Pica-Pica / Burger Join, Restaurant Day, Zurich

So some Finns had a good idea and kicked off something called Restaurant Day. Claudia apparently witnessed the inception and decided to bring this to Zurich. The idea is really simple, people like you and me run a pop-up restaurant for a night, offer a homemade meal to whomever shows up.

Finally! I’ve been looking for some pop-up restaurant action in Zurich and this sounded like a dream come true. I called up a friend and we started off at a Tapas bar called Pica-Pica. An office terraced sported two tables and the founders of Wer Kocht Gewinnt made a nice selection of tapas. The fennel salsicca and the tortilla win high marks, also I enjoyed the company. It was relaxed way to meet new people and captured the essence of the Restaurant Day nicely.

We moved on to the Burger Joint, which was in a private appartment. I had to say the burger was pretty good, they even toasted the buns to a nice brown crisp. The meat was juicy and in true burger fashion served without any cutlery. Burger purists would sneer at the herbs in the burger and I would have preferred the meat to be a more medium-rare to showcase the meat more. But who am I to complain on a heart-felt handmade dish, oozing with love.

Later in the evening two guys showed up and sort of stayed to themselves in a corner. It turned out that they were plain-clothes police. Really ? So instead of spendig our tax dollars wisely and efficient we have undercover cops look into Restaurant Day. Restaurant Day is a non-commercial activity which satisfies a niche demand for pop-up restaurants. Apparently in Finland Restaurant Day has developed into such a big frenzy, that the gastronomy laws are relaxed just for that day. This certainly seems the better approach for some harmless fun, than (as my colleague called it) the DDR like approach of surveilling harmless dinner parties and harrassing people doing something for cultural life in Zurich.

Overall I was thrilled to see pop-up restaurants being brought to Switzerland with such a simple idea. I’m actually thinking of running my own place the next time around to particpate in the fun and I’ll make sure I screen for non-mingling swiss guys wearing cheap leather jackets. Also I would want my pop-up restaurant to get some points in the Gault Millau 🙂