The Swiss-centric fresh bread and pastry hub Alpina Swiss Bakery (670 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, 631-726-0900) is melting hearts — and pounds of cheese — on Water Mill’s wee main drag this winter.
Last November, father and son duo Christoph and Robin Mueller, owners of Alpina Restaurant, Anker and Green Hill Kitchen in Greenport, quietly launched their new evening foray into traditional Swiss fondue and raclette via a cozy four-course evening complete with live music.
“I feel like it’s important that people get to experience both [raclette and fondue]. They’re equally important to me. If I have to choose between one or the other for the rest of my life, I’d have a really hard choice!” laughs Robin. “They’re both amazing.”
While the weekend-only fondue nights are new this winter at the not-even-year-old Water Mill bakery, a passion project started by Christoph, Robin has been slowly building a raclette following on the East End for years, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic when he began putting together raclette kits and, later, hosting pop-up raclette events under the name Hamptons Raclette at places like Kidd Squid in Sag Harbor.
But now, the romantic cheesy ceremony has found a more permanent home. With the bakery lights dimmed and tables lit by candlelight, the evening kicks off with a plate of tête de moine and bündnerfleisch, the former a hard, shaved whispy-ish cheese from the Jura Mountains (whose translation is ‘monk head’) and the latter a smokey, richly rosy-hued cured meat that melts on your tongue.
Then comes the tableside raclette service: a plate with tender, warm white potatoes sprinkled with cracked black pepper, pickled onions and snappy cornichons is set before you. In a blink, Robin dashes over with a chefs knife and a giant, hot hunk of the creamy, nutty cow’s milk cheese and shaves it atop the potato mixture.
Next up, a palate-cleanser of sorts (with bacon —light eaters need not apply) in the form of a traditional nüssli salad of crisp mâché greens, crunchy bits of lardons and a whisper of velvety honey-mustard vinaigrette.
After that comes the big cheese: the fondue finale. Emmentaler, gruyere and, on special occasions, vacherin or a mix of all three if you hit the right night. But fondue is about more than simply melting some curds and calling it a day. True traditional Swiss fondue is alive and well at Alpina, thanks to Robin and Christoph.
“The inside of each pot for fondue gets rubbed with garlic cloves; that’s very important! Then we, then we put a cup and a half of wine and bring that up to a boil, and add the cheese, which starts to melt, integrating itself with a with a hot wine,” describes Robin. “We add a little bit of nutmeg to give it complexity, and then, of course, there’s always a splash of kirsch.”
Kirsch, or kirshwasser, is a clear, colorless brandy distilled from morello cherries, common in Switzerland and Germany and a key ingredient to the final flavors in the hot pot, which is served to you in a lovely Dutch oven placed atop a gel-based chafing flame to keep it hot and bubbly. A generous basket of Christoph’s sourdough — plush on the inside, crunchy on the outside — cut into bite-sized pieces comes alongside to dip and dunk to your cheese-loving heart’s content.
Alpina Bakery’s weekends-only fondue nights are $85, and BYOB. For Valentine’s, they’re offering a special one-night only evening that brings bubbly and truffles into the mix. “I’m doing like they do in the fancy hotels in Switzerland,” Robin says — a Champagne truffle fondue for $95.
“Oh my God, it’s gonna be amazing! And, you know, it’s going to be the cheesiest, best date night out in the Hamptons.”
To reserve your spot, click here.
