Charlotte Cattaneo, the night in your heart
In Geneva, some destinies are born in hushed offices. Charlotte Cattaneo’s was written between a sanitaryware workshop and Geneva nights, based on an insolent intuition. Ten years after opening Maison Balkiiand a few years after Rumi’sin the heart of Eaux-Vives, she embodies a generation of entrepreneurs who have learned by doing, through instinct, mistakes and flair.
An arcade, a street and a hunch
With Charlotte, there’s no founding myth linked to childhood. The trigger came later. She’s not a homebody, she’s sociable. Intensely so. The world attracts her, movement nourishes her and the night bewitches her. When the hotel business was just opening its arms to her, she turned to management, obtaining a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree in real estate in Geneva. Serious when she has to be, brilliant in the face of deadlines, but always caught up in social life.
She joins the family business. Construction, real estate, sanitaryware. A career path almost laid out for her. And yet… on rue Henri-Blanvalet in Eaux-Vives, her father owned a workshop that had become useless over time. At the same time, the neighborhood was beginning to throb. The first bars were opening and the night was awakening.
Maison Balkii, the literal home
She prefers to imagine a cocktail bar, a basement that calls out to the music, a descent of steps as a passageway to another atmosphere. She’s 25 years old, with no mixology experience and no license, but a tenacious conviction. Her father gives her carte blanche and trusts her. She’ll learn the rest on the job.
From the outset, the word “home” was an obvious choice. Not for the sake of marketing flair, but because of a tenacious intention: to turn a space into a refuge. A place where staff know customers’ first names, where their favorite cocktails are served without them having to order them. The beginnings are cobbled-together, a little inexperienced, with the dizzying sensation of being in the process of creating something without measuring the rules.
When success demands rigor
From the outset, she surrounded herself with her best friend, Alexandre de Rham, who came from the world of electronic parties, able to bring a network, DJs and party culture to the table. They set up the project without the help of banks, on their own, because it’s also a way of staying in control. She takes care of administrative matters, accounting and human resources. And she learns everything else – alcohol, recipes, suppliers, team management, room reflexes – directly, in real-life conditions.
The first year was tough. Then “it works”. Too much so. Very quickly, we had to channel, filter and secure. Controls follow one another. The fines are a reminder that you can’t “make a night of it” in a city like Geneva without accepting the discipline that goes with it. And in this business, when “it works”, it makes noise and arouses suspicion. There are rumors, denunciations, spectacular raids, moments when reality comes crashing down on you without warning. Charlotte can take it. She holds her ground. She’s learning to be a boss.
In turning away a hundred people a night, she understands that it’s no longer about ego gratification or partying: it’s about space. She obtains a second arcade next door. Not to expand, but to create two identities. On the one hand, Maison Balkii remains a place of pure celebration: flow, energy, the night as a rhythm of life. Rumi’s, on the other hand, plays a different score: a more sedate, more aesthetic, more bespoke venue. A circular bar as a center of gravity, allowing a panoramic field of vision and transforming the place into a theater stage: we see, we are seen, we cross paths, we talk to each other.
Ten years on, credibility
Charlotte saw her initial naivety as an opportunity. If she’d been able to predict the amount of constraints, the harshness of some nights, the tensions, the employees to supervise, the rules to learn in a hurry… would she have dared? Perhaps not. Today, she can claim a certain pride. A recent pride. The kind that comes with time. Ten years in business, solid figures outside the pandemic, new projects being proposed. Credibility has set in. She has taken out a patent, consolidated the company, professionalized every aspect. The mistakes of youth have given way to mastery.
The new generation consumes differently, earlier, less alcohol, more “sans”, hybrid drinks, “healthy” trends. Charlotte observes, adjusts, without denying the DNA: “the night remains an outlet, crisis or no crisis. People will always need to go out,” she rightly reminds us.
What’s next?
Charlotte loves projects. Set up, structure, run. Then start again somewhere else. She sees Geneva as still too wise, lacking in elegant concepts and addresses that dare to be new in a serious way. Can she imagine ten more years at Les Eaux-Vives? Yes, if the energy remains intact. If the house continues to vibrate. In a street once considered soulless, she has created an epicenter. Not just a bar… a place to live.
