5 Hotel Breakfasts Worth Getting Out Of Bed For. (Or Not.)

This week we pass the mic to our friend Christine Muhlke, who writes the excellent Substack Xtine.

This month we’re handing over our Club Yolo keys to four of our favorite Substackers in the travel world, while we aim to be on holiday. Not completely OOO, as we’re still sending out our Yolo Intel newsletters every Saturday with new stories from our website. (Unfamiliar? Subscribe for free.)

We’re kicking things off with Christine Muhlke, who writes the brilliant newsletter, Xtine. We know Christine from our magazine days—she was a longtime editor at T Magazine and Bon Appétit—and have forever admired her for her impeccable taste and uncanny ability to always be first to know about the coolest new wine bars, hippie sandals, host gifts, plus she always comes back from her extensive travels with the very best, most specific intel. And with that, over to Christine!

What makes a hotel unforgettable? We each have our own list. For you, it might be the view or the bathtub. For me, it’s the breakfast. (And I don’t really eat breakfast!)

I hopped onto the intermittent fasting trend in 2019, the week before I flew to Sicily to write about the cooking school at Rocca delle Tre Contrade, one of the more perfect villas on this earth. Why did I resist their breakfast spread, which took up half the dining room to offer everything from rosy prosciutto to fresh ricotta to a tender-crumbed Bundt cake, its flavor changing each morning? (Luckily the recipe is in their new book.) Once the pandemic travel ban had lifted, the ridiculousness of this missed opportunity made me swear to always order breakfast when traveling. Here are the five most memorable, ranked from best to best.

1/ Auberge de Chassignolles / Chassignolles, France: Most people make a pilgrimage to this hotel deep in the (bizarrely overlooked) Auvergne region for its restaurant, which hosts a promising young chef each summer season, as well as for its exceptional list of natural wines. I can’t wait to return for the breakfast: Almost every item on the table — bread, butter, raw-milk yogurt, granola and many jams — is made in-house, with the cheese coming from the region’s great cheesemakers. Also, they don’t mess around with the coffee and tea. (How many hotels take tea seriously?!)

2/ Ottmanngut / Meran, Italy: This 1850’s guesthouse in South Tyrol is wildly charming. But what tipped me into must-come-back mode was the breakfast. Served in the garden beneath palm and cypress trees, the daily-changing three-course feast is worth its 40-euro price — available to non-guests, too. On my visit, excellent Darjeeling tea and local apple juice were followed by just-baked whole-grain bread with local cheese and marmalade from the larder; housemade yogurt with buckwheat, figs and fig leaf-infused oil; and a surprisingly modern egg dish. The best part? A tap on the toe from the hotel’s pet turtle. The only thing better than enjoying the breakfast was knowing how much Maira Kalman was going to enjoy hers when she checked in a week later. It’s a very Maira place.

3/ Brokkestøylen / Setesdal, Norway: Last summer, while visiting Norway to write about its summer farming, I stayed in a dome at this rural hotel, where the food is as much of a draw as the riverside sauna and cold plunge. Co-owner Gro Furset went out of her way for every meal, but her breakfasts were the most memorable, beginning with the shot of probiotic drinking vinegars that she makes from foraged plants and berries. Breakfast for one takes up half the table, and everything is homemade or local, from the garden veg and neighbor’s cheese to the moose sausage and the butter and jam. It was the buttery almond-flour waffles that I couldn’t get enough of, especially with smoked salmon and cultured cream. Gro even sent me off with a batch for the drive to the next hotel.

4/ Ett Hem / Stockholm, Sweden: The breakfast itself is solidly Scandinavian — hearty, just-baked breads (and croissants) with jam and your own wedge of cheese, cold cuts, eggs however you please, fresh fruit. What’s most memorable is that you can eat it wherever you’d like in what is more home than hotel. One morning in the greenhouse or garden. Another in the living room or library. And, finally, in bed.

5/ Tawaraya / Kyoto, Japan: In the recent post I wrote about Japanese breakfast — how to make it and where to find the best — this ryokan ranked high. Maybe it was the freshly made tofu in the hinoki warmer. Or the salt-grilled mackerel with an onsen egg. Or the fact that dozens of beautiful boxes, bowls, pots and cups filled with the best of everything magically appeared and disappeared without having to get up from the tatami mat. Find the rest of my Kyoto guide here.