LIFE BEYOND FIRST CLASS
DESIGN & ARCHTIECTURE
CHEZ FRITZ REIMAGINED
On the shores of Lake Zurich, interior designer Ina Rinderknecht renews the 1963 restaurant Chez Fritz with quiet clarity, lake driven color, and thoughtful craft, creating a contemporary Riviera for dining and gathering.
KENDRA LOCK
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN GUGGISBERG
Chez Fritz has always had a view that steals your attention. Ina Rinderknecht gives the room the grace to hold it. She walks in with Milanese discipline, island calm from her years in Hawaii, and a lifelong respect for handwork that started during a student exchange in Yogyakarta. She studied at the Istituto Europeo di Design, earned a Master of Arts in Design from Domus Academy, shaped hospitality interiors with Peter Vincent and Associates, consulted for the Blackstone Group’s LXR Luxury Resorts, opened her own studio in San Francisco, then brought it home to Zurich. The résumé explains the poise. The room explains the rest.
Ina Rinderknecht
Rinderknecht treats the pavilion like a finely cut frame for the lake. Nothing is added for effect. Everything is tuned for feeling and use. Pale limestone floors set a cool base that keeps the daylight honest. On the terrace, cold pressed tiles made from recycled material lay down a quietly graphic field that can take a summer storm and a busy service. Bronze catches the sun and tempers it. The palette comes straight from the shoreline. Greens with a mineral cast, sandy neutrals, and slips of blue that echo the water. It reads fresh at lunch and deep at night.
Furniture and millwork are tailored like good clothes. Emerald Jadore quartzite tables bring a soft wash of color without tipping into theme. Benches wear a striped Dedar textile with the ease of an old beach club but the cut of something new. Deep green Douglas fir cabinetry looks crisp and works hard. Service stations are wrapped in translucent glass bricks so the plan reads clearly without feeling closed. You notice the order before you notice the parts, which is the point.
Ceiling beams that once felt heavy now behave. Tone and proportion lighten them. The lighting plan is a quiet performance. At midday it is bright and even. As the sun moves, pools of warmth gather around tables and along the banquette. You sit longer without realizing why. Circulation is obvious but never dull. Guests glide from entrance to table to terrace. Staff flow between kitchen and floor without friction. Sightlines remain open so the lake stays in the conversation.
Rinderknecht’s voice comes through in the restraint. She does not chase trend or nostalgia. She edits. She listens to the building, the owners, the view, and then answers with materials that age well and gestures that make service easier. “It is not about trends, it is about soul. Guests may not notice every material or finish, but they will feel the intention behind them and the ambience they create. And that is what sticks,” says Ina Rinderknecht. The room has that grounded calm you feel before you can name it.
Only after the design settles in do you start thinking about the restaurant itself. Chez Fritz has been here since 1963 and remains a family house run by brothers Elios and Ermes Elsener. The mood they wanted is the mood you get. Relaxed yet polished. Swiss in its clarity, Mediterranean in its appetite for sun and sea. Head Chef Igino Bruni sends out fritto misto and bouillabaisse with the same precision that organizes the plan. There is a much-loved iced coffee that locals claim as a ritual. Seventy seats inside. A lounge at the water’s edge. A terrace for one hundred and twenty. Lunch from eleven thirty to two. A gentle lounge menu through the afternoon. Dinner is from six to ten.
Sourcing is local and loyal. Produce and fish come from trusted partners like Bianchi, Val Paradiso, and ViCAFE. Art has a real job here. Works by Thirza Schaap and Caspar Faassen add tone rather than noise. They hold the eye for a moment, then give it back to the lake. Staff carry out their routes with less effort because the plan gives them room and obvious landings. Guests read the space without a map and settle in like regulars.
The renovation is not a stunt. It is a study in how to tune a place until everything hums at the same pitch. Structure, surface, service, and view now work together. That is the Rinderknecht effect. Chez Fritz feels inevitable, which is the highest compliment in hospitality. Arrive without rush, take the table that feels right, and let the room do what it was designed to do.
www.chezfritz.ch | www.ina-rinderknecht.ch
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