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VOL. 9 - ISSUE 1
TRAVELIFE MAGAZINE
A SUITE
WITH A VIEW (and some quiet)
CHRISTINE CUNANAN spends one enchanting evening in Zurich
I
n Zurich just for an overnight stop last month, driving 535 kilometers from Munich to Lausanne, I booked the Storchen Zurich, a member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts Lifestyle Collection, on a whim and a hunch. I was looking for a good hotel in the Old Town Quarter that would enable us to park our car upon arrival and not have to see it again until departure. We simply wanted to walk everywhere and for this purpose all roads seemed to lead to the Storchen Zurich – pardon the pun – right along the Limmat River that eventually flows into Lake Zurich.
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“The piece de resistance was the junior suite on the top floor with a full panel of windows facing the river. It was recently remodeled so that every switch and fixture worked with Swiss efficiency, but nothing was so modern as to actually seem part of the 21st century – save for the state-of-the-art Nespresso machine discretely located in the long corridor of a walk-in closet behind the bedroom.”
IN GOOD COMPANY
UNDERSTATED STYLE
The Storchen Zurich does not proclaim to be one of the grand hotels of Switzerland, but it has an impressive 650 years of history as an inn for important visitors to the city, although the building that now houses this luxury four-star hotel was actually rebuilt in the post-war years.
The Storchen Zurich, which incidentally means “stork” in English, is an impeccably maintained property, old-fashioned and simple to navigate with a modest lobby, a dramatic restaurant and straight corridors leading to its 67 rooms and suites.
It’s much bigger than it looks, and that is part of the magic, as the widest part of the building faces the river so you are oblivious to its size except if you happen to see the hotel from the other side, and its rather discrete entrance is on the narrow end in front of a pretty square with hardly a bustle around it save for tourist traffic. Getting off our car after the long drive, a dignified gentlemen appeared like clockwork within seconds to confirm that we were checking in and to let us know with typical Zurich formality that he would take care of everything from here. This was his version of a welcome, straightforward and unaffected, and it was a sign of things to come.
It’s the kind of hotel that grows on travelers looking for understated comfort over oomph, so that they are drawn to staying here each time, and not just for the hotel itself, as the restaurant regularly draws in local residents seeking perfectly done traditional favorites like lobster bisque and Zurich-style veal with cream and potatoes. In the elevator one day, for instance, we met an elderly couple from the East Coast who visited Zurich often, and who were taking their granddaughters on the modern equivalent of the Grand Tour of Switzerland this time around. “We stay here every year because it’s just so lovely and so near everything,” the wife said. Later on we spotted them having
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TRAVELIFE MAGAZINE The House Favorites
Veal with cream and rosti potatoes
House-smoked Scottish salmon
Lobster bisque with cognac
dinner in the wood-paneled hand-painted dining room of La Rotisserie, the hotel’s gourmet restaurant on the second floor. The ladies were in their cashmere and pearls, as it was a cool evening with the windows open, and they were chatting animatedly as the maitre’d opened an excellent bottle of Bordeaux and decanted it for them tableside. It’s precisely this comforting atmosphere – the fact that you know everything will still be the same next time around – that keeps many regulars returning. Almost everything inside the Storchen Zurich including the doorknobs, the lamps and the coat hangers are old and then repaired rather than replaced; but this lack of newness just adds to its overall charm.
ALL ABOUT THE LOCATION Its very central address also makes it perfect as a base for exploring the city, as well as a cozy home with an excellent restaurant to return to after a long day. After a long day of sightseeing, it’s certainly convenient to just walk down a few steps for a meal in one of the most elegant restaurants in Zurich, or in its more casual Boulevard Café outside in the shade of lime trees.
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“We stay here every year because it’s just so lovely and so near everything, the wife said. Later on we spotted them having dinner in the wood-paneled hand-painted dining room of La Rotisserie, the hotel’s gourmet restaurant on the second floor. The ladies were in their cashmere and pearls, as it was a cool evening with the windows open, chatting animatedly as the maitre’d opened an excellent bottle of Bordeaux and decanted it for them tableside.”
The best of the city, including the most fashionable shops and the lovely restaurants favored by Swiss bankers, are all just a few steps away, as is the Banhofstrasse on one side and the Old Town on the other. Indeed, as a tourist I wanted for nothing except perhaps for more time as this was certainly the best address for someone seeking instant gratification with every step. In fact, my one real regret was not having stayed longer in this underthe-radar haven of genteel luxury. The piece de resistance was the junior suite we occupied on the top floor with a full panel of windows facing the river. It seemed recently remodeled so that every switch and fixture worked with Swiss efficiency, but nothing was so modern as to actually seem part of the 21st century – save for the stateof-the-art Nespresso machine discretely located in the long corridor of a walk-in closet behind the bedroom.
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HOW STORCHEN GOT ITS NAME Legend has it that the name Zum Storchen was adopted by the hotel after a pair of rare black storks nested on its roof. In 1357, the Hus zum Storchen was mentioned in Zurich’s tax records for the first time and just over 100 years later, it was specifically described as an inn.
At 40 square meters, it wasn’t at all a big suite, but it wanted for nothing – not even for space. We had a proper foyer, sofa set and a study desk with views and French windows that opened up so I could gaze at the sun setting on the part of town across the river and hear the church bells from the cathedral, plus the occasional chatter of people strolling along the river. Zurich is not at all a noisy city, but even here, the Storchen Zurich felt like a most comfortable piece of quiet. n
STORCHEN ZURICH www.preferredhotels.com Storchen Zurich is a member of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts Lifestyle Collection.
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