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"Something about the name Verbier feels like it should indeed be a verb as well as a town: ‘To make beautiful and bright in the manner of the famed Swiss Alpine resort.’ Here, valleys wide and deep are arranged for southern exposure and endless skiing. Not that the guys behind the Experimental Chalet can take credit for that. Such stuff is in the hands of God or geology. The French hospitality hotshots burst onto the scene in 2007 with the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris, which they followed up with wonderful bars, restaurants and hotels in London, New York, and Ibiza. The new place—actually an old place that has been given the Experimental treatment—is a remarkable addition to this great winter playground, a town that is proud of its discretion and sporty credentials. It lacks the loud money excesses of, say, Courchevel, but it possesses a disco soul that’s been captured at this inn. Italian designer Fabrizio Casiraghi redid the ’50s building with Portuguese tiles, pistachio panelling on the walls, and custom-made headboards carved with mountain goats. The restaurant—regional with flair, pairing saucisson cooked in brioche and earthy Pinot Noir—is superb, and the bar better still. This is mid-century hipster with high-altitude flourishes never before seen here, proving that cool has its place among the classic in Verbier. FLASH POINT Don’t resist the call of those pulsing beats coming from the basement. That’s The Farm, the Alpine after-hours institution, dispensing cheesy pop and vintage Champagne since 1971, which the Experimental crew inherited with the premises. +41 27-775-4000; experimentalchalet.com. Doubles from about $355." - CNT Editors
