normal magazin nummer23 winter

Nach 29 Jahren wird das Hotel Crystal wieder von der Besitzerfamilie geführt. After 29 years of being leased, Hotel Crystal is be- ing run by members of the von Holzen family.

Nach einem Skitag oder ei- ner Biketour kann man sich im Restaurant stärken. Auch Mittagsmenüs werden angeboten. The restaurant is a great place to go for a meal after a day’s skiing or biking. It also of- fers set lunch menus.

Ein Querschnitt durch das kulinarische Angebot im Restaurant – frisch und einfach. The restaurant serves straightforward dishes made from fresh ingredients.

This summer, a new era began at Hotel Crystal, which belongs to the Holzen-Bechter family. After 29 years of being leased out, the business has now been taken over by members of the family. And ever since, there’s been a devilish touch to the hotel. Hotel Cr ystal belongs to Ernst and Gaby von Holzen-Bechter, who also own multi- media business Ernst von Holzen AG. Af ter purchasing the hotel in 1989, they renovated the building and added dormers. They live in the penthouse apar tment and have always

clif f with the help of his mountaineer friends Ruedi und Ueli Blatter. It was quite a sight: the ar tist giving remote instructions to the two brothers hanging on ropes. “A little more red,” he cried. “Make the ears more pointed.” A small version of the rock now hangs up in the restaurant. Is that the only devilish thing in Hotel Cr ystal? “Yes, apar t from me and my sister,” winks Sandra. When the two girls were small, no one would have believed they would ever go into business together. “As kids, we were always squabbling,” says Fabienne. “When Sandra moved in with me in Berne in 2002, the people back in our home village were plac- ing bets on who would be the first to move out.” But these days the two sisters work as an ef ficient and harmonious team. Sandra actually ended up in Engel- berg by chance. She was about to move away from nearby Hergiswil and decided to go out to the Yucatan nightclub one last time. And that’s when she met her future husband Philipp! Af ter a year in Berne, she decided to return to Engelberg forever. Sandra, Philipp and their two children live right nex t door to the hotel, which allows Sandra to con- veniently combine her job and family life. The Tuifelsstei ser ves simple, fresh cui- sine such as high-quality risotto, pizza and pas- ta dishes. Italian chef Antonio Puppio ran his own restaurant in his home village of San Fele in the Basilicata region for seven years before a Swiss customer persuaded him to move to Swit- zerland. Af ter working in Liestal, Ascona and Stansstad, Antonio is now delighted to be head chef at the Cr ystal. “Il lavoro è non solo soldi, in cucina è amore,” he says. “Work isn’ t about the money, when you work in the kitchen it’s love.”

leased out the operation of the hotel beneath. But now family members have taken on the running of the hotel: the couple’s daughter-in-law Sandra von Holzen and her sister Fabienne Bolliger. Both

Im Hotel wurden die Zimmer und die Alpensauna renoviert. The hotel’s rooms and sauna have been redecorated. A devil of a place!

Hotel Crystal is run by sis- ters Sandra von Holzen and Fabienne Bolliger.

women have many years’ experience work- ing in prominent Swiss hotels. Sandra tells me that she learned much of what she knows from Iris Burch at the Schweizerhof in Engelberg. The new managers have redecorated the guest rooms and the sauna and opened a new restaurant, called Tuifelsstei (Devil ’s Rock) af ter an old Engelberg stor y. Legend has it that a group of wives were on a pilgrimage to the Horbis chapel to pray to the mother of God for a child. The Devil was watching and disapproved. He decided to hurl a mighty rock down onto the chapel. While he was taking a rest af ter collecting his missile, a peasant woman came by and marked a cross on the back of the rock. Af ter that, it wouldn’ t budge. The Devil screamed with fur y and vanished in a f lash of sulphurous fire, leaving his ghastly outline imprinted on the front of the rock. At some stage, that image faded, and in the 1960s famous Engelberg painter José de Nève de- cided to paint a new Devil on the legendar y

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g astronomie | food+drink

gastronomie | food+drink