Verbier focus in FT

[Tony]

An excerpt of an interesting article on Verbier's recent development on last weekend's Financial Times:

Watch out, the Brits are coming
By Gillian Tett

Published: January 12 2007 19:30 | Last updated: January 12 2007 19:30

In the Swiss hamlet of Clambin, tucked in a dense pine forest just above the ski resort of Verbier, is a restaurant called Chez Dany. For decades it has enjoyed a special status among the English and Swiss skiers who head for Verbier each year. The food always tended to be mediocre, limited to croute (a local version of melted cheese on bread) or spag bol (spaghetti bolognaise). But the restaurant’s location offered stunning mountain views. Moreover, Chez Dany seemed to sum up Verbier – it might be wealthy but it was also slightly scruffy and so focused on skiing that there wasn’t much time left for a fancy lunch.

But these days, a revolution is under way in Clambin, which points to bigger changes in this corner of the Alps. Five months ago, Dany Michaud, a local who set up the restaurant five decades ago, decided to sell.

This looked poised to seal Chez Dany’s fate as Michaud received a high offer from a Danish man who wanted to build a swanky private chalet on that spot. “There were people wanting to buy Chez Dany at almost any price,” recalls Jean-Pierre Morand, chairman of Téléverbier, the company that runs the resort’s ski lifts. “[Property] prices have shot up here recently [because of] buyers from London.”

But then salvation suddenly appeared. The news of the impending sale trickled through to a group of wealthy British financiers who all ski in Verbier and who often ate at Chez Dany. They decided the restaurant needed to be saved. Charlie Berman, a keen skier who works for Citigroup in London and owns a chalet in Verbier, says: “To lose such a famous restaurant situated in a genuinely spectacular location would have been very negative for the resort.”

Berman joined forces with a dozen people who work in the City of London and are skiers – “mostly old friends”, he says – to buy a 66 per cent stake in Chez Dany for several million Swiss francs. Téléverbier then took a 33 per cent stake. In mid-December, the wooden shack opened for business, marking the first time that a City consortium has run a restaurant in Verbier.

For the full article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cc995ad4-a1a...0779e2340.html

[verbier61]

nice insight, thanks!
The whole issue is described correctly. This is the winter of the brit invasion. What you hear inside the attelas lift this winter is what (in my memories...) you usually hear inside the piccadilly tube line... and you can like it or not.
Locals don't like it. Real estate skyrocketed, and now it's so hard to find where to live for average-income swiss people, not to mention bums. The anti-rich stickers on the local cars are blooming. Reactions are also in sight: the usual "waiting time" to buy a property if you're foreigner recently rose from 2 years to 8 years... And a number of projects for superluxury chalets have been dropped by the commune officies for the first time in many, many years.
Said that, it should be also said that in the past 14 years I've seen some other invasions too. The sweden, the finn, then the russian.... still verb survived, albeit surely changed. Oh, well, should it become like st moritz, then I'll definitely fly away.... let's hope verb will remain the anti-st.m place of choice...

and, by the way, the verb restaurant still managed by the one who took chez dany is still the best and the cheapest in verb (IMVHO, of course)

[Tony]

I knew you would enjoy this one.

I wonder how those anti-rich stickers read: Zity banqueur allez chez Blair!

Cheers.

[Toadman]

Sounds like Chez Dany has the 3 ingredients to be successful. Hope to maybe hit Verbier next winter, so I'll have to keep this place in mind.

[verbier61]

the stickers say sorta "how we like all these new building sites for rich people in verbier..." but with a single french word ("chantiers" instead than "verbier" on the classic verbier val de bagnes sticker)