The first floor of the corner-house Malaya Morskaya/Gorohovaya has a long tradition as a popular place.
Here you could 1830 find "Viennes tavern" with a for that time the usual combination of a "black" and "white" (clean) side.
The restorant did between 1897 and 1903 have 8 owners! It was in late February 1903 bought by I.S.Sokolov and M.F.Utkin. They did earlier work as waiters at the restaurant "Lernera".
What was unique for Vienna were their customers. Sokolov did quickly realize that Russian Writers did need a place where they,besides eating and reading their newspaper,also could meet colleagues, talk and relax without being shy....to laugh, to read own poems, to, in the restaurant, from 10 small tables form one... Many of the most well known whriters and poets became permanent (frequent) visitors of "Vienna".
For Alexandr Kuprin ,this was "the sweet home" Epigrams like
-Oh ! at Vinna you can eat and drink,hand in hand ,like Kuprin's motherland...
Arcady Averchenco turned to be the magnet and character of Vienna . He lived only two houses from Vienna and did visit the restaurant each day.He did frequently bring all staff of editors from the popular magasine "Satiricon" to here. The tall and round-shouldered Re-Mi, the noici A.A.Radacov.
New ideas of Russian humor were born round the small tables for the pages of Satyrican; for the amusement of all Russia.
Vienna was also a meeting point for actors.They come here directly after their performances.
There was saying at that time: To be in the literature life and not visiting Vienna is like being in Rome and not seeing the Popo.
Vienna remained up to the revolution one of the main centers of the art life of the Russian capital; it had already at that time also established itself as the natural meeting place for Intelligentsia and for businessmen in St Petrsburg.
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