The Ground Squirrel Café

The Ground Squirrel Café

Crew

Evelyne Buttet

01

Evelyne Buttet

Illustrator, writer & barista

Evelyne Buttet likes African wildlife and everything that can fly or lives above the tree line. She grew up in a small Swiss mountain valley on the foot of Mount Pilatus. When she's not exploring the bushes, she loves to play the ukulele, eat granola or turn her vivid imagination into creative texts and colorful illustrations.

She dreams of traveling the world sustainably and protecting wildlife. Her dream became true in March 2025 - and since then, you can find her on the road, running the ground squirrel café.

Spirit animal
Golden mantled ground squirrel, but living in a tree house
Inspired by
Dani Connor Wild, Jane Goodall and John Strelecky
  • Swiss Bachelor of Arts in Primary Education
  • African Field Guide - NQF2
  • Certified writer education with focus on child and youth literature
Frank Zheng

02

Frank Zheng

Engineer, barista & solar wizard

Frank likes lavender, fluffy bumblebees, golden larch trees in fall, and playing the guitar with just four chords. He spent his teenage years living in specialty coffee shops in Berlin before he left the artist capital for his master's degree in the Swiss mountains.

He dreams of traveling the world sustainably, protecting nature and the environment, and building his own solar system for vanlife. His dreams became true in March 2025 - and since then, his projects are powered by the sun and produced on the road.

Spirit animal
California ground squirrel, but also living in a tree house
Inspired by
Isabel Paige, Gregory Alan Isakov, Hozier, Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani
  • Swiss Master's degree in Electrical Engineering
  • 5 years of professional experience as an electrical engineer
Humbär
Humbär

03

Humbär

Classic car, home & solar-powered café on wheels

Humbär likes nature-surrounded gravel roads, running at his own pace, beautiful scenery, and of course, old dinosaur juice. He's the oldest of us all, born in 1992 in canton Schaffhausen, where he spent his early years serving Swiss Post logistics, followed by a long chapter with a flea market dealer touring markets, before being kept by a classic car and motorcycle enthusiast. He finally found us on a snowy, dark winter day. The buses had stopped running, and we had to trudge through deep snow just to meet him for the first time. It was love at first sight.

He dreams of seeing the world and being a proper home and café wherever he goes. His dream became true in March 2025, and since then you find him on the road, sheltering Evelyne and Frank and sharing his cozy café on wheels with kind-hearted, wholesome people he meets along the way.

Spirit animal
Extra fluffy and very spacious bumblebee (aka Bumblepuutz)
Inspired by
His own interior, and the person who looked after him so well - Humbär is built, not bought
Bumblepuutz

04

Bumblepuutz

Our mascot, one fat, fluffy bumblebee

Bumblepuutz loves fields full of wildflowers, sunny rays and honey in every variation. We met Bumblepuutz after three months of being a couple, on our one-month road trip along the US West Coast. We were strolling along the seaside piers of San Francisco, watching sea lions, when Frank suddenly had a huge urge to visit a honey shop instead. It still feels like it was yesterday when Frank spotted Bumblepuutz and couldn't take his eyes off it. There was no way we'd leave the fat little bumblebee behind, so it started traveling with us, almost from the very beginning.

Bumblepuutz dreams of finding a homestead in a bee-friendly environment with lots of flowers, trees and wild animals around. Time will tell when we find that place and make Bumblepuutz's dream come true one day.

Spirit animal
Big grizzly bear in the Alaskan wilderness
Inspired by
Nature

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