The "Bouton d'Or" in Lapoutroie, at the "girl of the forest"

It is not by chance that we come to "Bouton d’Or" on the heights of Lapoutroie in Haut-Rhin in Alsace. A small bucolic road climbs through meadows to the edge of the forest. There, at an altitude of 750 m, an old Vosges farm from 1776 has been transformed into a small charming hotel-restaurant. The view embraces the valley and goes as far as the Faudé tower at the top of the eponymous mountain. The panorama from the terrace is the most delicious appetizer!

If we point out to her that she is far from everything, Sylvine Pirola only laughs: “But no, everything is nearby even if you have to take the car to go shopping! And a few minutes by car is nothing compared to the living environment we enjoy here, look around you! » The only concession she has to make is to participate in trade shows (where we met her) to make herself known. “You should know that the restaurant and the hotel exist to come to us since we are neither in the center of a town nor along a busy road. But since then, we have had a lot of regulars who come.”

“My grandparents had an inn in the Orbey region and it was clear to me that I wanted to have a place like that. There is no question of living in the city and raising children there,” says the mother and grandmother of two children and two grandchildren with conviction. Maybe also because here first name means forest?

Sylvine Pirola’s enthusiasm is contagious. It's been 22 years since she bought the old farm which was transformed into a small hotel in the 90s to turn it into a comfortable inn with around ten rooms and a restaurant where its lovely to settle. Without forgetting the sauna and the Finnish bath with a view of the valley and the kota grill for convivial moments. The “sparkling evenings” are very successful: an hour of sauna and Finnish bath with a glass of crémant followed by a “gallows” dinner… quite a program!

This famous gallows is a bit like the “signature dish” of the “Bouton d’or”: prawns and scallops or pieces of beef and duck stuck are on the gallows ball and flambéed at the table.

For the fans, the chef also offers a gallows dessert formula with fresh fruit flambéed in rum and a chocolate sauce... What's nice is that the chef prepares a mini gallows even for children (the gallows are for two people).

“It’s a concept that we discovered a few years ago during a trip to the Swiss Alps,” says Sylvine, who entrusted the cooking to Emmanuel Roche.

Her kitchen chef and partner in life, a trained charcutier-caterer, has worked in some of the most beautiful establishments, at Trois-Gros, Bocuse, at Tour d’Argent and at Pré Catelan. “I wanted to get back to basics,” confides the chef who opened an inn in Lunéville before joining Sylvine in her little sylvan paradise.

There is no question for the chef of distorting the good Alsatian dishes with local ingredients coming mainly from nearby farms, just bringing a little more pep like this Munster flambé with cumin alcohol. It is in the suggestions that he allows itself more “liberties”. No wonder guests come back!

Hotel Restaurant Le Bouton d'Or, Logis de France, 31, le Bermont, F-68650 Lapoutroie
Tel. 03 89 47 50 95.
Restaurant closed Monday lunchtime and Wednesday all day (public holidays open, please contact us). On Wednesday evenings, half-board service is provided in season, with only one dish offered that evening: baeckaoffa, an alsatian specialty.

PLEASE NOTE: The days following public holidays will be closed; example: Monday May 1st open at noon, Tuesday May 2nd noon closed.

Hours of service: 12 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Located between the Alsace plain and the Vosges massif, the inn is also a good base for visiting Alsace: the Kaysersberg valley, Colmar, Riquewihr, the vineyard, the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, Gérardmer. Without forgetting the numerous hiking possibilities.