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The New Year is close at hand and to celebrate we’re uncorking a sparkling Swiss rosé. After a toast we take a trip to Lapland where tourism and hospitality are booming in a largely uninhabited wilderness. Plus: a replenishing superfood granola recipe, an ode to Polish fashion in Warsaw and why Antwerp has developed a penchant for the canelé. Taking the reins is Tyler Brûlé.
The Faster Lane / Tyler Brûlé
How are things where you are dear reader? Does this find you back at your usual base after a few days in the countryside or the mountains? Or are you still in Cortina, Lech or Aspen? Perhaps you left the extended family behind yesterday and jetted off to Cape Town? Or is it Koh Samui? Up here in St Moritz the village is absolutely hopping. Indeed, I don’t think it has ever been quite so busy, the entire valley is booked solid with visitors from around the world. This year there are more American accents, definitely more visitors from assorted Gulf nations and chic groups of young Thais in head-to-toe Moncler.
It’s now day nine of the holidays and I was hoping to have a few more lazy mornings to catch up on the mountain ranges of mags (can’t wait to flip through the new Manera, back issues of M, le magazine du Monde, Hochparterre and a juicy delivery of Japanese titles from our Tokyo bureau), not to mention the newspapers I’ve amassed. But there are so many new things to sample in and around town that there’s precious little sofa time on hand.
From 1 January, I plan to carve out some quiet slots to indulge in all of the fine print that surrounds me. As it’s the Christmas break, I might even tap out a few thousand words of “that forthcoming book”. Let’s see. In the meantime, walks through the forest have allowed me to conjure and collate a few wishes for the year ahead. Here’s what I’ve come up with while crunching along snowy paths and while stretched out in the endless sunshine we’ve been enjoying in the heart of Europe this past week. And with New Year’s Eve fast approaching, let’s countdown.
10
I’m not making any big resolutions for 2025 but I would like it to be a year in which the dinner party makes a comeback (I can host but I’m also happy to accept invitations). I’m not just talking about the clandestine pandemic variety but more the early 1990s style – somewhat impromptu, not exactly perfect but meandering, messy and memorable.
9
I want cities, towns and villages to introduce planning measures that allow essential services (hardware stores, bookshops, alteration shops) to remain in place and thrive rather than simply survive. Such initiatives can be guided by public or private sector players but there needs to be leadership and vision to ensure we’re not overrun by nail bars and very bad shave shops. I love a good beard trim but the racket playing out across European cities must stop. While I fully recognise the need for mass retail (price, convenience, scale et al), I also foresee the collapse of communities and street life when independent, small-scale retailers have to shutter because rents are no longer affordable.
8
I’ve become a heavy TGV Lyria user on the Zürich to Paris route and it’s simply not good enough. Can this French-Swiss joint venture not take things up a gear with better food, drink and carriage design? Here are two countries who have built admirable rail brands and know how to deliver superior hospitality when they apply themselves, so why not innovate and develop something that becomes a new global benchmark? The current service is lacklustre and lets down brands France and Switzerland.
7
The rolling news channel model is either no longer fit for purpose or it’s ripe for a serious reset. CNN no longer knows if it wants to be global or domestic, the BBC has lost too many trusted voices and faces, France24 could do with some investment in presentation and I’m not sure what Euronews is trying to do. Does this present an opportunity for someone to launch a more upmarket news offering? Is this what Bloomberg is planning with its new weekend franchise featuring Mishal Husain? One hopes.
6
More “leave all your items in your bag” style X-ray scanners at major global hubs please.
5
2025 must be the year that the “truffle upsell” comes to an end and we get back to less pungent restaurants and crisp packets.
4
I fully endorse clubs and bars that demand patrons apply stickers to their phones to prevent photos being taken in intimate surroundings. What about restaurants offering stickers to prevent diners from turning on their phone flashlights and killing the vibe?
3
Is there room for a courageous North American operator to bring back the good old fashioned department store offering everything from a foodhall to vacuums, and books to bed linens? Have we not come full circle in the US and Canada now with the need for stores that provide discovery mixed with a solid selection? Having just toured Dallas and Toronto, something’s gotta give on the retail front.
