By the time the first guest comes down for breakfast, the team has been here for two hours. Here's what happens before 7:30 am.
Nothing is wasted. This is not a policy — it’s just how the kitchen has always worked.
5:30 am — The Bread Arrives
The bread comes from a bakery in the village — a family operation that has been supplying the hotel since 1994. The delivery arrives at 5:30 am in two crates: one of sourdough loaves, one of smaller rolls and pastries. The quantity varies by season. In January, when the hotel is full, we take everything they can spare. In October, we take less, and the kitchen team uses what’s left the following morning for the bread course at The Stube.
Nothing is wasted. This is not a policy — it’s just how the kitchen has always worked.
6:00 am — The Breakfast Room
One member of the team sets the breakfast room every morning. It takes about forty-five minutes. The table settings are the same every day — the same linen, the same placement, the same small vase of whatever is in season from the valley. In winter this is usually dried alpine grasses and a single stem of something forced from the greenhouse down the road. In summer it’s wildflowers, cut the previous evening.
The fruit is prepared fresh each morning — no pre-cut platters from the day before. The cheese selection changes three times a week based on what Maison Rey and two other local producers have available.
6:45 am — The Rooms
While breakfast is being prepared, one of the night team does a quiet pass of the corridors. Extra towels requested the night before are delivered. Any in-room breakfast orders — placed before 10:00 pm the previous evening — are prepared and timed to arrive at the requested hour.
Guests who have booked the Alphaus Signature Suite receive a small pastry delivery at the door as standard, regardless of whether they’ve requested it. This started as a one-off for a guest celebrating a birthday in 2017. It never stopped.
7:15 am — Handover
The night team and the morning team overlap for fifteen minutes. Notes are passed — who arrived late, who asked about the ski conditions, who might need a taxi at a specific time, whether anyone mentioned a dietary note that didn’t make it into the booking system. Most of this is written down. Some of it is just known.
After seven or eight years, the team knows the rhythms of the hotel well enough to anticipate most things. The notes are for everything else.
7:30 am — Breakfast Opens
The first guests usually arrive between 7:30 and 8:15 am. The team is ready. The bread is warm, the fruit is cut, the coffee is running. By 8:00 am, the valley light through the breakfast room windows is — on a clear morning — the best light in the building. We don’t take credit for that part.
If there’s anything you’d like to arrange before your stay — a specific breakfast time, an early bag drop, an in-room request — email us at stay@alphaus.com. We check it every morning, including the morning you arrive.
