Anna Selby checks into Salzburg’s Hyperion Hotel, where history, hospitality and a cleverly composed “Sound of Music” menu offer an irresistible harmony in the heart of Austria’s most musical city…
Around 150 years ago, major changes were taking place in Salzburg, during which the city’s old defences were abandoned, along with numerous building restrictions, thus enabling a new era of architecture to be born. Among the builders was Moritz Faber, a brewery owner from Vienna, who developed some of the most central sites including the four buildings now known as the Faber Houses – together, Palais Faber – that drew on the style of the Viennese Ringstrasse. So, we’re definitely talking imposing here…
Over the course of its history, Palais Faber – part of Salzburg’s UNESCO World Heritage Site –has housed apartments, offices and a bank. Now, it’s home to the Hyperion Hotel, opened just three years ago, retaining its historic style but injecting some very contemporary comforts. And, being almost opposite the Mirabell Gardens, it couldn’t be better situated. Especially this year, which sees the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the film, The Sound of Music.
The Mirabell Gardens are most memorable for Julie Andrews dancing round the fountain with the children and teaching them the “Doh-Re-Me” song. There have been literally millions of visitors drawn to Salzburg who are there to see the movie location. Unsurprisingly, there are specialist Sound of Music tour buses, you can go on hikes through the mountains like the von Trapps (though it’s not necessary to go all the way to Switzerland) and bike rides on Maria-style old fashioned bicycles with baskets. There are film showings and lots of events in the theatre featuring the musical – so it’s a bit of a must for fans of the film.
In the Hyperion Hotel, they’ve produced a special Salzburg Sound menu, featuring food that has links to the film and its songs. Their chef, Michael Daus, has taken up this idea with gusto and run with it – very successfully. He’s worked in numerous restaurants in Germany, Australia, Spain and Switzerland (many with a Michelin star or two) and his style is a mixture of alpine with Mediterranean, with a dash of Asian thrown in. There’s a big emphasis on freshness and a little acidity for zest – he’s a very creative chef and likes a bit of humour, too. So this menu was just the challenge for him.
It starts then with “Uncle Max’s pink lemonade”, a drink for the children that appears in the film though no one has ever known what was in it. Daus’s version, though, is decidedly pink but also quite citrussy and not too sweet. This is followed by a course known as “High Hills” – as in “The hills are alive”. It turned out to be a delicious beef essence and tartare with goat cheese, porcini and apricot.
The main course “Enchanting Little Ritual” gets its name from the first dinner Maria has in the von Trapp household but it’s really all about the “Favourite Things” song and, in particular, schnitzel with noodles. Manager, Christian Rothbauer, whose smiling presence keeps popping up all over the hotel, tells me that “No Austrian would ever eat schnitzel with noodles” and so this is their take on it. It’s a million miles away from the ubiquitous dry schnitzel you sometimes get in these parts. Instead, Daus has come up with a super-succulent paillard of veal coated with mountain herbs and served with truffle jus, pappardelle and tiny portions of delicious tomato, spinach and root vegetables.
Finally, it’s “My Absolutely Favourite Thing” – apple strudel. They’ve had a lot of fun with this one and it’s definitely the deconstructed version of apfelstrudel using crisp Granny Smiths, almonds, rum raisins and vanilla ice cream with a piece of upstanding pastry dusted with icing sugar to look like snow-topped mountains.
After my Salzburg Sound menu, it was a few minutes through the gardens to the Schloss Mirabell and a Mozart concert. Salzburg is very walkable and you get to know the place surprisingly quickly. If you’re here for the city’s other musical masterpiece, though, you’ll find all the main locations nearby: the beautiful Leopoldskron Schloss where Maria and the children fall in the lake; the Felsenreitschule theatre where the family gives a concert before their escape; the catacombs of St Peter’s cemetery where they hide from the Nazis.
It’s a short bus ride to Schloss Hellbrunn that was the front of the von Trapp family home in the film and also now houses the gazebo where Liesl meets up with Rolf. Originally, the gazebo was at Leopoldskron (the back of the von Trapp home in the film) but people were forever climbing over the wall to sing, dance and wake up the owners. Sadly, it is no longer possible to go inside the gazebo for reasons of health and safety. One 82-year-old American lady was so overcome at being in the I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen location she decided to recreate the scene, including the leaps from bench to bench. Sadly, she broke an ankle…
Hyperion Hotel, Rainerstrasse 45020 Salzburg, Austria. For more information, please visit www.h-hotels.com.
