The city looks west
How many cities with fewer than 400,000 inhabitants have an Opera House, a handful of Michelin-starred restaurants and designer shops every stone's throw away? In millionaire Switzerland something like this is possible and that's why Zurich it is in many respects a great city concentrated in a small space around the Limmat River.
beautiful bikes
KREIS 4
In the commercial avenues of the badenerstrasse coexist among its shop windows with peculiar harmony the False nails and Vitra furniture. Krys 4 keep being him red light district of the city, the rogue, multicultural place with an almost port atmosphere, where you can have a dirty night out. But the diurnal ones begin to gain the game to the nocturnal ones. The contrast between his essence and his new life, halfway between the hipster and the gentrified , is also literally confronted in lagerstrasse.
That's where the sophisticated @Gustav , a luxury apartment block and restaurant, along with its neighboring shops (Kevin in the Woods and Jo Brauer) are separated by only a few meters from the weathered facades of nearby houses. A very short distance away, on the corner of Langstrasse, is the Olé Olé Bar, for young people without qualms and with enough free time to sleep during the day what they lived through at night.
For young people without qualms
As any good creator or trend follower knows, there is nothing more modern than the cult of the stale. That's where the Volkhaus (the village house) hits the spot. The exterior sobriety of this place that occupies a building from 1910 , with large windows and golden signs, seduces the eyes in the Helvetia Platz which, at the moment, is not very aesthetic. To get an idea of what this place is about, with a cafeteria at the entrance and a restaurant inside, you only need to focus on an initial impression: waiters who dress like the servants of downton abbey they serve Indian masala tea for five euros and breakfasts for no less than 25 euros while the background music reproduces some “classic” by James Blake. Everything there is as absurd as it is seductive.
Waiters dressed as Downtown Abbey with OST by James Blake
Just a few steps separate the cafeteria from the Soeder fashion and decoration store, where they live Arno Wolf lamps with beauty products packaging minimalist and ecological materials. with his motto “everyday essentials” , his proposal transfers the way of life of the Japanese Muji franchise to a European conception and is a welcome stroke of creativity and beauty for the neighborhood.
Zen decoration for the eyes and the soul
In another nod to the immigrant and working-class reality of the neighbourhood, ** Kafi fuer dich (Stauffacherstrasse, 141) ** is a guest house/cafeteria with simple decoration and crowded tables. Its Sunday brunch, an all you can eat for just over 25 euros, convinces and the lively family atmosphere completes the job.
A pension where it is worth going just to eat
KREIS 5
The Kreis 5, known as Zürich West, It is the district of the city that, as in so many other cities, went from an industrial area to a hotbed of trends. In the vast spaces of the factories there is now room for new forms of gastronomy, architecture, design and of course, places to go shopping very far from the prices of the central bahnhofstrasse , one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world.
In the Markthalle , the neighborhood covered market, movement reigns slow food , with restaurants and shops designed for smart consumption. “You are what you eat” seems to be the dogma that this place follows , although it does not only refer to gastronomic ethics. For example one of your posts, St Jakob Beck , whose products are created by people with physical disabilities and their profits go to them. Although Schiffbau is an old warehouse converted into a theater -despite its interesting programming, it is not suitable for those of us who are not German-, anyone in a hurry can enjoy the local bar and restaurant. Also its interior design, that elegantly presents that usual trend of combining the old and the new in the same space.
An old warehouse converted into a theater
** Frau Gerolds Garten ** is a garden where everything is recycled and start-ups flourish. This village of entrepreneurs has a free pass by the local council until at least 2017 . It shares the essence of the Freitag brand, very popular in the German parliament and which makes colorful bags and backpacks with reusable materials (tarpaulins, tires). It is here that the successful company has a shop and warehouse.
For the most curious, the Kreislauf 4+5 website gives a good account, in German and English, of everything that happens in the two hottest districts of Zurich.
The urban garden of Kreus 5
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