Home of Romance Now Closed

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 42, 19 February 1937, Page 11

Home of Romance Now Closed

“WALTZ DREAM” BIRTHPLACE Many have heard with regret that one of the most popular restaurants in Vienna, the “Eisvogel,” once famous for its good music, is now closed and is to' be modernised and to reopen with jazz. The “Eisvogel” was more than an ordinary eating house. It was the : gardemrestaurant where all Vienna met. j The old guest-book reveals' that the j late Archduke Fra'ncis Ferdinand and ’ many other members of the Hapsburg family used to visit it on fine summer evenings to eat the fiver crab. Though ’ old Austria possessed a seaside on the Adriatic, Trieste and other harbour towns were too far from Vienna, and shell-fish from tho sea were rare. But the ordinary river crab was a fashionable dish, and even archdukes came to this apparently simple restaurant to enjoy it. Not only archdukes and actresses, bankers and society people liked to come to the “Eisvogel,” but also famous writers and composers were frequently guests. It had simple but ex-, cellently cooked Austrian food, with wines from the neighbouring hills; and on a small platform on one side of the garden a ladies’ orchestra, in white cotton dresses with a silk ribbon round the shoulders, played Viennese tunes. I. was told that Oscar Strauss, dining here with his two libretto writers, got the idea of a love-story from tho conductor of the “Eisvogel” band and an archduke who was seated at one of the tables. Thus at the “Eisvogel” the’ “Waltz Dream” was born. Arthur Schmitzler, Lcliar, and Kalman were also, among the patrons of the restaurant. Arid now it is closed, awaiting reopening as a fashionable restaurant with a jazz-band, but devoid of the spirit which once inspired Schnitz-i ler’s “ Anatol” and Strauss’ “Waltz' Dream. ’ *