The Cabinet — or “Schrank” (Schrank – Schrnk) — was my second venture in Vienna. At the time, I was in year two of Kaffee von Sascha, and I felt like I had outgrown that little café. I thought I was ready for something bigger.
Around the same time, a classmate of mine from law school back in Kyiv was planning to move to Vienna. After a bunch of conversations, he bought into one of my ideas — a “coffee + pastry” concept that would need about €70,000 and 50 to 100 square meters of space. He even imagined opening five or ten of them.
Even back then, the idea that it should be just coffee was starting to take shape in my head. But the pastry combo felt like a natural, hybrid step forward.
Here’s the thing. In Vienna — and all across Austria — there’s this whole world of small local “bakeries.” In reality, most of them don’t bake anything; they just reheat frozen goods. Still, there are lines outside their doors every morning. So I figured: if we took that model and added truly great coffee, it could work. Because those bakeries? They have no clue what good coffee even means.
So, we started hunting for a space. And with every new discussion, the concept kept morphing. Suddenly, we were adding breakfast. Then beer. Then all kinds of other stuff. Some people worried: what if there’s no food? What if no one comes? What if it doesn’t make money? Blah blah blah. But those fears were totally misplaced — because in the end, the Cabinet shut its doors forever just a couple years later. And no “full” menu ever saved it.
I was so eager to make that “next big step” happen that I didn’t realize I was actually stepping away from what I truly wanted. A bistro? A casual restaurant? Not my thing at all.
Still, during all the work on the Cabinet, we sold Kaffee von Sascha. I missed it. A lot. But I was also excited to focus on something new. At least, I could have been — if it weren’t for what happened next.
In the middle of a heated argument about the Cabinet’s future — which had already been open for a few weeks by then — I walked out the front door and never came back. It wasn’t my personal drama; it was just… the way things had to go. And luckily, walking out of that door led me to a very different one. Well, not a door exactly. A window. 🙂
The whole Cabinet era lasted about a year. The first half was a full-on sprint: finding the space, getting the permits, remodeling, setting it up, hiring staff — all the usual. And by Vienna standards, it all happened pretty fast.
By the time I walked out, I’d already been working as a barista there for a few weeks. Even though there was “barely any food,” more and more people were showing up. Every day I was quietly scaling back the food side of things, until I finally let the chef go. That — officially — is what kicked off the argument that ended it all.
But here’s the thing: the Cabinet had to happen. Without it, nothing that came next would have. It was the final chapter in my “pre-Fenster” story. The last one — but the necessary one. So this post wraps up the Prelude section. Next up: what you actually came here to read.
During the search for a space for the Cabinet, we looked at a ton of places — and one stood out. It was a little souvenir shop owned by someone I knew. Beautiful, full of character. But there was no way the Cabinet would’ve fit there, no matter how badly it wanted to. Doesn’t matter why — not now.
I’m here for coffee. And what happened next — that’s for next time 🙂
Leave a Reply