2
I need to find time for those mega road trips in the new Land Cruiser. Is it from Zürich up to the Baltics first? Or Zürich to Lisbon via Sanxenxo?
1
Is now the time to take three decades of experience in covering cities, tracking social currents and chronicling what makes for better neighbourhoods in order to develop my own? Think 100 good apartments, outstanding residences for seniors, a small hotel, great grocery store, cinema, offices and ateliers, nursery school, a little urban country club and the best landscaping. But where? Genoa? Cascais? If you have a few thoughts and millions, drop me a note at tb@monocle.com.
Thank you for all your comments, tips and ideas across the past year. Looking forward to plenty more in 2025. Wishing you a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead.
Eating out / Café Canelé, Antwerp
A lifelong friendship brought Antwerp’s first canelé shop to life (writes Rossella Frigerio). Café Canelé founder Ellen Bultinck grew to love Bordeaux’s signature pastry during annual trips to the city to visit a childhood friend. After refining her craft and learning recipe secrets from a traditional canelé baker, Bultinck opened her own pâtisserie in Antwerp dedicated to the delectable treat and speciality coffee from local roasters Normo.
When you step through the doors of Café Canelé – an inviting space featuring geometric floor tiles in a retro palette designed by Antwerp-based firm Ono Architectuur – you’ll savour the finest canelés outside France.
Made using ingredients sourced in Belgium, there are four flavours: the classic vanilla and rum, a jam variant and two seasonal offerings including chocolate, coffee, coconut and pistachio. Favouring a no-frills approach, Bultinck’s sweet and petite pastries are crunchy on the outside and pillow-soft on the inside.
cafecanele.be
Sunday Toast / Three ideas for 2025
Feeling uninspired for 2025? As part of Monocle’s annual edition of The Forecast, we sat down with industry figureheads to gather their musings and predictions for the year ahead.
Emerging markets will top the box office
“Over the past decade every corner of the film industry has been rattled by fast, disorienting change,” says Cameron Bailey, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival. “The old business models are dead. For the film industry to remain inspiring, all that it needs to do is look for new voices in new regions and trust in the infinite curiosities of filmgoers.”
Sustainability will be luxury hospitality’s number-one sell
“Slow travel is something that will continue to grow in 2025,” says Ho Ren Yung, deputy CEO of global hospitality firm Banyan Group. “It’s the choice to travel more intentionally, with an increased focus on connection and wellbeing. Places designed primarily for aesthetic appeal in photos will lose out to thoughtfully designed environments that encourage genuine interaction, comfort and respect for culture.”
Physical retail is here to stay
“I remember 10 years ago when people would tell me that everything would eventually be online,” says Cape Town-based designer Sindiso Khumalo on the future of the global fashion industry. “This is not the case. We still value the tactile experience – probably even more so now. People want transparency, and it’s far easier to understand a product when it’s right in front of you. Physical shops aren’t going anywhere.”
For more industry insights and thought-provoking ideas, pick up a copy of Monocle’s‘The Forecast’, on newsstands now.
Recipe / Ralph Schelling
Ready to ditch the sugar after an indulgent Christmas? Swiss chef Ralph Schelling has you covered. Here he has created a vitamin-boosting granola recipe with plenty of superfood grains and spices, and a touch of honey.
Serves 4
Ingredients
150g oat flakes
50g quinoa
50g chopped almonds
4 tbsps linseed
4 tbsps sunflower seeds
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ginger powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsps runny honey
3 tbsps olive oil
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix all of the ingredients together and bake on a baking sheet for about 13 minutes. Leave to cool and fluff with a fork.
2
Serve on top of yoghurt and sprinkle your choice of dried fruit.
Weekend plans? / Lapland hospitality, Finland
Despite the sub-zero temperatures and the piles of snow, holidaymakers are out vigorously exploring the Saariselkä resort in the northernmost Finnish region of Lapland (writes Petri Burtsoff). Despite the harsh environment and relative obscurity of the destination, tourism in this part of the world is booming.
