and famous as the hang-out of Lord Byron back in the day. Years ago in St Petersburg I made a beeline for the Literary Cafe, not so much because of its coffee reputation, but because it was from here that the writer Alexander Pushkin set out to engage in the duel that ended his life in January 1837.
Cafes, or coffee houses as they were originally known, first came to Europe in the 17th century, with the still-going-strong Florian’s in Venice laying claim to being the first one in existence. It’s still a beautiful cafe, with its wonderful location right on St Mark’s Square, and its myriad rooms, all frescoes and gilt. A coffee will set you back around €9, with one of Florian’s signature hot chocolates similarly priced and so thick you can actually stand the spoon upright in the cup.
If you’re just in for a quick cuppa, then there’s a trick. Head straight through from the entrance door to the little bar at the back. They don’t like you to linger too long but you’ll get a coffee there for around a fiver, and a glass of Prosecco, if that’s your poison, for not much more than that.
One of the loveliest cafe experiences I ever had was when my husband and I pitched up to Cafe Sacher in Vienna. This is actually on the ground floor of the Hotel Sacher and, yes, it’s the place where the famous chocolate/apricot Sacher torte was invented. The cafe itself isn’t particularly grand, but it is extremely distinctive with its red velvet upholstery and its light grey marble tables. We visited in winter, but in summer the tables spill outside, creating a terrace where, as well as enjoying the coffee and cake, you can also take in a bit of people watching.
Not everyone who frequents a coffee house in Amsterdam is there for the coffee. Whatever your reason for being there, however, you can’t go wrong with the Dampkring – the original one on Handboogstraat, near the flower market. With its lovely dark wooden facade, it’s also very atmospheric inside, with the wooden theme continued and all lit with a low lighting glow. I know it’s a bit cliched, but when in Paris, I love Les Deux Magots on the Left Bank. The red leather seating, the elaborate ceiling cornicing, the brass, the waiters in those long aprons... It’s more about the place than the coffee, to be honest, and its history, of course. You can just picture Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre at one of the corner tables. Or Picasso, who was another fan of the place. Apart from here, the other cafe I always head for in Paris, and usually straightaway, is the Brasserie
de l’Ile Saint-Louis. Right beside the little bridge that takes you off the Ile Saint-Louis and over to Notre Dame cathedral, this is a great cafe/ restaurant with a traditional interior with an enormous gleaming coffee machine on the counter.
I usually sit outside, however. In summer it’s a real sun-trap and in winter, when they supply lovely cosy red blankets, it’s a great spot to take in Paris on the move, while sipping a delicious cup of hot chocolate, or perhaps a glass or two of vin rouge. It’s one of my favourite spots in all of Paris.
Finally, if I had to pick another ‘don’t miss’ cafe in Europe I’d plump for Caffe Tommaseo, one of the oldest coffee houses in Trieste. Our own James Joyce was a regular here, as was Franz Kafka, and it’s a place that still retains its old-world atmosphere. I loved it here when we popped in one bitingly-cold March morning for a warming cup of coffee. I loved the space, the beautiful decor, the interlinking rooms and the various nooks and crannies. Very Viennese in style, as is the city of Trieste, of course, where echoes of its Austro-Hungarian past still dominate the streetscapes of this fascinating city.