To Americans, Vienna means one thing: sausages. And one cannot dispute that claim. It is after all the sausage capital of the world, sharing that title with Frankfurt and Berlin. The precursor to the modern hot dog was developed in Vienna.
A butcher named Johann Georg Lahner moved from Frankfurt to Vienna in 1805. He added beef to the traditional all-pork Frankfurt and inserted the mix into sheep’s intestine casings, outraging the pork traditionalists and disrupting the sausage status quo by creating the Frankfurter Würstchen or Wiener, also known as the Vienna sausage.
Arts in Vienna? Who knew?
Obscured by its sausage history, is the little known fact that Vienna is also known for its music and art.
To the surprise of many Americans, Vienna has been home to numerous legendary classical composers, painters, world-class institutions, modern innovators and is home to the Vienna State Opera, one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world.
Mozart, Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss II, Arnold Schoenberg and others either composed their most famous compositions in the city or were born there.
Related: Bigger is better
There’s certainly a lot more to be said about the arts and music of Vienna but I’m no history teacher. That’s what Google is for.
However, I hope I’ve armed you with some quick trivia answers next time you’re standing in line at Dairy Queen waiting for your 32 ounce Blizzard and someone starts blowing off about how Beethoven composed the song “A Fifth of Beethoven” in New York city, not Vienna (look up the reference kids).
All this makes me honored to have eight photos exhibited in the most famous city of the sausage. I was invited by the Blank Wall Gallery of Athens, Greece to participate in the In Vienna 2026 exhibition which ran in August at the art gallery, Galerie Frank in the heart of Vienna.
I wish I could’ve gone just to see the gallery and city. Galerie Frank is in Vienna’s First District, in a 14th-century building, just a few minutes walk from Vienna’s Stadtpark, the State Opera, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
The photos below along with the two above make up the eight photographs in the exhibition.
The Vienna sausage is no Lafayette Coney Island
While were on the subject of frankfurters, I want to settle a long simmering debate once and for all. Any Detroit native or anyone who has spent any time in Detroit is familiar with the Lafayette vs American Coney Island argument.
For those who aren’t familiar, here’s a quick overview. In 1917, a Greek immigrant, Constantine “Gust” Keros opened a hot dog stand in downtown Detroit and called it Coney Island Hot Dog after visiting Coney Island in NY where he came into the United States through Ellis Island.
His twist on the traditional hot dogs he saw in NY was to top the dogs off with spiced, Mediterranean-style chili sauces instead of standard condiments. On top of the chili goes yellow mustard and diced raw white onions. Any coney dog aficionado knows ketchup is forbidden on the dog itself. If you want ketchup on your hot dog go to the ball park.
Apparently, he kept his pushcart at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Lafayette Blvd in Detroit, and that eventually grew into a store front on Lafayette Blvd called American Coney.
The brotherly rivalry
At some point, his brother, Bill, started working with him at American Coney and they had a falling out. Bill then opened a competing coney island restaurant right next door to American. I mean, right next door. He called his coney, Lafayette Coney Island. There’s some debate on what year this happened but most think Lafayette opened in 1923 or 1924.
Both historic diners still operate side-by-side at the same locations and the heated arguments about which serves the better coney dog have raged on through the years.
Well let me set the record straight – it’s Lafayette. I can’t tell you why, it’s just better than American Coney.
So yeah, Vienna may have their fancy rich history of music and the arts and be one of the hot dog capitals of the world, but the Vienna sausage is no coney dog!
My photography exhibition list.