What to Do in Geneva Beyond Watches and Wonders
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The Palexpo exhibition center may be the ultimate destination in Geneva this week, but the Swiss city and its lakeside have plenty more to offer than watches for those who have — or take — the time.
Happy hour
The precision machinery from Portland-born Corde Coffee founder Carlina Johnson isn’t made for watchmaking but helps the world tick nonetheless: it’s a bean roaster. A stone’s throw from the Quai des Bergues, her second Geneva address is a great place to start the day with an impeccable cup of joe, but it’s even better to come back for cocktail hour.
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There’s the indispensable espresso martini and other twists on classics. Make sure to sample the concoctions that include cascara infusions, made from coffee cherry pulp. Also worth noting: a large portion of the all-day menu, including cakes and baked goods, are vegan.
Corde Coffee
Rue du 31 Décembre 32, 1207
+41 22 558 86 86
Time to eat
At 49 Rue du Rhône, it’s a piece of Genevan history that’s ticking once more under the impulsion of François-Paul Journe, who teamed up with renowned chef Dominique Gauthier. Open in 1912 and listed as a heritage site a century later, the culinary institution now dubbed F.P. Journe Le Restaurant became as famous for the quality of its food and drinks as it was for the world leaders, officials and prominent journalists that darkened its doors.
While no promises are made on what secrets of state or watchmaking might be spilled between these wood-paneled walls, expect Gauthier to turn painstakingly sourced local produce into his gourmet and generous Mediterranean cuisine influenced by extensive travels in Thailand.
After Seoul and a café in London, Breitling chose Geneva for the second outpost of its Breitling Kitchen eatery. In a nod to the watchmaker’s ateliers, this two-story eatery has the style of an industrial loft, all brick walls and full-length workshop-style windows. The menu, developed in collaboration with French-Colombian chef Juan Arbeláez, offers a wealth of crowd-pleasers that range from Portobello mushroom bruschetta and a lobster roll to ceviche and risotto reworked with local ingredients.
Cocktails are grouped following the watchmaker’s categories — air, earth and water — with names like “Cloud,” which calls for lemongrass-infused cachaça, kiwi and a Thai basil emulsion, or “Rain Forest,” a passion fruit and grapefruit juice mocktail finished with a touch of caramel. For those in a rush, there is a spot for coffee and a selection from the menu can also be ordered to go.
Chopard copresident Karl-Friedrich Scheufele might be best known for his passion for watchmaking through L.U.C. and Ferdinand Berthoud, but he is a man of many passions, spanning from motor racing to wine. The place to get a first-hand taste of the epicurean side of the Scheufele family is Chez Bacchus, a 2,150-square-foot wine bar tucked besides the Geneva branch of Caveau de Bacchus, the wine merchant opened 1999 and now spanning three addresses in Switzerland.
An ever-rotating selection of 40 different wines by the glass, drawn from the selection of the Caveau next door, can be sampled in an airy bistro ambience blending an old-fashioned bar and waxed concrete surfaces. The complete wine list spans 800 references from around the world, there are also spirits and cocktails galore and the menu is rife with healthy nibbles and hearty classics.
And if luggage space allows, why not take home a bottle of Château Monestier La Tour, the winery in France’s Bergerac region that Scheufele and wife Christine painstaking restored a decade ago.
F.P.Journe Le Restaurant
Rue du Rhône 49, 1204 – Monday to Thursday, lunch and dinner; Friday, lunchtime only
+41 22 320 49 49
Breitling Kitchen
Place des Bergues 1, 1201 – Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
+41 22 566 85 68
Chez Bacchus
Cours de Rive 7, 1204 – Tuesday to Saturday, noon to midnight
+41 22 312 41 72
Stay
Strategically placed near Geneva airport and Palexpo, the 140-key Adina Apartment Hotel complex near Geneva airport is Australian hospitality group TFE’s latest move in Europe. This serviced apartment complex is set in the Quartier de l’Étang, an 11-hectare former industrial site that is being redeveloped into a mixed-use neighborhood following the latest renewable energy and sustainability guidelines.
Adina Apartment Hotel Geneva
Route de Meyrin 125, 1219 Geneva
Shop
Dior cuts a graceful figure on tony Rue du Rhône with its boutique conceived by Christian de Portzamparc, the first French architect to win the Pritzker Prize and who also signed the French brand’s Seoul flagship. Behind the six monumental petals that curve toward the sky, the connection between the French house and art is on an equal footing with the work of creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, with pieces by Pamela Rosenkranz, Ugo Rondinone, William Coggin, Martin Kline and Dashiell Manley dotted throughout the six-story boutique. There is also a private salon, which features an immersive fresco by multidisciplinary artist François Mascarello, and the staircase with its 13 works by Dutch artist Thomas Trum is not to be missed. In the evening, the elegant resin shells turn the boutique into a glowing installation in its own right.
Dior
Rue du Rhône 70, 1204 Geneva
+41 22 310 62 55
Spa day
A decade after closing its first establishment, urban spa After the Rain is back in Geneva with a new 4,000-square-foot address that puts a focus on private treatment suites, each with its own hammam cabin. Rather than offer a pre-set menu or partnership with a brand, founder Isabelle Nordmann favored a fully bespoke approach, using aromatherapy principles and essential oil balms developed with specialist Pharmacie des Eaux-Vives.
After the Rain
114 Route de Florissant, 1206 Geneva
+41 22 348 30 30
See
Catch the final days of the 18th Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, the first exhibition kicking off the half-century anniversary of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève. A dozen artists have been commissioned to create works for “A Cosmic Movie Camera,” a contemplation on moving images in all its forms, particularly in the algorithmic age and inspired by the recent astrophysical discover of the “infinite light trap” that exists around black holes.
How to capture the intimacy of a memory, a gesture between loved ones or the attachment to an object in a photograph is at the center of an exhibition at Geneva’s Centre de la Photographie. A group of 12 photographers used techniques as diverse as colored paper, photogrammetry and artificial intelligence to lay bare the way we apprehend the world through our own subjective lenses.
Also worth seeing while in town is Brulhart Gallery, where founder Mona Brülhart showcases contemporary art production from women of African descent.
“A Cosmic Movie Camera,” until May 16
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève
Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers 10, 1205 Geneva
“Making Light of Everything,” until April 28
Centre de la Photographie Genève
Rue des Bains 28, 1205 Geneva
Brulhart Gallery
21 rue des Vollandes, 1207 Geneva
In the city
While Watches and Wonders’ “In the City” program is slated to last all week, the pinnacle will be on April 11, between 5:30 and 10 p.m. when the Rues-Basses area turns into an open-air celebration of watchmaking with food trucks, music and plenty of attractions offered by the exhibiting watchmakers’ boutiques in the area.
Events will range from a showcase of ArtyA’s 15 years of creation and the mechanical “Phénomena” installation created by Anglo-Swiss artist Charles Morgan at Oris to a Cartier gem setter demonstrating the making of a new animal-inspired watch and immersive choreography at Hermès.
Be sure to head to the main stage on Quai Général-Guisan for the performance of Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies that will conclude the evening.
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