At their counter, everyone has a place. Meet the founders of Grand Appétit
Updated: 14 minutes ago
The pastrami is piled so high that a knife holds the sandwich together. It’s passed across the counter with crisp roast potatoes, while under the black pendant lamps, the team share a laugh together. This is Grand Appétit on Place Bel-Air, and the counter is where it all happens.
Florian and Benjamin de Schoenburg-Waldenburg wanted a place where people could sit close to the kitchen and stay awhile. Two years on from opening, it still works that way. Guests watch their food being prepared and ask about what's on their plate, often over a glass of wine. It’s like sitting in your friend's kitchen while they make you dinner.
From family kitchens to Place Bel-Air
That feeling was there from the start. Florian and Benjamin, partners in life as well as business, wanted people to feel at home, as welcome guests in theirs. Their love of food began in family kitchens. Both remember their mothers cooking for friends and family. Benjamin was about five when he first found his place in the kitchen beside his mother, before everyone came to the table.
Neither took a straight path to Nyon. Benjamin spent around 20 years in finance and was “not ready to work for the next 20 years in the same sector.” Florian had built a career in fashion. Benjamin retrained at EHL (École hôtelière de Lausanne), and the dream of a place built around food and good products started to become real.
Nyon was a practical choice at first, sitting neatly between Lausanne and Florian’s work in Geneva, with family close by. But they also fell for the town, where the stunning backdrop of the lake and mountains is part of everyday life and with an international community that gives Nyon its own character.
When they found the space on Place Bel-Air, they could see its potential. They could also see how quiet the square was. Florian calls it "the Sleeping Beauty", and they wanted to help wake her up.
A different kind of place in Nyon
Did Nyon need a place like Grand Appétit? Yes and no, they say. The town already had plenty of good restaurants, each with its own personality, but they felt there was room for somewhere relaxed and informal that still took the food seriously.
When they opened, there were almost no tables, just the counter. Benjamin expected the fine food shop to be half the business. It didn't turn out that way. They listened to their guests, and the restaurant grew naturally around the way people wanted to use the space.
Florian and Benjamin want Grand Appétit to be a place where people feel safe being themselves. Perfection isn’t the point here. "Nobody's perfect, and our kitchen and our service are not perfect," Florian says. Instead, he calls the place a "cabinet of curiosity",
somewhere you can ask questions and discover things at your own pace. Nobody expects you to know what to order or how to talk about wine. "We don't force," he says. "We listen a lot."
From the pantry to the plate
The counter is still the heart of the room. By day, light pours in through the big windows. In the evening, the lamps come on and the room turns warm and cosy. It's also where the restaurant, the fine food shop and the wine cellar come together. If you love a wine you've had with dinner, you can take a bottle home without having to source it elsewhere.
Benjamin plans the menu a week ahead. Lunch changes every day, while a handful of evening specials stay on for the week. What goes on them depends on the season, what he can find, and on what he wants to eat. "It's more my stomach than my brain," he laughs. The pastrami sandwich though, has become a firm favourite with regulars.
Some products come from Switzerland; others come from just over the border in France and Italy, chosen through relationships with more than 120 distributors and producers whose ingredients and specialities the founders believe in.
Warmth without pretence
Neither founder came from the restaurant world. For the first months it was just the two of them, sometimes working more than 80 hours a week and learning from their mistakes as they went. Not everyone took them seriously at the start, Benjamin admits, but he feels they have since earned some respect for their journey.
Funnily enough, it's Florian, not the former finance guy, who keeps the numbers in order. A self-confessed geek, he built his own AI-powered system to keep track of suppliers and clients once there was too much to hold in his head.
They have also learned how to work together as a couple and business partners. There can be friction when you share both a home and a business, they acknowledge, but communication and respect for each other’s roles help them move forward. Benjamin leads the kitchen, and Florian looks after hospitality and the systems behind the business.
About six months in, Sébastian and Basil joined, making the team complete. Basil was thrown in the deep end on his first evening, a surprise birthday party for one of the founders, with family and friends filling the room. Florian looks for people who are willing to learn and treat others with respect. "It's fine not to know," he says. They work hard, but nobody takes themselves too seriously.
Bringing people together on Place Bel-Air
Plenty of new restaurants don't survive their first year, so they are proud of how far they have come. They're now building up the catering side for customers who want a favourite dish at home without having to prepare or cook it themselves. Someone might want the lasagne they loved at lunch, or a piece of foie gras for Christmas.
They also love creating special evenings. At the end of October, they hosted La Chasse, an evening built around a six-course game menu, with Vincent Graenicher of Domaine Penloup. When we spoke, they were already planning another evening event, this time for Thanksgiving, with Nyon’s American community in mind. The idea was for friends and families to share dishes from a set menu around the table, maybe with a few games to get everyone talking.
A place to belong
Some places take a while to get to know you. By my third visit to Grand Appétit, I was greeted like a friend who had been coming for years. Nyon has plenty of people who come and go, and a welcome like that makes it easier to feel connected. It’s exactly what they hoped to build, and it’s spreading out onto the square.
The BAFmarket (Bel-Air Food Market) is how that happens. Instead of spending heavily on marketing, they put their time into events that bring people to Place Bel-Air. The region had plenty of festivals but none really about food, and their goal is for Nyon to become the food town of the canton.
Held several times a year and free to attend, the market brings together street food from around the world and local produce, with Grand Appétit running the central bar since day one. In May 2026, the square also hosted the Swiss Street Food Awards, with ten food trucks competing for the Best of Romandie title. Next up is Noël à Bel-Air in December (dates at bafmarket.ch).
Looking ahead
Asked how he hopes people will remember Grand Appétit in five years, Florian talks about authenticity and the stories of their producers. Mostly, he talks about the conversations at the counter, when someone asks why a product was chosen or how it's made. The menu will change. He hopes that the closeness they've built won't.
Their story is also a reminder for anyone who has spent years in one career and quietly wondered about another. Florian and Benjamin took a chance on a dream with no restaurant experience, and two years on, it’s working.
If you haven't been yet, the counter is waiting. Come for lunch or book an evening with friends, and ask what's cooking. They will be so happy to tell you.
Grand Appétit
Address: Place Bel-Air 5, 1260 Nyon
Website: https://grandappetit.ch/
Bookings: : 022 990 00 55
Photo Credit: Betty @newin_nyon
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