1985

1985 Review

Named for the year it opened, this restaurant serves traditional French and Swiss cuisine in an eclectic mix of dining rooms. It holds the strange distinction of occupying the only building in Panama City that resembles a Swiss chalet. The owner, chef Willy Dingelman, trained in Lausanne then moved to Panama three decades ago, and has since developed a small restaurant and wine-importing empire. They consequently have an excellent wine cellar. When President Ricardo Martinelli was on the campaign trail, Dingelman promised he'd share a $15,000 bottle if he won the election; there's a photo of the post-election moment on the wall at the entrance. Dingelman's original Swiss restaurant, called the Rincón Suizo, is now a rustic dining room in the back of 1985—two menus under one roof. The decor is a bit of this and a bit of that, with a cluttered collection of chairs and couches in the long entrance, but people come here for the food, such as chicken cordon bleu, tenderloin in green peppercorn sauce, raclette, bratwurst, or Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (veal chunks in a mushroom cream sauce).