Elgg cooperative takes over restaurant to preserve village meeting place
Sunday 6th September 2026 on 19:30 in
Switzerland
SRF reports that the WAK cooperative will take over the Guhwilmühle restaurant, known locally as the Gumele, to keep the popular meeting place outside Elgg in Zurich canton operating after its owners retire.
The restaurant is a family business that has been run by the Schaufelberger family for several generations. It has a large forecourt and garden, a small dining room and a location between the main road and the edge of the forest. It is known for grilled spit roast and homemade sausages.
Ruedi and Hildegard Schaufelberger will retire at the end of September. No one in the family wants to take over the restaurant, Ruedi Schaufelberger said, but the family wants the Gumele to continue.
The restaurant has hosted regular customers, walkers and weddings over the years. The family also wants to preserve its simple, traditional food, including cervelat and schüblig sausages.
Cooperative sees restaurants as community spaces
The Cooperative for Housing, Work and Culture, known as WAK, has existed for 25 years. It already owns two restaurants and several residential buildings, and says that keeping Elgg active requires more than housing. Shops and restaurants are also needed, cooperative president Erich Wegmann said.
In rural areas, restaurants serve as community spaces comparable to neighbourhood centres in cities, Wegmann said. The cooperative has enough resources to take over a restaurant and can create synergies between its businesses, for example by sharing staff or coordinating purchases.
Cross-subsidies are also needed to keep the restaurants operating, Ruedi Wegmann said. One WAK restaurant includes a shop, while another has rooms that are rented out. The cooperative also plans to offer accommodation at the Gumele in the future to provide the restaurant with a more secure financial basis.
A bowling alley that once stood in a wooden shed at the Gumele is also to be restored. Wegmann said the cooperative had promised to continue running the restaurant in the spirit of the Schaufelberger family.