Are you one of the millions of people who fly just for the privilege of squishing your body into a tiny and inappropriate space for hours on end? And have you often wondered where you could get that seatback-in-the-upright-and-locked-position feeling without having to actually leave your hometown? Me, too! That’s why I dragged a friend to the bar Wings this week.
I was actually disappointed (and pleasantly surprised) with how nice of a bar it turned out to be. Except for the old airplane seats in the middle of the room, the décor was actually quite hip. Only the porthole-window-shaped wall cutouts and the waitress’s pilot uniform (and those stupid chairs) remind you of the bar’s theme. Until you use the restroom, where there is a model airplane embedded in the toilet seat.
What really won me over was the inspirational (sob) story inside the menu that recounts how the bar got started:
“The idea for WINGS was born out of the turmoil caused by the instability of the Swiss aviation industry in the autumn of 2001. After the grounding and the collapse of their company, the former Swissair employees faced an unforeseeable future.
A small group of pilots and flight attendants reached out to save the very essence that, to many employees, had made Swissair truly unique: the solidarity, the “Swissair spirit”, the identification with the company’s philosophy.”
How can you dislike the place after reading that? It helps, too, that it’s in a prime location right along the Limmat River, which will be even better once the construction on Limmatquai is completed later this year. The outdoor seating is currently underneath the cool stone portico, which is perfect for people like me who love sitting outside but fear the sun (I’m still sunburned from our ski trip last week). And there aren’t any airplane seats out there.
Oh, and yes, they served us peanuts.
did you know they also made a movie about the whole Swiss air thing? I know it was playing in Geneva the past few weeks…