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WALTZ RIGHT IN
Discover the Spittelberg neighbourhood, where Vienna’s avant-garde come out to play. These days the city is about more than baroque balls, Mozart and Freud.

Text: JEAN-YVES GIRARD

I’ve never been to Vienna.

Banishing the ghosts of empires past and brushing aside all traces of the 19th century, I’m here to see the New Vienna – the Vienna that earnestly seeks to join the 21st century.

"Go down this street and walk toward the light" is the hotel concierge’s misguided recommendation.

Night is falling, warm and wet, as I make my way to the centre of Vienna, crossing the Ringstrasse, the great circular boulevard built in 1880 to separate the posh neighbourhoods from the suburbs.

With the latest release by Viennese down-tempo maestros Kruder and Dorfmeister spinning in my personal CD player, I wind up on a pedestrian-only avenue, where, it seems, all of Austria has suddenly decided to meet. more >> Here, the cultural elite in tuxedos and evening gowns make their way to the opera house; there, an inebriated beggar bums a cigarette from a young couple straight out of the pages of Vogue. Here, a chamber-music outfit plays a Mozart prelude; there, a gaggle of Britney Spears wannabes swoon before a Versace window display. And everywhere, tourists. The setting is sublime, but there’s a pervading sense of unreality: I feel like an extra in some weird movie that’s as hard to digest as a sachertorte.

I decide to escape the insanity and make a mad dash toward a secondary avenue, which just happens to be – oh joy! – deserted. I’ve unwittingly entered Spittelberg, the heart of the New Vienna. This is the authentic Vienna: It feels like New York’s SoHo in the 1980s, hip and trendy but unknown to the majority of outsiders.

In just a few short years, this former red-light district has become the spot for affluent locals to live in. "Rents here are on the rise. Everybody wants to live in the neighbourhood or open up a shop here," explains Martin Janda, director of Raum Aktueller Kunst, one of the capital’s leading contemporary visual-arts galleries. Jun Yang, a 27-year-old Viennese artist of international renown, shows his work here on occasion.

I sit down with both of them at Ra’mien on Gumpendorferstrasse, reputedly the finest Asian eatery in town. The multilingual Jun Yang, who’s constantly jetting off to New York, Paris or Tokyo for exhibits of his ultra-urban works, says he wouldn’t live anywhere else. "Vienna is no longer a city stuck in the past," he says. "There’s a fascinating cultural and artistic boom happening here right now." A boom, it should be noted, that was born around the same time as the controversy that led up to the inauguration of the MuseumsQuartier last year. Since the founding of this mega-museum complex – one of the world’s 10 largest – Vienna has been undergoing a phenomenal paradigm shift, as significant as the one that sparked the secessionist and art nouveau movements at the turn of the last century. "Thanks to the MuseumsQuartier," explains gallery director Erik Kunstraum, "art galleries are popping up like mushrooms. The surrounding neighbourhood offers an avant-garde artistic complement to the complex." You won’t hear any gallery owners or shopkeepers complaining – even if, after a quarter century of drawn-out discussions, the project still rankles traditionalists.

The MuseumsQuartier is a mind-blowing architectural clash of baroque opulence and minimalist avant-garde; it isn’t one museum but rather, as its name suggests, an entire district that is home to some 20 cultural institutions, built on the former site of the early 18th-century imperial stables. Standing before the Leopold Museum, which looks as though it’s been carved from a huge block of white marble, the Kunsthalle, a long red rectangular structure, and the Museum of Modern Art (known as MUMOK), a gigantic grey basalt monolith, I quickly lose my bearings – I can’t help it.

"I’m not a big fan of the MUMOK," opines Ingrid, a fetching 20-year-old blonde whom I meet at a sidewalk café. "But it was about time they blew off some of the dust that’s cloaked Vienna." That’s a sentiment shared by many young Viennese, who rally round a single wish: to break free from their past. Of course, adds Ingrid, that doesn’t stop teens – with fire-red hair and rings through their lower lips – from learning how to waltz at 16, just in time to for their graduation dance. It’s a paradox that perfectly exemplifies the Viennese, who are torn between wanting to cast off their imperial tradition and venerating it. The MuseumsQuartier sits between the core of official Vienna and the bohemia of Spittelberg, a silent witness to the eternal fence-sitting of the Viennese.

Succumbing again to Spittelberg’s charms, I return the next morning, quickly losing my way in its labyrinthine, often unpronounceable streets (you try Nibelungengasse, Getrewidemarkt or Eschenbahgasse). It’s Saturday, and the sun is shining on the Naschmarkt, a bustling market where the local youth congregate to buy their groceries, have a drink and remake the world in the grand Viennese tradition of café philosophers. To the delight of the locals (I have the intoxicating feeling that I’m the only tourist present), a well-known homegrown jazz trio is in the middle of a free, improvised set. The music is uplifting, the beer is flowing freely and everyone is chatting happily.

I nurse a well-chilled glass of Grüner Veltliner, a dry, fruity wine. Then another. I’m thirsty, but no longer hungry now that I’ve become acquainted with Austrian nouvelle cuisine. Yes, there is such a thing, and I’ve just been introduced to it by chef Christian Domschitz at the Mörwald restaurant in the Ambassador hotel. His lovingly prepared concoction is a knockout: hummerkrautfleisch (lobster and fresh sauerkraut) "with a twist." The chef who, according to local food critics, makes "the finest pigeon in Austria," is getting ready to publish his first collection of recipes. While we wait for the book launch, I tell him, he might want to start bottling and selling his sublime sauces. I volunteer to import them into Canada. He laughs and pops the cork on another bottle of white. We continue our chat. I trot out my preconceived notions about Vienna: wood-panelled cafés where the calendar still says 1910; gaudy couples waltzing to the strains of the unbearable, overplayed "Blue Danube"; Freud’s theories on orality... He indulges me and smiles. I spare him the ghost of Princess Sissi (I know when to stop, after all), and he seems to appreciate that. Emboldened by the wine, I broach the subject of the capital’s recent dalliance with the right-wing extremism of Jorg Haider. Domschitz hushes up. Ever the perfect host, he offers me a mélange (a café au lait, which, oddly enough, you’re supposed to order in French).

Finally, putting all controversy aside, we proceed to unmake and remake the world over coffee – as Viennese tradition, avant-garde or not, dictates.

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VIENNA
Classic Vienna still exists, but the Austrian capital has a new attitude as it enters the 21st century. From Spittelberg to the MuseumsQuartier, discover Das neue Wien.

WHERE TO STAY

Das Triest This may just be the hippest hotel in Vienna: chic but not pretentious, expensive but not snobbish. The 300-year-old building, revamped in 1995 by London design legend Sir Terence Conran, lives up to the capital’s legacy.
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 12
43-1-589-180
www.dastriest.at

Altstadt Vienna Nestled behind the MuseumsQuartier in a 19th-century building, this boutique hotel offers a colourful, modern environment with plenty of paintings on the walls and no shortage of retro charm.
Kirchengasse 41
43-1-522-66-66
www.altstadt.at

WHERE TO EAT

Ra’mien It didn’t take long for artist Jun Yang’s baby to become one of the most popular destinations in town. The frequently changing menu mines the vast riches of Asian cuisine, with one constant: fresh, delicious Chinese noodles.
Gumpendorferstrasse 9
43-1-585-47-98
www.ramien.at

Restaurant Mörwald Favoured by business clientele and the local upper crust, venerated by gastronomes, Viennese cuisine as revisited by chef Christian Domschitz is distinct, novel and original – in a word, fabulous. Hotel Ambassador.
Kaerntner Strasse 22
43-1-96-16-10
www.lodgingaustria.com/Vienna/Ambassador

Palmenhaus Located in a magnificent restored greenhouse, this eatery offers light Viennese fare to be savoured under the palm trees. An impressive wine list boasts dozens of Austrian bottlings. The huge terrace, which opens onto Burggarten Park, is always jammed.
Burggarten
43-1-544-10-33
www.palmenhaus.at

WHAT TO DO

Volksgarten Pavillon If you want to meet and mingle with Vienna’s young hipsters, simply hang in the Kaffeehäuser (coffee shops) night and day. Start at the Volksgarten, a perennial favourite that holds raves on Fridays and Saturdays, along with the occasional Cuban night. Open May to September.
Volksgarten, Burgring 1

Rhiz Head here to take in the best of Vienna’s contemporary sounds.
Guertelbogen 37 & 38
43-1-409-25-05
http://rhiz.org

Stein The very exemplar of the modern Kaffeehaus: caffeine, Web access and beautiful people.
Währinger Str. 6-8
43-1-319-72-41 www.cafe-stein.com

Vienna Opera Ball From December 31 until Ash Wednesday, Vienna is transformed into one giant ballroom. Everyone gets into the spirit, with balls held for all tastes and budgets. If you want the Hollywood extravagance of fancy gowns, top hats and tails, the Vienna Opera Ball is it. Crash courses available for those with rusty waltzing skills.
www.wiener-staatsoper.at/opernball.html

INFORMATION
Austrian National Tourist Office
416-367-3381
www.info.wien.at (in English)
www.austria-tourism.com/fr (en français)

HOW TO GET THERE
Air Canada, in conjunction with Star Alliance® partner Austrian Airlines, offers direct service from Toronto or Montreal to Vienna, along with service from other major Canadian cities via London or Frankfurt.