Hello all ,

I would like to open a Gelateria/Ice cream shop in Zurich city. In the mean time I use to live in Suisse Romande and would like to move to Zurich. In fact I visited Zurich recently and didn’t find any good gelateria. Furthermore there is quite a few gelateria in Swiss Romande already.

I would need to rent an arcade between 50 to 90SQM max. It can be take away or provide a few seats.

My questions :


Do you recommend any location/place/street that would fit that kind of business? I was thinking about NiederdorfStrasse, Limatquai Rennweg Strasse as there is a lot of terrace and espacially a lot of foot traffic. I would look for a location rate with 7 or 8 out of 10 (10 would be a street like Bahnofstrasse… but at 9000chf sqm per Year I can not afford). Preferably I would like to be located not far from the lake.

I was thinking of checking in shopping mall but I prefer to have my own place.

I checked on real-estate website but wasn’t able to find any location that would fit my criteria… Normally what is the process of finding a location, do I need to contact a real estate broker?

I hope you can help me

Thank you for your help
Have a great week end

Sorry can't help you with locations, but I was wondering, will that be authentic italian 'gelato artigianale' made on the premises, or will you just be selling ice cream that you buy yourself in bulk from industrial food manufacturers?

Hello Magnum_Pi,

It will be home made gelato produce on premises... Not interesting in re-selling already made product to consumers

That sounds great, like I said I can't help you with your question but I will surely visit your shop once it's open to taste some nice ice cream!

But as you pointed out he is making Gelato rather than ice cream, and there are fundamental differences in the way they are made, so hopefully you will be enjoying great gelato.

Gelato is simply the italian word for ice cream!

Industrial ice cream is also called gelato in Italy, so saying gelato doesn't mean automatically that it's traditional italian ice cream, in Italy you would have to say 'gelato artigianale' when meaning traditional italian ice cream.

Of course, there's an immense scarcity of gelaterias in Zurich, especially compared to Germany. But...

>It will be home made gelato produce on premises

really?That would be great, since almost all "traditional" gelato anywhere in the world is made with ready-made mixes (read: powders, pastes) from companies like anona, Giuso and so on.

Nice one, but isn't this business a bit constrained? Does anyone buy ice cream in winter?

Niederdorf is certainly a nice spot with a steady stream of pedestrians. But if I were in your situation, I'd choose a location that isn't already saturated, but still has room for development. Three areas come to mind: Altstetten (between train station and Hardbrucke), Binz, and Oerlikon (towards airport).

Did you also consider selling your home-made ice cream to other business, rather than opening a store? I believe such high quality food products may have real potential in the Swiss restaurant industry.

You are right, I was on vacation in Germany, this year, and was amazed to find a great gelateria on every corner. Also, I find that the Zurich gelaterias generally have very similar offerings, so there is room for more.

I would recommend you spend a (hot) day in the areas you are interested in, when all the ice cream places are open, to see where they are, which one makes the best business, etc. - and where one is missing.

As for the places you suggest, Rennweg could be tricky, because there are the ice cream stands in front of Globus, St. Annahof, Franz Carl Weber nearby, plus Sprüngli. Around the lake seems to be the best.

Good luck!

Gelateria owners usually spend their winters in Cortina and sub-let their shops to gingerbread factories (at least in Germany).

Germans. When I lived in Stuttgart I saw more people walking around on a Sunday with ice creams on cold days that hot ones. It makes sense really; an ice cream on a very hot day not only melts quickly into a sticky mess but leaves you thirsty. However, the solution is to find a nearby fountain, rinse and drink, and buy another ice cream.

Hello All, Thank you for your input :-) Sinus, at the beginning I was thinking to sell only to "retail" customers... Depending on how it is going there is a possibility to serve also customers like restaurant. To be honest I am not sure that is worth to sell it during winter... in fact due to low traffic the turnover of the product will be very low = lot of waste Last time that I came to Zurich I didn't see any available location... and a place like Niederdorfstrasse might be very difficult to get a location. Also a street like Niederdorfstrasse is busy during winter? I mean of course not as in summer but... Based on your experience what is the best way to deal with that? Do I need to contact a real estate broker? Normally how much you need to pay them or %? I check on some real estate website but couldn't find anything intresting. thanks!

Have a look a the concept of 'Marine Ices' in London:
http://www.marineices.co.uk/

They have been going for 80 years now, they do all their ice cream themselves and they also run an Italian restaurant along with the ice cream parlour.

This works very well as it makes sure they have customers all year round and the ice cream sells well in winter too as a dessert after a meal in the restaurant.

They also sell their home-made ice cream to some other restaurants in London.

I hope your ice cream will be as good as the one from 'Marine Ices'!

Ben and Jerry's in the US used to run a promotion where for every degree below freezing they would take a penny of the price of ice cream.

Some of you already tried Leonardo or Dieci? what is your opinion?

There is a good gelato-shop in Zurich at Kreuzplatz.

I would recomend Limatquai area.
All the best and good luck!

Please let me know if you need help on the tasting part !

Maybe something like this:

http://www.homegate.ch/mieten/104049...ault&l=default

Rents are insane in Zurich at good locations, though.

I remember going to the shop in Chalk Farm in the early 70's, the resturant was pretty dull, rather like most food in the ttime, of course food rationing only ended in 1954.

I don't know how it was in the early 70's but every time I have been there in the last 15 years I did enjoy both the food (which admittedly is 'only' good, not outstanding) and especially the ice cream which is the best I have tried outside Italy (and better than a lot of places in Italy too and I have lived in Italy for 23 years).