I enjoy what I can take away from restaurants.
Not the sort of takeaways you might imagine – packages of hot food delivered in an even hotter paper bag – but the excitement of actually going out to eat in a restaurant and all that the chef or restaurateur makes available for the customer to take away in other respects.
From each of two very different meals on the island of Sylt in northern Germany, I came away with two very different objects. The first was a white napkin printed with an outline of the chef’s face from Johannes King’s Genuss-Shop. The second was the detailed menu from our dinner at Söl’ring Hof hotel with its two-star Michelin restaurant, overseen by Jan-Philipp Berner. (The difficulty of retaining two stars is illustrated by two London closures this year, Bibendum and La Dame de Pic.)
The two restaurants are no more than 10 minutes from each other by car (nothing is very far on Sylt) and are closely intertwined. King began his career at Söl’ring Hof and enabled this luxury hotel with 15 bedrooms to gain its stars before deciding that he wanted a more relaxed and more entrepreneurial environment. He found his new home, somewhat incongruously, by a roundabout on the edge of the pretty village of Keitum. But only after he had found in Berner a first-rate, and totally dedicated, custodian of all that he had created.
It was in 2000 that King first came to Sylt, to take the helm of the kitchens at Söl’ring Hof and set in motion a restaurant that had won its second star by 2004. Then an energetic 37-year-old, he set standards that began to attract other, younger and equally talented chefs, one of whom was Berner. But for Berner this was coincidental.
‘The funny thing is, I actually came here by accident at first. During my training period I unfortunately didn’t get any vacation days at all. In 2009 my then head chef gifted me a two-week Sylt holiday as a thank-you for my work. As a young man I thought Sylt was more interesting for the elderly, but I at least wanted to gain some experience, if I was going to spend my time there. And that’s exactly when I started to cook on the island for the first time. Another huge factor that finally made me hold onto this place was when I met my lovely wife and, as typical as it sounds, the rest is history.’
Berner left Sylt but returned in 2013 and has been cooking here happily ever since, initially alongside King from whom he took over in 2022 as managing director of the hotel and its team of 70 staff, of whom 27 are chefs. It is easy to see why he and this hotel seem to get on so well. Berner has an almost childlike enthusiasm for everything about the island and every detail that influences the guest experience.
Even torrential rain verging on hail does not deter him. We met for the first time at 9 am when it was pouring rain and the customary strong wind was blowing. Berner (above, before, and below, after) was all smiles. Issuing us all with rubber boots, he dismissed any notion that the weather could put off or even slightly delay our planned expedition to see the wild herbs and edible flowers on Sylt’s salt marsh. (He says that he has abandoned all imported alternatives in his kitchen.) We set off; saw the sheep (just, through the mist); got completely drenched; and spent the afternoon in our bedroom at the Jörg Müller hotel drying off our clothes and getting ourselves ready for the evening.
We returned to Söl’ring Hof that night to a reception area that doubles as a cellar (below), which is stocked with numerous old madeiras and vintage ports. (King is a great fan of port.) The restaurant occupies a large room across the breadth of the hotel on the first floor with an open kitchen along the far wall. The two-star appellation has long confused me: is it a restaurant on the way up or a tired three-star on the way down? The enthusiasm and general willingness of all the team here affirmed that this was definitely a case of the former.
The menu is an impressive eight-course affair with a wine to match each course. The wine service is under the firm control of the elegant sommelier/ restaurant manager (and, as Berner joked, ‘my second wife’) Barbel Ring whose realm seems the entire wine world: the Douro, Sicily, Priorat, the Rhône for a white Châteauneuf-du-Pape, ending up in Slovenia. All were excellent but as the kitchen concentrates so heavily on local ingredients, I wondered why the wines of Germany didn’t feature.
The eight courses were prefaced by a trio of amuse-bouches, excelled by a serving of their potato bread before three fish dishes – mackerel, sea perch and a particularly impressive ‘seafood hotpot’ (below) – and then by quail with gooseberries and a dish of beef onglet with chervil and peas. I would question the inclusion of onglet although perhaps it was because I would have been happier with yet more fish. Their petits fours were outstanding, particularly the chocolate dumpling and the peach with lemon balm.
It was in 2013 that King initially opened the Genuss-Shop and cafe alongside his role at Söl’ring Hof and then in 2022 he handed over to Berner completely. Well, as completely as it is possible for friends and neighbours living and breathing hospitality on the same small island. At the end of Berner’s literally immersive tour of the salt marsh, we ended up in King’s greenhouse for a reviving snack. Seeing how sopping we all were, King arranged for a cup of steaming-hot tomato consommé to supplement the salads and oysters that had been planned by Berner. It was most welcome. He also popped in to the popular café where we were having lunch a day or two later. Below are King and napkin.
The café itself is an extremely professional affair, open from 10 am to 8 pm Tuesday through Saturday. We began with an organic, highly colourful salad, and continued with a distinctive potato rösti topped with a slice of cured salmon and crème fraîche (a tried-and-tested combination that is rarely bettered).
Then we all enjoyed a vast dish of mussels in a cream sauce. All this, while people-watching as well as dog-watching. We were also able to enjoy the spectacle of the restaurant staff promptly putting up and then taking down massive white umbrellas as a squall swept in and then immediately swept out. They, and the customers, were clearly well used to it.
All this was while profiting from an extremely well-chosen wine list supervised by Niklas Ertl (below) who recommended a Sekt from Johannes Aufricht in Baden that was really delicious. We also bought some of King’s own chocolate from the shop that turned out to be equally so.
I asked King what particular pleasures creating a shop combined with a design business and a café had brought him personally and back came this thoughtful response, ‘Today, I am even more of an entrepreneur with my shop and online business Alter Bahnhof, which sells fine tableware – silver, linen, glass, porcelain, etcetera. Above all, I appreciate the entrepreneurial freedom that allows me to spend a lot of time attending training courses and seminars on port wine, madeira, armagnac and caviar. “Pleasure dealer” or “pleasure ambassador” would certainly be the right description for the numerous and very varied duties that occupy me today.’
Four nights on Sylt; four excellent restaurants; and four great wine cellars. That is an impressive strike rate. And the napkin from the Genuss-Shop with King’s head on it has travelled with me almost 2,000 kilometres to the south of France where I am writing this. Partly because it brings back happy memories of a visit to Salts Diner in Shipley, Yorkshire, where the late owner persuaded his friend, the artist David Hockney, to design several features of the café including the dog on their napkin. The only way, I recall now, you can wipe your mouth on a Hockney
Söl’ring Hof Rantum Am Sandwall 1, 25980 Sylt, Germany; tel: +49 465 183 6200
Dinner only at €319 per person; wine from €100–€180
Johannes King Gurtstig 2, 25980 Sylt, Germany; tel: +49 465 1967 7790
Photo at top by Ydo Sol courtesy of Söl’ring Hof.
