Eisvogel—Zürich

For 22 years, Tine Giacobbo and Katharina Sinniger ran Alpenrose, the Zürich restaurant whose interior I’ve kept on moodboards for years. They also operated the soup kitchen at Limmatlädeli and the crêperie Bei Babette on Idaplatz. Now, when the weather warms, they’re in Kreis 5 at Eisvogel, their neighborhood ice cream shop. In winter, they do nothing and enjoy it thoroughly.

This isn’t just good gelato. It’s ritual: five new flavors each day, every day a surprise. For neighbors, it’s the walk to see what’s appeared. For Giacobbo and Sinniger, it’s a daily culinary challenge that keeps them engaged with the community, working within constraints and responding to what’s ripe at the market or what memory surfaced that morning. The structure creates joy on both sides of the counter, anticipation for customers and creative freedom within discipline for the makers.

Their Craft
Tine Giacobbo and Katharina Sinniger built Eisvogel on one principle: master the fundamentals and control every variable. Their book, Eisvogel: Alle Sorten, contains more than 200 recipes, each a blueprint for texture, temperature, and flavor balance. This isn’t about novelty flavors or Instagram moments. It’s about the basic work of making something properly, understanding why it works, and being able to repeat it.

Why It Matters
Ice cream is democratic luxury: no reservations, just craft elevating the everyday. Their generosity in publishing every recipe multiplies expertise and proves care scales to neighborhoods.

Support This Work
Their book Eisvogel: Alle Sorten, published by Echtzeit, containing over 200 recipes—all their flavors, even the secret ones. → Read about it here
→ Visit Eisvogel — Zentrale für Gutes Ottostrasse 15, 8005 Zürich