Griechenbeisl, Vienna

Griechenbeisl is a historic Viennese restaurant at Fleischmarkt 11, beside the Greek Church of the Holy Trinity. Its documented history reaches back to 1447, and the house has carried several names over the centuries before taking its present name from the Greek and Levantine merchants who settled nearby. In 1852, its landlord Leopold Schmied brought Pilsner Urquell from Pilsen to Vienna and poured it here for the first time; the restaurant remains the beer’s Vienna home.

At the entrance, look for the small figure of Marx Augustin beneath the doormat. As local legend has it, the musician was mistaken for dead after heavy drinking in 1679 and thrown into a plague pit, only to revive and return to his life. The figure’s hat accepts coins.

Beside the stairs to the Augustin rooms, three stone balls are set into the wall. Local tradition once connected them with the siege of 1529, though they probably came from the bombardment of 1683. Inside, eight dining rooms preserve different periods of the building’s growth.

The Mark Twain Room carries signatures from celebrated visitors, while the Augustin rooms retain the atmosphere of a former historic apartment. Medieval protective stones, vaulted arches, and picturesque covered galleries add to the sense that this restaurant has accumulated its past rather than been designed all at once.