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Cortina d’Ampezzo: where to ski, stay and eat
In town
SanBrite
Dialling up Cortina’s restaurant scene in 2017 without the fuss and frills the Michelin-star brigade are accustomed to, SanBrite is elevated organic, locavore ethos personified. Operating from his family’s barn, Riccardo Gaspari draws on his native region for the seasonally shifting menu, focusing on ‘regenerative cuisine.’ Most ingredients are sourced from the Gaspari farm or surrounding forests (milk from the dairy, meat from their flocks and herds, and pine, herbs, and nuts foraged nearby). Cortina loyalist Oli Corkhill of Leo Trippi recommends the Sentiero tasting menu, or for something special, booking Gaspari’s Outdoor experience (they’ll unfold a kitchen and table on any mountain or lakeside spot imaginable, like origami).
Tivoli
Worth peeling off your salopettes for, Tivoli (just outside the town centre) is considered one of Cortina’s swankiest establishments. It’s the sort of Michelin-starred joint where mousse, gel and froth feature abundantly across the menu, and foie gras routinely opens the show. Expect rich, Alpine flavours with top-drawer, regional ingredients and chef and owner Graziano Prest’s artfully composed plates that make you twitch for your iPhone camera. All the unctuous seafood and perfectly cooked meats are finely tuned with wines from Prest’s impressive cellars.
Al Camin
This always thrumming Cortina d’Ampezzo favourite spills onto a sun-trap terrace and performs an impressive balancing act, where food standards are sky high, yet the mood is gloriously easygoing. The centrally-based restaurant is a polished take on a rustic Alpine chalet, with heart-carved chairs and blonde wood framed with red curtains. It’s effortlessly cosy, and Fabio Pompanin’s imaginative menus (and first-rate wine list), keep the punters returning for more.
Enoteca Cortina
A wine bar and a Cortina institution, ‘Gerry’s wine shop’ as it’s affectionately known (after its owner Girolamo Gaspari) is where well-washed, well-dressed Italians head after an afternoon on the slopes for aperitivi. The vaulted-ceiling, dimly-lit interiors are comfortingly unchanged for decades, and the bruschetta, olives and cured meats are a Godsend for tying you over until the Italian-style late supper.
