EBG Rating: 7.7/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Superb cocktails with inventive, if compact selection.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Lovecraft-inspired space. Unexpected as you walk around light-industrial state type warehouses at the end of a cul-de-sac. A small raised area leads to a one room bar, with colourful modern fittings and decorations that dip into Steampunk with a pink airship in the corner. Antique portraiture, appealing arches set into the bar. Somewhere between typical modern and actually inventive and superior.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Despite the effort to give it a rarefied air, the positive aspect is there is a reasonably casual, fun atmosphere. Group bookings can change the feel quickly though.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Escape game, open air cinema, outdoor seating, snacks

Value For Money:
❤️❤️
Typical Geneva prices, which is to say, not cheap.

Description:
As you walk around light-industrial state type warehouses at the end of a cul-de-sac, images of steampunk, Lovecraft and vintage photography do not exactly spring to mind. This is the edge of Carouge, an otherwise pleasant semi-urban bourgeoise district with a young crowd and energy.

Le Catalpa is tucked around the side of this and offers both inventive cocktails and a superior space to drink them in.

While in some aspects a typical modern bar – the furniture for example, there are sparks of invention and the overall execution is very positive. It also attracts a casual younger audience which makes it feel fun rather than pompous.

The bar is adjoined to both an Escape Room and an outdoor cinema, making it very much a contemporary operation, where the bar is about ‘the experience’. Stripped back though, a drink and socialising works well here and although you’ll need to stiffen your resolve to pay these Swiss prices, that is the going rate!

(Added March 2026)