Finnish Lapland is enjoying an unprecedented 20 to 30 per cent year-on-year growth in tourist numbers, which added up to five million overnight stays in 2023. As such, the region’s hotels are struggling to keep pace in terms of both capacity and quality. “From an investor’s point of view, Lapland presents low risks and high yields,” Luke Bruins tells The Monocle Weekend Edition at one of the box-shaped and rentable luxury holiday homes in his Valo Ice Cube Villas development. The Dutchman is one of the first international investors to have plumped for property in Finnish Lapland, which he dubs a “virgin luxury real-estate market”.
But it’s not only international luxury investors who have discovered Lapland. Locals have started to shift their focus to upmarket properties too. Jávri Lodge is a 13-room boutique hotel, also in Saariselkä, in the former holiday lodge of the country’s longest-serving president, Urho Kekkonen.
Beyond the towns and resorts, almost all of Lapland is uninhabited wilderness ripe for development. Lapland also offers an array of activities and services that few other destinations match. Skiing, yes, but also reindeer and husky safaris, northern-lights spotting, ice fishing and snowmobile trekking, not to mention Christmas-themed excursions (Finns say that Santa is from Lapland). “Lapland owns the winter-wilderness activity market,” says Bruins. “There is nothing like it in the world.”
While the current real-estate boom is something akin to the gold rush that characterised Lapland in the 1870s, the government is wary of letting things run wild. “As an investor, you need to understand that part of the area’s allure is how untouched the region is,” says Tuomas Mäkelä of Havu Properties, another Lapland-focused developer. “Many locals want to keep it that way – and for us investors, it is important to work together with them.”
For more under-the-radar winter escapes and Alpine boltholes, pick up a copy of Monocle’s seasonal newspaper‘Alpino’, which is on newsstands now.
Top of the shops / Magda Butrym, Poland
Designer Magda Butrym began her business 10 years ago with the hope of catering to her fellow Varsovians (writes Natalie Theodosi). “I didn’t have the courage to think bigger because it felt impossible,” she tells Monocle, reminiscing on early trips to Paris Fashion Week, when fashion buyers could barely point to Poland on a map. A decade later, Butrym’s eponymous label is a global bestseller with retailers such as Mytheresa, Selfridges and The Webster. This growth has given Butrym the belief necessary to celebrate her Slavic roots; recent collections have featured stronger references to Poland.
She opened her first flagship boutique earlier this year in her hometown of Warsaw. The shop is based in a prewar building on trendy street Foksal.
Butrym worked with Swedish design studio Stamuli to highlight original features such as tiled fireplaces. Across the two rooms, you’ll find the label’s autumn-winter collections, spanning leather accessories, bags and ready-to-wear – including a range of shearling and floor-skimming wool coats.
magdabutrym.com
Bottoms up / Deux Frères, Zürich
Brothers Gian and Florian Grundböck founded drinks brand Deux Frères in 2016 and, shortly after, launched their first product: a pink gin (writes Myriam Zumbühl). Due to the change in pH levels after the addition of tonic, the gin’s colour could transform from a pale hue into a striking fuschia.
The brothers’ inventive spirit and experience in drinks technology then led them to the world of wine, where they created still and sparkling rosés L’Été and La Fête. The latter, made from cinsault grapes grown in the Alpes-de-Haute Provence, is the perfect tipple with which to ring in the new year. The grapes are picked a little earlier than usual to retain acidity and fermented in steel tanks before a second fermentation takes place in the bottle. On the nose there are hints of minerals, mirabelles, plums and cherries, while a light perlage sparkles beautifully on the palate. “Our brut rosé captures the essence of a New Year’s party,” says Florian.
deuxfreresspirits.com
For more seasonal tipples and top tables pick up a copy of Monocle’s bumper December/January issue on newsstands now. Or better still, subscribe to always have your finger on the pulse. Have a super Sunday and a very happy new year.
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