Sacher-torte

The rest of the building is an Austrian Centre, and downstairs there is a restaurant, full of the pale ghosts and nostalgic memories of the kind of Wiener Schnitzel, Apfelstrudel and Sacher-torten you may—or may not—once have eaten.

“You’re really missing out on Gitta’s Sacher-torte. It was her grandmother’s recipe.” […] She didn’t expand, turning her attention instead on the remaining crumbs of her Sacher-torte as she engaged her fork in a repetitive dance of stab, smash, and scrape. […] She released his arm and took a step back toward the café. “I’d better go retrieve that slice of Sacher-torte before someone else does.”

This Wednesday, La Dolce Via was just into its semiannual Viennese Week. Tito had wanted a focus on tortes, and the staff had outdone themselves with Sacher-tortes, Esterhazys, Dobos and Malakovs, along with Tito's own invention, a five-layer cake masterfully intertwining Austrian marzipan, hazelnuts and coconut.