Have you ever forced yourself upon newly met friends in a foreign country in order to have a sense of connection and purpose instead of feeling like you are wasting precious time by waking up at 10am every morning? Well, I have. Thankfully my offer to help paint and arrange furniture (I still have paint in my hair) in the final weeks before Liebling opened was not rejected, and I was happily around for its birth. Liebling, which translates as “darling," is darling indeed.
A bar/café of deceivingly large capacity, it’s located in the Neubau, or 7th District of Vienna, on Zollergasse, a heavily walked street off the main shopping drag Mariahilfer Straße. It has a welcoming yellow-rimmed doorway and outdoor tables to enjoy the sunshine and refreshing beverages. Inside, the unfinished walls and floral couch give it a cool and comfortable vibe. Further details like the arched doorway and interesting hand picked pieces of furniture (like the green lifeguard chairs) make it like no other place I have been to yet in Vienna. Not to mention the killer pre-party affair they threw to let all know that there’s a new hotspot in town.
As a watched the progress of our work change Liebling, my mind started to wander to thoughts of all the changes Vienna itself has gone through in the last hundred years. From recovering after World War II, the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late '80s and early '90s, to most recently joining the European Union in 1995. It has gone though a tremendous amount of growth, but what is incredible is that the history and culture here is still palpable. You see it the street. You hear it in the sounds of the horse hoofs against cobblestones. You feel it when face to face with Klimt’s The Kiss.
And now I, too, get to be a part of my own history here. Liebling may not last as long as, say, Stephansdom or the Parliament building (only time will tell), but I’m happy to have helped leave my mark on Vienna—because what is the purpose of travel if not the desire to learn and grow and exchange? I’m excited for Liebling and my new friends who’ve worked so hard to make something of their own. So Liebling, my darling, let’s see where this one takes us.
