Tip!

The Café du Marché's daily CHF 30 franc luncheon menu is a wonderful and affordable way to sample Antonio Pagliuca's cuisine.

The menu includes an appetizer, main course and desert and is served every midday, including Saturday.

Café-Restaurant du Marché
3, rue du Marché
1260 Nyon
Reservations Advised: Telephone 022.362 3500
Closed Sundays

February 5, 2000

Café -Restaurant du Marché, Nyon

Tucked away on a small street in the midst of Nyon, the Café du Marché offers creative cuisine with an Italian flair.

Discretely tucked away at the end of Nyon's market street, the Café-Restaurant du Marché is not a bistro as its name might suggest. Rather it is one of the best little Italian restaurants of La Côte, the lakeside region east of Geneva..

Apart from the names of the specials chalked on the blackboard near the door, there is hardly a hint outside that this is anything but a typical regional restaurant. But you won't find "Filets de Perches" on the menu here. Step inside and you'll find elegant white table cloths, subtle lighting - and an innovative menu inspired by the flavors of Northern Italy.

"We strive to be creative in our approach," says owner and head chef Antonio Pagliuca. In particular, Pagliuca says he puts "a lot of research" into the creation of new pasta dishes, always drawing on fresh seasonal ingredients. He describes with pride one of his latest creations: Open-faced ravioli, formed from dough made with squid ink, topped with a medley of lobster, scallops and mushrooms, and a delicate glazing of olive oil and balsamic. Asked to describe his cuisine, Pagliuca says simply "Fresh ingredients, good olive oil, balsamic vinegar...Our clients who come regularly are familiar with our style."

The Café du Marché's daily Chf 30 franc luncheon menu is a wonderful and affordable way to sample Pagliuca's cuisine. It includes an appetizer, main course and desert and is served every midday, including Saturday. On a recent visit, the entree was a lightly sautéed eggplant with a hint of rosemary and balsamic topped with thin slices of mozzarella. This was followed by perfectly prepared lamb filet, served with pureed tomatoes, and, for dessert, sliced papaya and mango ice cream lightly coated in a delicate fruit syrup. With our meal we enjoyed a carafe of the red house wine, a very pleasant Cabernet-Sauvignon from Friuli, the region near Venice.

The dinner menu includes the familiar Italian ingredients, but each dish has an original accent: Carpaccio de Boeuf served with an olive and tomato salsa, or a salad of lentils and white cabbage with shrimp. For dessert, Tiramisu makes its inevitable appearance, but this time with the unexpected extra touch of wild berries (fruits des bois).

Most of the ingredients at the Café du Marché come directly from Italy, and the entire wine list is Italian. The selection of house wines changes once a month. The restaurant is composed of two small dining rooms - one seats 28, the other 18. Reservations, therefore, are advised.

It has been eight years since Antonio Pagliuca and his wife Filomene - both natives of the same small town near Naples -- first opened the Café du Marché. But if the establishment still looks traditionally Swiss on the outside, there is a reason. For nearly a hundred years this building at the edge of Nyon's market square housed "La Pinte Vaudois," a typical vaudois Café where a special white wine was fermented in the cellar. "People came from Geneva just to drink it," says Pagliuca. The original murals - charming naive scenes of the Lake Leman region - still adorn the walls of one of the restaurant's two dining rooms. The fermentation cellar in the basement is now an extra dining room which can be reserved by groups for special events.