It would actually be difficult to find a dining room table in Lausanne that does not have a glorious view of Lake Leman and the Alps. Certainly, restaurant and hotel owners know how to take advantage of this, one of the most romantic vistas in Europe.

    (Prices below are in Swiss francs, which at the moment are nearly at parity with the U.S. dollar. VAT and service are included.)

 

LAUSANNE PALACE

Rue du Grand Chêne 7-9

+41 (0)21 331 31 31

 

    The grand Belle Epoque building and garden take up a lot of ground in the middle of the city, yet the hotel has only 140 rooms, with 44 suites. Opened in 1915, it has long served as the official hotel of the International Olympic Committee and has a large complement of business travelers who appreciate the quiet ambiance and privacy afforded them.

    La Brasserie Grand Chêne, serving classic Parisian fare and plats du jour, is open throughout the day, and the Bar 1915 and Havana Cigar Bar are as popular with locals as with visitors. La Côte Jardin is a Mediterranean restaurant with a wonderful verandah, and Sushi Zen—unusual for a Lausanne hotel—is considered one of the city's finest Japanese restaurants.

    But the hotel’s most illustrious restaurant is La Table d’Edgard (below), under Chef Edgard Bovier and young Chef de Cuisine Andres Arocena (he’s from the Basque country and worked under Martin Arzak). The menu is Iberian and Mediterranean, beginning with bite-sized tapas of jabugo bellota ham and ricotta with truffled parmesan; pissaladière flatbread with an aïoli, and an unexpected Indian samosa pastries of juicy beef cheeks confit. Lobster “primavera” comes with fresh peas and stuffed zucchini flowers (below).
      For the main part of the meal Arocena uses springtime’s most tender asparagus paired with red Sicilian shrimp and lemon dressing, while crispy langoustines come with a zucchini flower soufflé containing a fish mousse.  Plump morels are stuffed with mashed potatoes, garlic and orange, while ravioli are plumped with mackerel and accompanied by squid ink crêpes. Porchetta is suckling pig, long roasted to achieve a crunchy skin and milky flesh, accompanied by a sweet-sour kumquat condiment; and beef is enhanced with creamy burrata cheese, foie gras and black truffles and creamed potatoes.

    Everything had the brightness and freshness of dishes obviously made à la minuit, and, over a ten-day visit to Switzerland, this was one of the finest, most inventive dinners I had. 

There are three menus, a prix fixe at CHF78, a “Mediterranean Sun” dinner at CHF145 and a “Signature Menu” at CHF185. (Wine pairings available at extra cost.)

 

HOTEL ROYAL SAVOY LAUSANNE

Avenue d'Ouchy

41 21 614 88 88

 

    Opened in 1909, the Royal Savoy, done in a spirited Art Nouveau style, was bought in 2009 by Qatar-based Katara Hospitality and underwent a much-needed five-year renovation, to re-open in 2015 with 196 rooms, indoor and outdoor pools and spa, so that it is now as up-to-date as any hotel in Europe. For years the Spanish royal family stayed there while in exile; these days everyone comes and goes as they please.

    The Brasserie du Royal is composed of four connected dining venues, all featuring the food and wines of the Vaud region. The Lounge Bar and Lobby Bar are pleasantly secluded and open for breakfast and all-day dining, and in the Sky Lounge international cuisine is offered from noon till midnight.

    The Brasserie du Royal’s signature fine dining restaurant is overseen by renowned Strasbourg chef Marc Haeberlin, of Auberge de L’Ill, with a menu that evokes many of the famous dishes of that longstanding three-star restaurant. You approach the restaurant through a hall leading to a temperature-controlled vitrine, where Executive Chef Sebastian Cassagnol proudly shows off the grass-fed beef and meats aging for up to four weeks, which includes tenderloin, prime rib, veal flank and Angus ribeye.

    You then enter a room in soft colors of gray and beige, the lighting fairly low. My wife and I chose a menu that began with scallops and leeks and creamy risotto with truffles, foie gras and butter—an exceptionally rich dish very much in the Haeberlin style. Our main courses included Swiss beef and a chicken breast with a “carbonara” of celery. Dessert was a strawberry tart with almond cream and a scent of tarragon with strawberry sorbet; and a preserved “Pear Haeberlin” in a Champagne zabaglione and pistachio ice cream (right).

