History
The White Chimney Sweep
(Extract from an old Viennese restaurant guide)
Restaurants that are managed by a young attractive woman acquire a truly unique atmosphere. There always seems to be a rustle as the lady of the house strolls through her establishment greeting her guests. Photographs of prominent guests fill the walls displaying their celebrated dedication to the restaurant and when from the telephone, from the kitchen and from all the corners of the restaurant the cry for the gracious woman resounds the head waiter takes on the countenance of a concerned Paladin.
Hertha Hammer has only been the owner of the "Weissen Rauchfangkehrer" for a few years, but she immediately grasped that she had to bestow her own personal imprint on one of Vienna’s best-loved restaurants.
The "Rauchfangkehrer", founded in 1848, was one of the guild pubs of the old Vienna chimneysweeps. One night a members, in a drunken stupor, mistakenly wandered into the cellar of the neighboring house and passed out in the flour trough. The next morning as the master chimney sweep was enjoying his early morning pint the white flour ghost emerged. This incident gave the premises its name.