Grand Café Odeon, Café in Zürich, Switzerland

Grand Café Odeon is an Art Nouveau café in the Bellevue district of Zürich featuring ornate interiors from its original construction period. The spaces display large chandeliers, decorative mirrors, stained glass windows, brass panels, and reddish marble surfaces throughout the walls and columns.

The café opened in 1911 and quickly became a gathering point for artists, writers, and political thinkers during the early 20th century. Influential figures such as Einstein, Joyce, and Lenin were among those who visited and met there to discuss their ideas.

The café's name comes from the Odeon of Paris, and its regulars made it a literary meeting point: Max Frisch and Alfred Andersch first met here in 1957. Bookseller Emil Oprecht, who published many exiled writers, was a trusted contact for them. A billiard room occupied the first floor, and international newspapers and reference works were kept on hand for guests.

The café occupies the ground floor of the Usterhof at the corner of Limmatquai and Rämistrasse, by Bellevue. Since the 1970s renovation it has run on about a third of its original floor area, and the northern entrance was removed. The former café rooms now house a pharmacy, so look for the reduced entrance on the remaining side.

The café occupies only a third of its original floor space: after unrest linked to the neighbouring drug scene in the early 1970s, it closed on 1 July 1972, was placed under heritage protection and reopened in reduced form under the Fred Tschanz group. An apothecary has occupied part of the former café since 1991.