This is what it's all about.
👋🏻 We are Meagan, Gry, and Simon: founders and hospitality management professionals with over 25 years of combined experience in hotels, bars, and restaurants. Simon and Meagan met during hotel school (Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne), where they graduated from in 2016. Since May 2023, we have been successfully running Pizzeria ALBA and won the Gault Millau award for Best New Opening in Switzerland in June 2024. Thanks to the incredible support of over 201 backers, we were able to finance essential kitchen equipment like our dough mixer and pizza oven in our first crowdfunding campaign. Many of these supporters have remained loyal customers, for which we are still very grateful.
🍕 ALBA is Switzerland’s first sourdough pizzeria and is powered by Aulus, our 160-year-old sourdough starter. For our artisanal pizzas, we use five different types of flour and completely avoid artificially produced beer yeasts. We make our own ALBA raw milk mozzarella and import all ingredients directly from our producers. Our menu is small but exquisite. We spare no effort or expense to offer our guests the best possible quality of raw ingredients at fair prices.
🍹 However, those who know ALBA understand that we not only excel in pizzas but also have a unique and top-notch cocktail menu, thanks to our bar manager Gry (who worked for five years at Bar Svanen in Oslo – ranked Top 72 worldwide in 2025). From homemade olive oil Negronis and premium Gimlets to specially fermented cherry shrubs, ALBA’s menu covers all the needs of our audience with a cheeky twist.
🫶 ALBA has arrived in Zurich’s gastronomy scene and has enjoyed great interest since its launch in 2023, quickly increasing the number of loyal customers. However, with growing reservations, the demands on our sparsely equipped bar, which was only used as a soft-drinks and wine fridge in the previous operation, have also risen. We are therefore facing the following problems and need help from our community to complete our pizzeria:
- Guests often encounter dirty glasses at the bar, which unfortunately prevents us from seating waiting guests at the counter.
- The glasses (between 400 and 600 per service) are dried by hand every evening, which adds a high workload on top of operational service and is nearly unmanageable.
- Gry deserves a central position in the restaurant. Currently, she is hidden due to the placement of the workstation in the corner.
My project is special because ...
🍕 You want to support a business that is fully dedicated to a modern pizzeria experience. This includes not only top-quality sourdough pizzas but also exceptional cocktails that are unique in the city of Zurich.
🍸 You believe that pizzerias deserve high-quality cocktails that stand out from the average.
❤️ You support gastronomy concepts that prioritize both guests and employees, striving continuously to provide first-class service quality. Our Google rating currently stands at 4.8 (413 reviews in 17 months).
🎨 You believe in thoughtfully designed brands. ALBA is curated by Andrina Schmid (ZHDK alumna), combining Mediterranean flair with a Zurich twist.
🍸 Here are some of Gry’s cocktail creations:
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Green Apple: Rum / sour apple liqueur / green Chartreuse / lime juice / sugar water
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Cherry Kiss: Gin / fino sherry / amaretto / fresh cherries / homemade cherry shrub / soda
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Olive Oil Negroni: Olive oil gin / Italicus / white vermouth / Suze
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Ischia Negroni: Burnt and caramelized orange gin (in the pizza oven) / Venetian / Vermouth / Homemade bergamot-perfume
This is what I need backing for.
The amount generated through the crowdfunding campaign will be invested in essential bar equipment (see below). Every bit of additional money will be carefully used to create a unique experience within the walls of our pizzeria and bar—running a restaurant in Zurich is not for the faint of heart (or wallet):
❄️ Cooling elements & installation by a refrigeration technician. We produce around 120 cocktails each evening, which requires ample space for chilled spirits and ingredients (15,000 CHF).
🍷 Commercial dishwasher. We dry between 400-600 water, wine, and cocktail glasses each evening (8,000 CHF).
️ New bar station. This will allow us to seat guests at the bar, better utilize the cooling space for our beverages, and give Gry the stage she deserves (25,000 CHF).
