The typical Viennese coffee house -- an elegant institution with high ceilings, marble-top tables and a stack of newspapers to make one linger over an impeccable black brew with a customary glass of water -- may be more famously known than its Ukrainian cousin, but to trace back the origin of the communal coffee space, you have to go to Lviv, a Medieval city in western Ukraine.
While the public areas still wear their Dorothy Draper-era, retina-stinging magenta-and-emerald floral patterns, the 682 guest rooms have flat-panel TVs, granite-and-marble bathrooms, and feather-top beds.