Beware, sweet tooth, it is dangerous to enter here! Zauner's pastry shop is one of the most famous and favorite cafes in the country. Here you can buy both classic Austrian sweets and desserts from all over the world. It is a wonderful institution in the city of Bad Ischl.

This pastry shop was founded by a wine merchant. Johann Zauner was a courtier who moved to Bad Ischl from Vienna after the Imperial family, who owned a summer residence there.

Johann's entrepreneurial flair suggested to him that there is not yet a single store of this kind. That meant that opening a pastry shop in such a blessed place, near a balneological resort, where people will go, is a very good idea for an enterprise.
The cafe immediately fell in love with the local nobility, and especially Elizabeth of Bavaria (Sisi), the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I. She had a real sweet tooth and often went to the Zauner for another portion of desserts.

Thanks to the loyalty of such a noble lady, the cafe became famous as an elite institution and attracted more and more famous visitors.

Here famous artists, actors, writers, composers, and musicians, such as Franz Lehár and Leo Slezak, ate Sacher and Viennese waffles. According to legend, Franz Lehár hastily composed ditty to pay his bills at the coffee shop.

After the Second World War, Richard Kurt, a pastry chef, started working in the restaurant. He invented Ischl cakes, which are known throughout Austria and are very popular as a Christmas treat. The pastry shop has always been a family business. Here you can sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and taste local sweets. But it is worth bearing in mind that in the high season, it is not so easy to get to the pastry shop because of the large influx of tourists.