During a recent visit to Zürich, I was curious to discover what Switzerland’s biggest city has to offer in terms of specialty coffee. There are, of course, a few roasters and cafés whose reputation preceedes them such as MAME but as it turned out, Zürich has a lot more going for it.
One place that really stood out to me was Bean Bank, a Greek-owned multi-roaster café concept with two locations at the time of writing. The bigger space is in Zürich’s upmarket business neighbourhood just south of the main train station while the smaller espresso bar is close to the historic banking district. That is also where I met Nikos Chalimourdas who owns Bean Bank together with his brother.
Originally from Athens where Nikos gained a lot of experience working in coffee, he ended up moving to Zürich a few years ago with the idea to set up a classy specialty coffee business that would serve the best coffees form renowned European roasters. Each location has its own style and serves a different community.
The espresso bar is very compact indeed and only offers limited seating inside and outside but it is fully equipped with the latest gear to allow Nikos to prepare the most delicious coffees. He brewed me a delicious Kenyan filter coffee from La Cabra while hinting at the fact that he might soon start his own roasting operation.
One important link with his homeland remains, however, and that is the house espresso coming from pioneering Greek roasters Taf. The other coffees on the menu rotate on a regular basis and come from the likes of DAK, Friedhats, MOK. His brother is in charge of baking cakes and pastries, which include a delicious banana bread and chocolate chip cookie.
This location, I must add, closes relatively early so it’s not suitable for a late afternoon coffee but if you’re exploring the area and you want to top up your caffeine levels in style, then Bean Bank is your place to go.
