It’s summer 1966 and war orphan Robert Simon, a brawny odd-job manual labourer, now 31, has the opportunity to change his life and lease a space to open a simple little café in the vibrant working-class neighbourhood in Vienna, where for years he has rented a furnished room from an elderly widow.
The café soon becomes a local hub, enthusiastically patronized by ordinary folk like “the girls from the Shottenau yarn factory,” the butcher from across the street and eccentrics like a former bill collector who, after his fourth or fifth beer, pops out his glass eye and rolls it across the table to either shock or admiration.
The comedy and tragedy of life play out over the decade that kind-hearted, empathic Simon runs his café with his stalwart server Mila, both of them welcoming regulars and strangers alike to this community of found family.
