Discover Germany | Wine & Dine | Zum Goldenen Schäfli
Left: Owners Mara Zwatz and Astrit Memetaj with daughter. Top right: Traditional guild pub with a slope. Right: Restaurant sign at Metzgergasse 5. Bottom: Traditional cuisine with a modern touch.
Traditional cuisine with a modern tilt Tilting floors meet seasonal cuisine with an innovative impact. At the only remaining guild pub of St. Gallen, you will enjoy an enticingly modern restaurant within deeply traditional surroundings. TEXT: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI I PHOTOS: ZUM GOLDENEN SCHÄFLI
The Zum Goldenen Schäfli restaurant invites you into the world of guild pubs, rich of tradition and charm. Owners Mara Zwatz and Astrit Memetaj’s sense for honoring the old while applying modern impulses is mirrored by the delicacies on their menu. A culinary philosophy of mixing traditional recipes with new influences creates a contemporary, transparent, seasonal cuisine with stunning and delicious results. Guests can either choose à la carte or order one of several three-course meals. Special fish dishes and traditional meat dishes with a twist, a choice of delicious home-made pasta variations and selfmade ice cream and sorbets await the eager palate of those who enjoy dining within 500-year-old surroundings. A selection of wines from renowned labels and selected vintners round off the experience. More than half a millennium old, the 32 | Issue 51 | June 2017
extraordinary house in St. Gallen’s Metzgerstrasse was almost torn down in the ‘70s. However, far-sighted citizens averted the plans at the last minute and consequently founded the Zum Goldenen Schäfli cooperative to protect the historical building, which today is the only remaining traditional guild pub of St. Gallen. Built in 1484 for the butcher guild, it was turned into a restaurant more than 300 years later, when the guilds were dissolved in 1789. The tilted floor is a trademark attribute as well as a crowd puller and has already found international attention. From wall to wall, the difference makes 30 centimetres in height. Here is a dating tip: whoever wants to appear a bit taller than their counterpart is to sit at the respective higher end of the table. But seriously, the first-floor pubs of St. Gallen are a regional attraction. They stem from the medieval buildings featuring damp, light-deprived
ground floor dwellings. Thus, all social life was transferred to the first floor. Today, the first-floor pubs of St. Gallen enjoy much attention among guests from all over the world. However, only the Schäfli is the one with the trademark sloping floor. No matter if it is a business lunch, function or private guests who simply want a special night out, the Schäfli restaurant enjoys spoiling their customers. For example, next is the season of the White Alba Truffles – and come fall, game season will bring extra special delicacies to the table, accompanied by a newly researched special selection of premium wines. Feel invited! www.zumgoldenenschaeflisg.ch