    By the way, the wine list at the Brasserie is rich with Swiss bottlings. Sommelier Vincent Planche says that “Out of 270 different wines on our list, 70 percent are Swiss and 70 percent of those are from the local Vaud region.” The hotel also uniquely offers a “Vintage Lavaux” package that features an excursion to a local Lavaux vineyard, a picnic lunch with the winemaker and a wine and chocolate pairing.  The one-night package starts at CHF1,220 for two people.

 
 

 Photo: Robert Miller

BEAU RIVAGE

Chemin de Beau-Rivage 21

+41 21 613 33 33

 

    The Beau Rivage is one of Lausanne’s oldest grand hotels, dating to 1861, and its impressive straddling of the waterfront gives its colonnaded terraces glorious views of the passage of time and light on the lake and mountains throughout the day. You may dine on these terraces at lunch and at twilight, which is particularly romantic as the skies turn myriad shades of orange and violet.  The great lobby, with its huge marble columns and vast corridors connecting the hotel’s wings, is as impressive as any in Europe.

    All the rooms were renovated between 2012 and 2014 by interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon in soft pastels with careful placement of mirrors.

    The hotel has an extensive array of children’s activities too, from a treasure hunt to pastry making and a tour of the hotel behind the scenes.

    Aside from breakfast, I did not have a chance to dine at the Beau Rivage, but it is worth noting that their main dining room is under the helm of noted French chef Anne-Sophie Pic (right), whose own restaurant in Valence has three Michelin stars.  On-premises chef de cuisine is Paolo Boscaro, who has earned two stars for Beau Rivage. There is a business lunch menu at CHF95, an “Emotion” menu at CHF260 and a Pic Collection at CHF350.

 

TOUT UN MONDE

Place du Village 7

Bourg-en-Lavaux

 

    Just fifteen minutes from Lausanne, in the Vaud wine country that rambles in terraces down to the lake, is a darling small restaurant named Tout un Monde hovering above the vineyards on a kind of promontory in the little village of Bourg-en-Lavaux. Chef Yohann Magne cooks very much from the provender in the area in a lovely dining room enclosed by glass, all kept running with simple grace by partner Celine Gsponer. It’s an ideal getaway from the city and a chance to visit a vineyard and then have a lunch that is guided by what those estates provide.

    We had a leisurely lunch there, beginning with little pastry balls with baby spinach called malekoff, followed by a risotto with lake trout and a surprising sprinkling of popcorn. Boutefass was a hearty sausage of pork, carrots and herbs with potato gratin, and there was an equally homey rabbit stew with polenta. Dessert was a cold coconut mousse and a classic poire Belle-Helene. There are daily specials at lunch with recommended Lavaux wines.

    Menus are à la carte, with main courses averaging CHF45, with a set menu at CHF59.

NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani
Photos by Dan Krieger

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

 

    Back in the 1990s the wines of Rioja were a game-changer in the way the world perceived Spanish wines, after decades when most being exported were indifferently blended reds without vintages, along with commercial sangria poured over ice.

    Early in the 20th century phylloxera devastated vineyards, then came the Civil War and World War II, and modern viticutural techniques like stainless steel took time to appear in Spain. By the 1960s the industry was rebounding and expanding, though many of the tintos (reds) were blends without vintage dates until well into the 1990s and more than 30 cooperatives made the abundance of Spanish wine. In fact, it is still legal to use up to 15% from another vintage from the one listed on the label.

    Probably the only name known to serious wine lovers that would rank with the best French and Italian wines back in the late 1980s was Vega Sicilia, a single estate that later acquired a Rioja appellation.

