Vienna's Famous Cafes Announce Coffee Price Hike

While the strong dollar has made a lot of things cheaper for U.S. travelers, it has also made importing costs much more expensive for some restaurateurs, and many of Austria's cafe owners say they'll be raising prices sometime this year.

According to The Local, Matthias Winkler of the famous Cafe Sacher said he would be increasing coffee prices sometime in 2015.

"Because the price of raw materials has risen, we are forced to increase our prices," he said, but he indicated that he was not concerned about customer pushback because all Vienna's cafes would be raising prices, and he had faith the "customer will understand."

The historic Cafe Tirolerhof and Cafe Sperl both agreed that price increases are likely. Cafe Tirolerhof said it was currently losing money on coffee because of the increased cost of importing beans. A melange–a Viennese coffee topped with milk foam that is like a cappuccino–is already between about $4.50 and $6.70 in Vienna.

A few other coffee shops, however, said they were going to hold off on price increases to see what happened with the coffee prices. Some mentioned having a fixed price in their contracts with coffee suppliers, which means those cafes will probably be able to wait longer before having to raise prices.