Café Sperl is a traditional Viennese cafe. It is on the Austrian register of historic places and is to be found on the Gumpendorfer Straße in Vienna's 6th district Mariahilf.
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It was opened in 1880 by Jacob Ronacher as Café Ronacher in the corner building on the boundaries of Gumpendorfer Straße and the Lehargasse. The cafe decor is reminiscent of the Ringstraßen-Cafés with parquet floors, chairs by Michael Thonet, marble tables, crystal chandeliers and carambole billiards tables. It was designed and decorated by the architects Wilhelm Jelinek and Anton Groß. Within the first year of operations, Ronacher sold the business to the Sperl family, who continued the business under the name Café Sperl . In 1884 ownership passed to Adolf Kratochwilla, who retained the cafe's name.
Prior to World War I, the primary clientele was an interesting mixture of artists- including authors, artists, architects, composers, musicians and actors – and military functionaries from the nearby Imperial and Royal (k.u.k) military academy, including the future Chief of Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf and Archduke Joseph Ferdinand.
In 1968 Manfred Staub bought the cafe from the Kratochwillas and renovated the cafe in 1983. In recent years the Cafe Sperl has won several commendations. These include "Austrian Cafe of the Year" (German:Österreichischen Kaffeehaus des Jahres) in 1998 and, in 2004, the Goldene Kaffeebohne (English: Golden Coffee Bean). More contemporary regulars have included the authors Jörg Mauthe, Robert Menasse and Michael Köhlmeier.
Café Sperl was featured in the 1995 movie Before Sunrise, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in main roles, and also in a 2011 DVD featuring the Philharmonics playing music by Johann Strauss, Fritz Kreisler and others. Also in 2011 the interiors of the café were used in the movie A Dangerous Method, which featured Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender.