Hotel am Brillantengrund

The Hotel am Brillantengrund in the 7th district is a wonderful Viennese gem. The owner, Marvin Mangalino, took over the old hotel in 2010 together with his friends and family, and has very deliberately left much of it just as it was. The rooms take you on a journey through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s: vintage furniture, patterned fabrics, light fittings and colours that haven’t been retro-styled as an afterthought, but come together with surprising naturalness. The heart of the hotel is the leafy inner courtyard with its surrounding pergolas, where breakfast is served in the morning and meals are enjoyed later in the day. Marvin’s Filipino family is also part of this unique mix. His mother, Precy, who hails from Pasig and grew up with Filipino cuisine in her father’s restaurant from a young age, is the driving force behind the restaurant concept ‘Mama Cooks Filipino’. Dishes such as adobo, sisig and bistek Tagalog are served. Marvin Mangalino and Wolfgang Stranzinger now run the hotel as managing directors. Added to this are music, small events and a very personal Viennese creative scene centred around the hotel. With just 34 individually furnished rooms, the Brillantengrund is exactly the sort of boutique hotel worth remembering: unconventional, welcoming and with an interior that has improved rather than aged over the years.