Vienna is where I first heard about Bitcoin, even though I couldn't figure out how to buy any, or even run Bitcoin on my laptop. Fifteen years later adoption has not exactly swept the city, but there are a few places that accept Bitcoin, or at least claim they do.

🥑Heine's: My first stop is a cafe by Praterstern. I order the avocado toast, which is made with real bread, not toast, and a lemonade. I ask to pay in Bitcoin, and the waitress knows what to do, although she says it's typically her daughter's job handling Bitcoin. She has Wallet of Satoshi on her phone, but we first have to change the app's currency from USD to EUR, and I have to show her how to request a specific amount. I wonder if I should also show her the point-of-sale feature, but then I don't. The payment appears to go through immediately on my end, but takes a while to show up on her device. I wonder if it has to do with the move to the "self-custodial" Spark backend.

👔Teller Herrenmode is a fine menswear department store in the 3rd district. They have a big sign outside advertising Lightning payments, and another one inside by the counter. I'm confident this will work out somehow, so I have a look at the raincoats. After going through the collection I find one that isn't too expensive and fits me, and chat a bit with the sales staff, who assure me I can pay with Bitcoin. At the checkout I'm told that "Bitcoin doesn't work" and even as I offer to come back another day when it does, I'm told that they will not accept it. I say that in that case I cannot afford the coat. Both staff seem a bit bewildered by that and don't say anything, so I just slowly walk out of the store wishing them a good day. I'm disappointed, I kind of wanted that raincoat, but I also keep saving so much money because nobody wants my sats.

🥞Das Delicious is a small restaurant and pub in Simmering. It seems to specialize in Yugoslavian and Austrian cuisine, and I order the ćevapčići, which are great, except that they are served in a soup of mayonnaise. The palačinka is much better, served in vanilla sauce with nougat filling. There is a Bitcoin flag hanging outside, and a "Study Bitcoin" light installation inside. There is Bitcoin art on the wall, the bathroom door is covered in Bitcoin stickers and every menu emphasizes they accept Bitcoin. The Bitcoin ATM is not plugged in. I ask to pay with Bitcoin and the waiter immediately pulls an older phone from the bottom drawer behind the counter. He opens Wallet of Satoshi, but just shows the QR code with the Lightning address. I have to ask for my total bill, then have to look up the SAT/EUR exchange rate and send the funds from my Zeus wallet. Again the payment goes through right away, but it takes almost half a minute before it shows up on the recipient's device. Given the plenty of Bitcoin references in the restaurant I'm a bit disappointed at the poor checkout experience.

🍸Blue Bar is a tiny bar tucked away in the old town. It has great charm, and as I ask to pay with Bitcoin I'm referred to the owner, who at first says he would prefer if I settled the entire bill at the end of my visit, then corrects himself "but you'll be paying with Lightning, right?" He is using Muun wallet, which is maybe not the ideal tool for the job, but he knows what he is doing and is very fast with generating the QR codes, which I then pay quickly. Muun doesn't make it obvious when a payment is coming in, so we always have to go back to the main menu. The owner is nonetheless very happy to get paid in sats, and raves about the payment speed and reliability. He said he has seen multiple card payments fail that day, but he hasn't seen a Lightning payment fail in weeks. I wonder what that means in absolute and relative numbers.

🛰️Weltraum is a new bar opened by a friend of mine. It's a bit of a maze with multiple rooms in the back, each decorated differently. I like the bar's retro-futuristic style and am lucky to get the chance to host a Bitcoin night there. With the help of Ben Arc and the LNbits team we configure two dedicated point of sale devices. We load the menu onto them for better records keeping, and set the devices to print out a receipt every time somebody orders food, as the food orders are passed to a restaurant nearby and delivered by hand. We also have a third point of sale running Numo, which allows us to accept cashu payments. Numo is quite neat, you can pay with cashu directly, or pay a Bolt11 invoice, which the device then swaps into cashu. The cashu tokens are kept on the device until a minimum threshold is reached, then they are swept to a pre-configured Lightning address. LNbits requires us to have our own node, but funds are never kept on the device. The devices also handle NFC payments very differently. On Numo a Bolt11 invoice can be directly written to the NFC reader, allowing you to "tap and pay" from wallets like Zeus. Through LNbits customers can pay either with Bolt card or by scanning the QR code, although hypothetically there is also the option to connect the LNbits terminal to a Stripe account and process card payments. Staff at the bar, which typically only handle cash payments, are quite happy with Lightning payments, their speed and ease of use. I buy a point of sale device for them and am optimistic they will continue to accept Bitcoin payments in the future.

Avocado Bread at Heine's Cafe.

Lightning payments advertised at Teller Herrenmode.

Das Delicious.

Inside of Das Delicious.

Palatschinke, or palačinka, are similar to French crêpe.

Bathroom door at Das Delicious.

Bitcoin sticker at Blue Bar.

The Hotel Vienna has been advertising Bitcoin payments for years, but I never succeeded at actually using it, or know of anyone who has.

Various Bitcoin point of sale devices at Weltraum.