{"id":9110,"date":"2013-01-13T17:53:51","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T22:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=9110"},"modified":"2015-03-07T21:43:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T03:43:36","slug":"so-how-was-the-sacher-torte-at-the-hotel-sacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/13\/so-how-was-the-sacher-torte-at-the-hotel-sacher\/","title":{"rendered":"So how was the Sacher-Torte at the Hotel Sacher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re in Vienna, you’ve got to try the Sacher-Torte. And if you are<\/em> going to try the Sacher-Torte in Vienna, then it had better be at the Hotel Sacher, right? (Though now that we’re home, I see we should have also tried a slice from the Demel bakery. Who knew there’d been such an intense legal battle<\/a> around cake?)<\/p>\n

We walked by the Hotel Sacher many times during daytime hours, as it’s across the street from the Vienna State Opera and we were hopping on and off of trams nearby often. There was always a long line out the door, making us realize that if we wanted to eat at Cafe Sacher, we were going to have to do it way off-peak\u2014such as after one of the many evening Mozart and Strauss holiday concerts with which we filled our evenings.<\/p>\n

And so, two weeks ago, on New Year’s Eve eve, we took a tram and ended up back at Hotel Sacher around 10:30 on a Sunday night, when as it turned out there was still a line out the door, but at least a much shorter one, so we got a table after half an hour’s wait rather than it taking an hour or two.<\/p>\n

\"CafeSacher\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our wait was cold (hey, Vienna was always cold while we were there) so though the Sacher-Torte was what brought us there, I figured I should have a cup of goulash to warm myself up. The goulash was good, second only to what I’d have the following day at Caf\u00e9 Landtmann<\/a> … but that’s not what you’re here for, I know. What you want to know is … how was the Sacher-Torte?<\/p>\n

\"SacherGoulash\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgive me … but I was underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

It’s not that the cake was bad, it’s just that it was, well, extremely dry, and didn’t have the dense, rich, chocolate flavor I was anticipating. The frosting, on the other hand, was everything that the cake itself was not. So you had a dry cake wrapped in rich fudge. I was conflicted, and was left thinking after each bite, “This is Sacher-Torte?”<\/p>\n

But before I start singing the chorus from “Is That All There Is?” with Peggy Lee …<\/p>\n