25hours wants to score with Cucina Popolare

The credo of the new Ribelli: Italian food is everywhere - but authentic and honest cucina popolare is not. This is supposed to change with the new concept in Zurich. Five friends worked together with the F&B experts at 25hours for a year to develop the idea.

The team includes pizzaiolo Vincenzo Carnemolla, well-known restaurateur Corrado Falco (Gallo Nero, Hamburg) and his former chef Taku Tabuchi (S'Accapau, Tokyo). The Sicilian-Japanese round is complemented by the South Tyrolean Thomas Schuster, who, together with wine consultant Massimo Ruffino, ensures the authenticity of the ingredients used.

The table is served with uncompromisingly good products from carefully selected producers who work with heart and mind. The Ribelli concept is based on three pillars: salumi e antipasti, Neapolitan pizza and piatti dal forno - traditional oven dishes such as lasagne and gnocchi alla Sorrentina. This is accompanied by carefully selected Italian wines and craft beer, because as is customary in Italy, pizza and beer go together here.

The heart of the restaurant is the Salumeria. Here, Italian sausage and cheese variations are freshly sliced. Foodies can also take prosciutto, pancetta and pecorino romano directly from the restaurant and enjoy them at home. Another eye-catcher and central point in the 

"With this concept, we are clearly committing ourselves to honest, Italian cuisine. Ribelli is not a romantic restaurant, but loud and busy - you won't find red and white tablecloths here. We are very proud of the carefully selected products and ingredients. 90 percent of the goods come from Italy. This includes the beer and wine, of course, but also ham, cheese, oil, the tomato sugo, olives and flour for pizza and focaccia," says Lukas Meier, General Manager at 25hours.


The offer is completed by the new Ribelli Giardino. "Amidst the green bustle of the wild gardener - our freshly opened garden market with guest rooms - we serve antipasti and weekly changing focaccia and salads from our Ribelli kitchen," says Meier. In keeping with the spirit of the marketplace, everything is also available to take away. The sustainable wines of the South Tyrolean Cantina Kurtatsch are also on sale by the bottle in cooperation with Landolt Weine.

Alfredo Häberli was again brought on board for the restaurant's visual fresh-up. The Zurich-based product designer already planned the premises of the 25hours Hotel Zurich West, which opened in November 2012, and has now also designed the Ribelli. It is thus also clear that the gastronomic concept goes hand in hand with Alfredo Häberli's design: Zurich, with its openness to the world, runs like a red thread through the entire house in many details - right down to the plate and the glass. While designer Häberli creates references between Zurich and the world with aesthetics, Ribelli combines home and wanderlust with authentic taste experiences.

Häberli 's commitment to the project with 25hours is certainly also personally motivated. He grew up in Argentina in his parents' restaurant and his grandparents' hotel. "I still remember what it smelled like there," he says. In addition, the internationally active designer is on the road two to three days a week and knows many hotels. This is not the reason for the claim to reinvent a hotel, but to revive it and to translate old models in a modern way.

In the 25hours Zurich West, for example, wild carpet patterns meet floral wallpaper and exuberant curtains. Alfredo Häberli finds a contemporary and extremely appealing interpretation of this in colour blocking. "I wanted to create something that the Swiss wouldn't normally do," says Häberli. "I feel colors are the very first way to decorate. That several designers and the hotel operator have the same feeling is rare. That's where the collaboration is a real pleasure," he adds.