Café Intermezzo: Dunwoody's Viennese-Style Coffeehouse at Park Place

When I recommend a place in Dunwoody for a slow conversation, Café Intermezzo at Park Place is often the first name that comes up. This Viennese-style coffeehouse has sat at the edge of the Perimeter Center area since 1979, and it still feels like a small escape: low lights, European music, rich desserts, and coffee served the unhurried way. It is the kind of spot where a quick errand can turn into a two-hour pause.

A Coffeehouse With a Story

Café Intermezzo's founder, Brian Olson, caught the idea in 1971 while visiting the konditorei, the bakery-cafés of Berlin and of Germany and Austria, according to the café's corporate history on its website. He opened the first Café Intermezzo at age 31 in 1979 as one of the original tenants of Park Place in the Perimeter Center area, a founding detail documented in the Foodservice Equipment & Supplies chain profile. On its history pages, the café describes itself as an Europäische Kaffeehaus, an old-world name meant to evoke the great coffeehouses of 19th-century Vienna.

What to Order

Regulars come for the ritual as much as the coffee. The beverage book runs to some 50 pages, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the beans come from Kaldi's, a specialty roaster, per the café's own history. The dessert case is the real draw: more than 100 tortes, tarts, cakes, pies, and cheesecakes, which servers walk you through like a small gallery tour. Order a cappuccino or a classic Viennese-style coffee, choose a slice from the case, and settle into a booth for a while.

An Atlanta Original

Atlanta Magazine has written about what the café has meant to generations of students and regulars, praising its dim lights and European affectations as part of the place's enduring appeal. The AJC has called Café Intermezzo a popular eatery in Perimeter Center, known for its cake tours and its book-length beverage list. Explore Georgia, the state's official tourism site, also lists it among the Atlanta-area bakeries worth a visit.

A Taste of Dunwoody Life

For buyers exploring Dunwoody, Café Intermezzo offers a glimpse of everyday life here: an easy-to-reach shopping village, plenty of parking, and a gathering place that has hosted neighbors for more than four decades. For sellers, it is exactly the kind of local anchor that makes a neighborhood feel settled and desirable.

Whether you are house hunting in Dunwoody or simply looking for the right coffeehouse for a long conversation, stop by. And if you are thinking about making this part of Atlanta home, let's connect. Talk soon, Nadine.