    Rioja, which received DOCA status only in 1991, is now Spain’s leading wine region, with three zones. Bodegas Ramon Bilbao is located in Haro, within the prestigious La Rioja Alta region, spread over 185 acres, with vines averaging 35 years of age. The vineyards are never irrigated, largely non-trellised and hand-harvested. The grapes are 80% Tempranillo with various amounts of Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, and spend time in stainless steel, concrete tanks and oak barrels that are 60% American and 40% French. Production averages 365,000 cases per year.

    Rodolfo Bastida (above) has been Technical Director and General Manager of the Bodegas, and has assembled a team with women in top positions—Sara Buñuelos as Technical Director and Rosana Lisa as Director of Innovation and Deputy Technical Director.

    I had the opportunity to interview Bastida over dinner at New York’s Aretsky’s Patroon restaurant, where a massive, well-seared ribeye was the perfect accompaniment with Ramón Bilbao’s big red wines. But first we enjoyed an Albariño, a sprightly white wine (not a Rioja) with fine minerality and acidity, usually poured at tapas bars.

    Bastida explained, “Albariño is best known in Galicia,” to which it was probably brought by French Cluny monks as of the 12th century. “The word means `white’ (alba) and `Rhine’ (riño), and is thought to be a clone of Riesling. It grows best in a granite soil, so you get those flinty flavors that make it so refreshing.” Ramón Bilbao’s Albariño sells for only $13.

He also poured a delicious Bilbao Lalomba Rosé ($50), the result of a singular early harvest in 2015 with a very hot summer. “The name means ‛the hill,’ and it’s a single vineyard rosé made from 90% Garnacha and 10% Viura [a Rioja name for the Macabeo]. The high acidity gives it a long life you don’t often see with rosés.”

    Bastida was born in Rioja, attained a degree in Technical Agricultural Engineering, a Master’s in Viticulture and Oenology and a Master’s in Business Management. He first worked in an experimental winery in the Cariñena region, then at Domaine Breton before joining Bilbao in 1999, when he innovated growing in higher altitude vineyards than is usual for Tempranillo, which Bastida says gives the varietal more complexity and finesse without losing the boldness that characterizes Riojas.

    He says that, “Winemaking can be like painting. You can use a big brush and a big pot of one color to obtain something that’s pretty bland and uninteresting. Or you can use a small brush, with lots of small pots of different colors to give character and complexity.”

    He has also witnessed how global warming is rapidly changing the way viniculture will be pursued in the future. “My grandfather used to pick 25 days later than we do now,” he said, indicating that the grapes get to full ripeness much earlier than they used to.

    The Rioja Gran Reserva 2011 ($40), made from 90% Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo, is big, sensual, voluptuous, yet it has only 14% alcohol. I told him it is the Penelope Cruz of Spanish wines.The grapes go through cold maceration and fermentation over eight days, then a final nine days of  maceration on the skins, then racked from the stainless steel vats and placed in American oak barrels for 30 months. After bottling it spends an additional 36 months aging.

    One of Bilbao’s more unusual wines is called Mirto, meaning “myrtle,” made from 100% Tempranillo. We sampled the 2014 vintage ($65) and one from 1999 (Bastida’s first, no longer available), about which he waxes poetic: “We feel the beat of things from the heart. We pump our dream, now converted into wine, from our stock into your glass. A wine inside, from the deepest part of our homeland, from what truly moves us.” Maybe so, but what I tasted were two very beautiful wines with their own character.

    The 2014 harvest went very well, with grapes showing heterogeneous ripeness. It spent 19 months in new French Allier oak casks and was bottled without any fining or filtering, which certainly explains the rich, deep character. The 1999 had aged impressively, and still is evolving, tasting of wine whose every element of tannin, fruit and acid have melded into an intense velvety rush that envelops the palate and lasts a long time in the finish.

    Despite its output, Ramon Bilbao wines have achieved an international reputation and sell a good amount in the U.S. and a small amount in China. I asked Bastida if China was going to be an expanding market for Spanish wines. Like many vintners I’ve asked the same question, he shrugged, wary of all the vagaries of cultural differences and economic forces in constant flux. “I will tell you this,” he said. “The U.S. buys wines and drinks them; the Chinese buy prestige wines to show off and the rest to drink with ice cubes and Coca-Cola.”