Chef of once popular Swiss Cafe now living in Reno homeless shelter

Regulars of the once popular but now defunct Swiss Cafe will be saddened, even shocked, to learn that chef Wolfgang Haubold is now living in a homeless shelter in Reno. Wolfgang and his wife, Mary, ran the restaurant, located first downtown, then later on Tropicana Avenue, and both worked hard.

Frank Mullen, a reporter with the Reno Gazette Journal, interviewed Wolfgang for his March 28 piece on the changing face of Reno’s homeless population. Wolfgang told Mullen he took to the road after his marriage broke up and he wound up homeless in Reno.

“I’m lucky to have gotten a bed in the shelter,” he said in the article. The less fortunate live in a tent city across from the men’s shelter.

The last time I wrote about the Haubolds and their restaurant was in 2005 when I made them my “Best of Las Vegas.” He was German, she was English and at that time, they had been married more than 30 years. I’d been one of their customers for decades.

In 1982, they bought the restaurant on Charleston Avenue from a couple that had operated it for 10 years. In 1995, they relocated to the Tropicana site. They operated one of those places where the food was quality and reasonably priced, and where they knew their loyal customers. But somehow, not enough loyal downtown customers made the transition to the second restaurant site.

When I think of the Haubolds, I remember how hard they worked. I remember how he'd emerge from the kitchen covered in sweat to offer a cheerful hello. Yet today he is living in a homeless shelter.