Café de l’Amitié: An Old Favorite, A New Menu
Café de l’Amitié is filled this Friday evening with les jeunes, feeling like an après-ski without the overpowering stench of fondue.
Tonight is the second time I’ve been here within a 14-day period. The dear friend who introduced me to Geneva’s recent reopening of a much beloved neighborhood restaurant had also returned within two weeks herself, the first time being to celebrate a birthday.
From the outside looking in, Café de l’Amitié doesn’t capture one’s attention, outshone by Tom’s Beer across the street. Yet the wooden tables are full of 25-to-40 somethings, even a few dogs, drinking chilled white wine and rosé on this sweltering summer evening (the humans, that is), our second heatwave of the summer.
Inside the cozy spaces feels like a Swiss chalet, without being overdone. Wooden coats of arms of Swiss cantons — mustard yellow, burgundy, pea green — line the ceiling, lit by a Scandinavian-looking lamp of the pricey kind, not something thrown together from IKEA. Marmots are stamped onto small dishes; bold red block letters frame the ashtrays and staff t-shirts. Posters in primary colors advertise local Swiss wines. The setting is perfectly composed for the next Wes Anderson film.
Reopening in May 2026, Café de l’Amitié had rather large shoes to fill. The restaurant was a family-owned institution for four generations, totaling 64 years. While I never stepped foot into the Café de l’Amitié of once upon a time, reviews note nothing trendy, no extensive list of menu options spilling from the menu pages. Simply Swiss classics such as foot-smelling cheese fondue and charbonnade, a small table-top barbecue.
I’m always questionable about remakes of songs – singing someone like Whitney Houston almost seems like an insult, even if the singer is talented. How can one take a song and make it his or her own, paying tribute to a legend rather than be a disgrace?
So steps in chef Jonas Bolle, known locally for kā studio, combining cold plunge and yoga with açai bowls and avocado toast.Café de l’Amitié reaches a new public, replacing kale and chia seeds with lamb shoulder and a spin on a mini pizza – piled with ricotta, beef tartare and artichokes.
True to the name, dishes are built for sharing — think a Spanish tapas bar, but instead of croquetas and patatas bravas, you get mini fried Malakoffs and anchovies slicked in olive oil. The fries — “matchsticks” in French, for their thin cut — are fresh and dusted with rosemary salt, the kind of small touch that separates a night out from a night in.
More savory than sweet, my favorite dish has been and may always be: bread. That’s right, freshly made country bread and homemade butter. I’m such a fan of all things gluten that my mother gave me a French boule over a cake on my birthday. Café de l’Amitié’s bread comes with a beurre du moment – ours sprinkled with paprika, so creamy that it could be drunk rather than merely a spread.
Will we be back? Perhaps next week, as we still need to test the dessert menu.
Address: Rue de Montchoisy 7, 1207 Genève | Website: Café de l’Amitié
