Zürich’s Widder Hotel has teamed up with much-loved Zermatt restaurant, Chez Vrony, to host a pop-up restaurant that will let diners experience authentic mountain hut food surrounded by city traffic rather than mountains.
Imagine sitting in a cosy mountain cabin, eating raclette, sipping Champagne and listening to the sound of a crackling chimney fire – what usually requires a trip up a remote mountain village will be temporarily possible in downtown Zürich.
Historic Hotel Widder has paired up with one of Zermatt’s most famous restaurants, Chez Vrony, to host a pop-up restaurant in the hotel courtyard until February 2019, bringing with it a series of mountain treats and that remote cabin feeling. ‘Our general manager and his wife worked in Zermatt for ten years, where they met Max and Vrony from Chez Vrony, and they have been very close friends ever since’, Lara Savastano from Hotel Widder told Lonely Planet. ‘This year they decided to bring Chez Vrony to Zürich and recreate the feeling and atmosphere of it at the Widder Hotel.’
But how are they hoping to create the feeling of being in the mountains in a busy city, especially one that is often lacking snow even in winter? ‘We carefully selected the right materials and decoration to create a world of its own,’ Savastano told Lonely Planet about the set-up, which has now become one of the hotel’s biggest projects. ‘We, for example, play with odours to stimulate all the senses and try our best to compile the perfect menu for the venue,’ she added.
The menu focuses on raclette and champagne: ‘we offer five different types of cheese for the raclette. One is champagne infused; it is produced with Ruinart Champagne and is made by a local farmer especially for our hotel,’ explained Savastano.
Even if you are not big on cheese, there will be something in it for you. ‘We also offer some signature dishes from Chez Vrony such as the meat platter,’ adds Savastano. And it doesn’t stop there; as a sweet treat the pop-up restaurant serves Vrony’s famous apple pie: ‘the recipe has been passed down to Vrony by her mother.’ The pop-up restaurant is taking bookings from now until February 2019.
