Old Swiss House

You are met with a wonderfully mouth-watering butter aroma the moment you enter the restaurant. This is down to the speciality of the house, veal escalope. Or maybe the Wiener schnitzel. The meat is presented at the table where it is also fried.

The Riegelhaus, erected in 1858, became a restaurant in 1931. Wilhelm Buholzer and his wife Ida were proprietors of the Old Swiss House for many years. At the time, General Guisan was a welcome guest and often held top secret meetings in the Röseli Room during the Second World War.

One day in 1951 August A. Busch, owner of Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewer, came to dine at the Old Swiss House: there he met Trudy, the Buholzers’ daughter, and married her in 1952. The restaurant became famous overnight in the USA and subsequently attracted an international clientele. Evidence may be seen in the photos on display in the restaurant.

The Old Swiss House has been in the Buholzer family ever since and, three generations later, is now in the hands of Philipp Buholzer, who took over in 1998 and is as dedicated as ever.