Demel

The business was founded on Michaelerplatz by Ludwig Dehne, a confectioner from Württemberg. Upon his early death in 1799, the pastry shop was continued by his widow for their minor son August Dehne. In 1813, she purchased a building at Michaelerplatz 14. August Dehne inherited the company in 1832 and successfully managed the business. However, when his son pursued an academic career, he sold the company in 1857 to his journeyman Christoph Demel.

In 1867, it was renamed as Ch. Demel's Söhne after Christoph Demel's sons Joseph and Karl took over the business. It was granted the status of an official purveyor to the Habsburg court in 1874 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. When the old Burgtheater on Michaelerplatz was demolished in 1888, combined with a general refurbishment of the whole square, they moved the confectionery around the corner to Kohlmarkt, where the company is still located today in its original building.

During the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, notable customers included Empress Elisabeth (Sisi), Princess Pauline von Metternich, and actress Katharina Schratt. During the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany 1938–45, the Vienna Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach and his wife Henriette were regulars at Demel.

The company was headed by Christoph Demel's descendants until 1972, when the entrepreneur Udo Proksch bought it and established the Club 45 on the first floor, a popular venue for Vienna's high society. After Proksch was arrested for his involvement in the Lucona affair in 1989, the Raiffeisen Bank became the owner of the business. In 2002, the Do & Co restaurants and catering company took over Demel.

Demel is located in the central Innere Stadt district of Vienna at Kohlmarkt 14, near the Hofburg palace. The interior was designed by Portois and Fix decorators in a Neo-baroque style.

The white-aproned waitresses (known as Demelinerinnen in German) usually address the customers in a traditional honorific third person style, "Haben schon gewählt?" or "Wollen etwas zu sich nehmen, wenn belieben?". The cabaret artist Helmut Qualtinger extolled their timeless quality in his song Die Demelinerinnen.

The company formerly had a small café at The Plaza hotel's Retail Collection in New York City, but that location was closed by March 2010. In addition, Demel temporarily had a location in Salzburg, which was closed in March 2012.