Van Ness stalwart Matterhorn is getting ready for a reopening, a full year after it bid adieu, complete with a careful remodel and under a pair of new owners.
The cozy, kitschy, Swiss-inspired fondue restaurant closed after 24 years last September when Swiss owners Brigitte and Andrew Thorpe decided to retire and leave the Bay Area. The new owners, as Tablehopper tells us, are Natalie and Jason Horwath — an American couple with a deep love for Switzerland. The Horwaths actually live in Switzerland for a time, and Natalie apprenticed at a few bakeries there, so when they reopen Matterhorn on September 24 it will be as Matterhorn Restaurant and Bakery.
In addition to having housemade pastries for dessert, Natalie Horwath will be serving housemade, naturally leavened bread with the cheese fondue — there will be two options: Fondue Moitié-Moitié, made with 12-month aged Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois; and Fondue Emmental, made with 18-month aged Emmental, L’Etivaz, and Vacherin Fribourgeois. There will also be a traditional meat fondue, with cubes of beef that you cook at the table yourself in a hot pot of beef stock and red wine.
And as Eater reported when they broke the news of the reopening in July, the plan is to have breakfast pastry service in the mornings from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The interior of the restaurant has been renovated lightly, preserving the knotty pine paneling and adding some new touches, including some cuckoo clocks and a real Swiss ski gondola that you can reserve and dine in.
The Horwaths are doing some test dinners this week and next (you may be able to DM them on Instagram for a seat, Tablehopper says). And then the public opening will be on Tuesday, September 24.
Matterhorn Restaurant and Bakery - 2323 Van Ness Avenue at Vallejo - Opening Sept. 24.