Café Vienna, downtown Princeton’s newest coffee house, celebrated its grand opening on July 16.
The Nassau Street-based business, which has been open since April 26, held a ceremonial ribbon cutting during the grand opening with Mayor Liz Lempert, John Marshall, interim president of the Princeton Merchants Association, and Peter Crowley, president and CEO of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Owner Anita Waldenberger, who hails from Vienna, said her inspiration for a Viennese café came after she and her husband had moved to the Princeton area in 2004.
“I fell in love with the town,” she said. “The coziness, the atmosphere — it reminded me so much of home.”
She said the idea further began to take shape upon a visit from her family, during which her brother said that opening a Viennese cafe in Princeton would be an excellent idea.
“That has been my goal since then, about four years ago,” she said.
After receiving her diploma in Vienna, Waldenberger continued her education by working at Kurhotels Warmbaderhof in Warmbad Villach, a five-star hotel in Carinthia, Austria. After completing her placement there, she moved to the United States in 1978 to learn English.
The move originally was intended to be temporary but Waldenberger loved the experience so much that she decided to stay.
Waldenberger said that although she has worked in many other professional roles since then, it was always the hotel business that garnered her deepest joy.
Cafe Vienna is located at 200 Nassau Street. Phone: 609-924-5100. Cafeviennaprinceton.com.
