A Swiss local in Lausanne was the first to tell me about Café Romand, “It’s one of those places where – and how do you say it? – those men who are very pretty, that sometimes dress as women wood bookcases, go. You would like it!”

I’m still trying to figure out what that means because no one’s every called me “pretty”, and my only experience wearing women’s clothing was trying on my mother’s Emilio Pucci pumps (how could I not mothers day flowers deliver?) when I was around eight years old.


Plus the various times I’ve been to Café Romand, it was filled with families and locals, gathered around the wooden room, dipping bread into fondue pots or pondering a newspaper while having an afternoon coffee. The only pumps I saw were on the espresso machines.



To finish up our time in Switzerland with my tour group, we had lunch at the café, tucking in our last taste of Switzerland. I chose the perch with potatoes and salad craft embellishment storage, a specialty of the Lake Geneva (Léman) region, while one of my guests (who was eating a three-star dinner that night) opted for a simple cheese sandwich.