Alpenglühen

Doors open Tuesday to Sunday at 17:00.Around the hour the peaks above the lake turn rose.

A social games lounge on Rennweg in Zürich’s Old Town. Jass, board games, quiz nights and good company, every evening from five.

Reserve a table

Website created in 2026

Founded: 2010, on Rennweg
Based in: Kreis 1, Zürich Old Town
Team: 14 hosts on the floor

About Alpenglühen

Alpenglühen is the minute after sunset when the Glarus Alps turn rose above the lake. Our lounge keeps that hour: lamps low, tables set, a seat for anyone who wants a game.

We are a social lounge, not a club with a door policy. Guests come for a round of Jass with colleagues, a quiz with neighbours, a board game they have never heard of, or simply a chair by the window above the Old Town roofs. Our hosts teach the rules, keep the tables moving and make sure nobody sits alone for long.

Everything here is about the evening itself: the talk across the table, the music on Fridays, the fondue pots on winter Sundays. You leave with stories rather than scores. The lounge is relaxed, respectful and open to all adults aged 18 and over.

In numbers

Members3’800
Tables and cabinets38
Games on the shelf240

Years on Rennweg15
Evenings a week6
Languages at the door4

Rennweg 26, 8001 Zürich
+41 44 211 47 38
[email protected]

The first-floor sitting room: deep sofas, armchairs and a round marble table under a carved ceiling — The sitting room on the first floor, where most evenings begin.

Website created in 2026

What an evening holds

Company at every table

Schieber Jass with new partners
Tables for newcomers
The regulars’ corner
After-work rounds
Birthday and team tables

Come alone or as eight; a host will find you a table and a game.

Members’ evenings

Tuesday Jass league
Thursday quiz
Saturday tournament nights
Sunday fondue and board games
The Sechseläuten party

A calendar that fills the week, from league nights to the spring party.

Games for every mood

Tichu and Differenzler
240 board games
Töggeli
Billiards in the Salon
Retro arcade cabinets
Chess on the long table

Card games Swiss families know, beside the newest boxes on the shelf.

Rooms lit like dusk

The Hall
The Salon
The Bibliothek
Window seats over Rennweg

Warm, low light in the colour of the glow hour, and rooms sized for talk.

Hosts who know your name

Rules taught at the table
A game picked for you
Table reservations
Hosts in four languages

Fourteen hosts who teach, introduce and keep the evening moving.

Comfort, quietly done

A lift to every floor
Coat check
Kitchen open until 23:00
A long non-alcoholic drinks list
Quiet hours on Sundays

Soft chairs, good acoustics and a kitchen that stays open late.

Website created in 2026

Inside on Rennweg

Four friends laughing over a green card table with cards and counters in front of them — Company at every table

The games hall with blue-topped tables, red chairs and a round lit ceiling — Rooms lit like dusk

A long row of brightly lit arcade cabinets with stools along a patterned carpet — Games for every mood

Members gathered around a card table under a chandelier during an evening event — Members’ evenings

Three smiling hosts in burgundy jackets standing together in the lounge — Hosts who know your name

Armchairs and red banquettes around low tables, with screens on the far wall — Comfort, quietly done

Friends, colleagues and new partners in the Hall, the Salon and the sitting room on an ordinary Friday in October.

Website created in 2026

Since 2010

Fifteen years ago this was one first-floor salon with eight tables and a pack of Jass cards. The building still creaks in the same places; nearly everything else has grown.

2010The first salon

We opened eight tables in a wood-panelled room on the first floor of Rennweg 26, with one Tuesday Jass evening and a coffee machine that needed two people to run it.

2013The whole house

The ground and second floors joined. We added the Bibliothek, a quiet room for long games, and began guest evenings with partner venues in Basel and Bern.

2016Töggeli and the quiz

Table football and a row of restored arcade cabinets moved into the Hall, and the Thursday quiz began. It has run almost every week since.

2020Ten years, one league

We marked our tenth year with a long night for members and founded the Alpenglühen Jass league, now played by teams from Geneva, Lucerne and Winterthur.

2022New light in the Hall

A careful renovation brought new floors, better acoustics and lighting tuned to the warm rose of the glow hour, the colour our name comes from.

2025Fifteen winters

An anniversary week, the Sunday fondue tables and a programme planned with members. Next come more evenings for people who are new to Zürich.

A long wood-panelled salon with a bar, brass lamps and small round tables — The first salon, 2010.

A crowded room under strings of warm bulbs on the lounge’s tenth anniversary — Tenth anniversary, 2020.

The renovated Hall with a patterned red carpet, red chairs and a warm-lit ceiling — The Hall after renovation, 2022.

Website created in 2026

Two hosts in waistcoats smiling behind a green games table — Two of our hosts setting up a table in the Hall.

How we host an evening

A seat, a game and a host

Our way of working is simple to describe and takes years to get right. Every guest is greeted at the door, asked what kind of evening they are after and shown to a table that fits: lively or quiet, competitive or chatty, familiar or new.

Three ideas guide us: good company, good games and good care. We ask members for their views each season and change the programme with them, which is how the quiz, the fondue Sundays and the beginners’ Jass table came about.

Every host learns the house rules of each game, the names of the regulars and the art of noticing who needs a partner. The evening is the whole of it, from the coat check to the last tram home, not only what happens on the table.

We do change things. New games arrive every month and the rooms are adjusted when they need to be. What we keep is the light, the pace and the Swiss habit of doing small things carefully.

Website created in 2026

Around Kreis 1

Make a day of it. Three places we send guests to before the doors open.

Zürich Tourism

Walks through the Old Town, the lake shore and what is on in the city this week.

Swiss National Museum

Swiss history from the Middle Ages on, in the castle-like building beside the main station.

Kunsthaus Zürich

One of the great art collections in Switzerland, at Heimplatz, a short tram ride away.

Website created in 2026

What members say

“I came for one game of Jass after work and stayed six years. Here I always find a table and someone to talk to.”

Lea BrunnerZürich, member since 2019

“I take the train in from Basel twice a month for the league. The hosts know my team by name and have our corner table waiting.”
Thomas MeierBasel

“The light in the Hall at dusk is something else. We had a birthday table and the whole evening felt looked after, without any fuss.”
Nina SchmidBern

Lea Brunner, a member from Zürich, smiling in the lounge — Top: Lea, Thomas, Nina. Below: Marco, Claire, Reto.

Thomas Meier, a member from Basel, in a grey jacket — Top: Lea, Thomas, Nina. Below: Marco, Claire, Reto.

“I run a kitchen, so I notice service. Here it is warm and quick, and nobody hurries you away from the table.”
Marco KellerLucerne

“My German was shaky when I moved to Zürich. The beginners’ table on Thursdays gave me friends before it gave me grammar.”
Claire DuboisGeneva

Website created in 2026

Alpenglühen Lounge

The sitting room of the lounge, seen in a small round frame

Rennweg 26Tram stop Rennweg, lines 6, 7, 11, 13 and 17

8001 ZürichSix minutes on foot from Zürich HB

Tue–Sun from 17:00Until 00:30, Fri and Sat until 02:00, Sun until 23:00. Closed Mondays.

+41 44 211 47 38

Grüezi

Write to [email protected] or see all contact details. Website created in 2026