Three local students plan to run a café with a difference

Three innovative students from Baar are planning to open a café with a difference in an old railway carriage near the premises of the “Industrie 45” (i45) youth cultural centre, which owns two such disused waggons.

The i45 organisation did not want the two waggons simply to be used by graffiti artists, so they asked for suggestions about what to with them, the three students from Baar coming up with this idea of a bar, which was duly accepted.
 
It is in spring that Fabio Förmli, 25, (on the left in the photograph), Kai Imholz, 27 (on the right) and Laura Hürlimann, 24, (not photographed) plan to open the café, and no ordinary one at that.

At present the carriage is being stripped down prior to the installation of insulation, new wooden panelling, a wood pellet stove, along with the bar itself and seating, of course. While some of the funding has been provided by the i45 organisation, the remainder, such as all that is necessary for the interior, is having to be paid for by the enterprising trio. They have made use of cast-off furniture but also want to ensure there is a nice area for people to sit and drink coffee. While on drinks, all three agree they want to provide top-quality coffee, so crowdfunding is being used to enable then to by a top-of-the-range machine.

The Café am Gleis (café on the rails) as it is to be called, will also offer other drinks, supplied by small businesses in the region and hence promote local produce, too. Food is not being offered but patrons will be able to bring their own food in to consume if they so wish. What will also make this new café stand out from others, is that it will have no fixed opening times. These are to be announced through social media at the beginning of the month, say. And, if they feel like it, it could well be opened spontaneously, too. What is more, guests will not be under any obligation to buy anything if they do not wish to. You can just sit and chat, the occasional cultural event also planned to take place there.
 
Once it is up and running, the trio may then look to employing someone there, perhaps someone with a mental disability who would benefit from the social contact prior to their becoming engaged with other work. An occasional free coffee might also be on offer to people who are a bit strapped for cash. “We want it to be a meeting place for everyone,” agreed the trio, who have actually known each other for years. They all have experience in this sort of business and thought it would be nice to set up their own café with a difference, running it more as a hobby, while at the same time avoiding expensive rents for more conventional premises in a canton like Zug. It is not intended to provide them with a living wage; all three of them actually work in addition to pursuing their studies in social matters, economics and marketing.
 
There is already more information about the Café am Gleis on Facebook and Instagram, with a website currently under preparation. When it opens in April or May, it is hoped that, with warmer weather, there will also be the opportunity to sit outside the carriage, too.