I love cheese fondue! My preference is for the fondue at the Café du Soleil in Petit-Saconnex, near where I used to work (it was also a favorite after work watering hole for myself and my colleagues). Unfortunately, time was getting short during our visit and our daughter and her family were incredibly busy so it was starting to look as if I wouldn’t be getting to the Café du Soleil.

I didn’t want to miss my fondue though. I’d met with some friends for a drink at Brasserie du Molard and afterwards decided to walk back through the old town and back home. I was hungry and knew of a couple of places that had decent fondue. One was “Les Armures” near the old armory and the other was the “Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville”

I decided on the “Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville”, whose website provides the following historical information (translated from the original French):

The current building was constructed in the XVIth century for Count Calandrini hence the name of this house adjoining the “Maison Tavel”. Around the year 1600, the current restaurant was the city’s guard room and soldiers in armor gathered here to eat. According to state archives, a public house was opened around 1700, and then a bar, to which was added a few frugal meals. It was only in the years 1800-30 that a brewery (making beer) came into being.
 
Nowadays, it is a Café-Restaurant-Brasserie, operated for 24 years by Mr. Jean-Yves Glauser and his family, who through their immense popularity have given a true soul to this Geneva institution, which is affectionately called the Brasserie of Father Glôzu.
 
Inevitably the restaurant is part of the Geneva’s political and international life as the Republic’s parliament is directly opposite. Encountering heads of state or other famous people in the restaurant is not uncommon. Film and theater stars mix with other customers.

I was surprised to read that the restaurant is owned by the town of Geneva.

Taken with a Sony RX100 M3.