This Kelly Wearstler-Designed Restaurant Proves Brutalist Interiors Don't Need to Feel Hostile — Its Nature-Inspired, Textural Look Captures the Edgy Face of Alpine Style
The powerhouse's debut hospitality venture across the ocean takes her signature Cali-cool style to the French Alps. Enter L'Apogée Courchevel's Beefbar
It is easy to reduce an alpine retreat to its warming, enveloping wooden shell, but design superstar Kelly Wearstler's debut hospitality project in Europe, the recently opened Beefbar restaurant at L'Apogée Courchevel, knows how to turn one of the most stereotyped interior genres on its head.
A fire crackling in the background as you return from your latest excursion on the slopes. Quietly comforting, grounding furniture that strikes the balance between antique charm and the familiarity of a well-lived home. Fuzzy textile touches inserting softness right where you need it most at the end of a long day. These are some of the most common features you'll likely find in pretty much any self-respecting ski hotel in Europe. But like with any other Wearstler-designed environment, Beefbar at L'Apogée Courchevel draws from its surroundings to become a destination in itself.
The result is a vividly layered scheme that, rooted in nature and the arts and crafts tradition of France, turns après-ski decor from — let's face it — what often feels like an aging cliché into a patchwork of creative influences, materials, and colors that will keep you hooked to its details from daytime to late into the night. Because, no, there isn't one univocal way to channel mountain style.
Article continues belowNot Your Ordinary Steakhouse — Introducing Beefbar at L'Apogée Courchevel
"The dining rooms draw on a restrained Brutalist language, monolithic volumes, strong silhouettes, and a sense of permanence, softened by the intimacy of mountain living," Wearstler explained.
Launched last December, Beefbar at L'Apogée Courchevel marked the arrival of Riccardo Giraudi's cult restaurant concept in the French ski capital in time for its 20-year-anniversary celebrations. And fittingly so, as Wearstler's take on the iconic, gourmet steakhouse hit is a special one.
For this project, the French Alps themselves provided "a remarkable canvas" for the designer's artistry to manifest. "I was inspired by the monumental scale and raw beauty of the landscape, and sought to create interiors that feel deeply connected to the setting, while offering intimacy, warmth, and a sense of place," she said. What sets Wearstler's interpretation of high-altitude chic apart from the rest, though, is that instead of complying with its traditional canons, it breaks and reinvents them by...
1. Turning Bare Wood into an Architectural Work of Art
Merging multiple worlds into one, more classical touches like the staggering chandelier featured in Beefbar frame Courchevel through its post-war charm.
Wooden wall paneling is the undisputed protagonist of every mountain resort. But while its gentle wrapping effect is ideal for destinations that hone in on fostering calm and relaxation, its rusticness can also make a space feel overly informal, sacrificing the glamour chalets are known for in favor of everyday ease.
Wearstler's Beefbar, which unfolds across five areas including the lavish Central Bar (captured above), the shimmering Salon, the plastered-in-artworks East and West Dining Rooms, and The Piano Lounge, nails the difficult balance between luxury interiors and emotional resonance.
Throughout the five key areas of Beefbar, a dialogue between gastronomy, design, and art manifests across a multisensory feast. In the picture: one of the hotel's dining rooms.
Wood here isn't simply showcased in series of beams. It's brushed, painted, and assembled into a hypnotic choreography of lines onto which the LA creative's vision unwraps as a conversation between organic forms and fabrics, fascinating depictions of life, abstract silhouettes, and a play of shadow and light.
2. Swapping Checkered Fabrics With Their Bolder, Sexier Counterpart
Clever mirrors and glossy finishes, meanwhile, let the beauty of the great outdoors reflect and expand on the inside.
Textiles, too, have been given an irreverent spin. From the expected checkered surfaces of far too many ski hotels, at L’Apogée Courchevel, guests are met with the animalier-effect, sheeny upholstery of the Salon's softly shaped banquettes.
Cocooning, velvety armchairs in gold and bronze hues dot the dining rooms, alongside rustic wooden chairs embellished with geometrical patterns, while the checkerboard motif typical of mountain hideaways is referenced in the eye-catching rugs and carpets that, covering up most of the flooring surface in amber, turquoise, and burgundy facets, among others, make for a 1970s twist. This ensures each wing of Beefbar feels distinctive and never boring.
3. Proving There's More to Alpine Decor Than Gray Stone
Generous in size, the rooms are brought to life by a tapestry of contrasting fabrics and patterns, adding to the uniqueness of the space.
Another trap it's easy to fall into when designing for a ski resort is letting the environments be overtaken by severe gray stone. Although Wearstler openly admitted that Beefbar was "inspired by the Brutalist movement and the elemental beauty of the Alps," as well as their "raw elegance," the address's allure lies in its use of contrasting materials as sensory touchpoints.
Here, near-black stone is on show in the restaurant's coziest nooks, like above one of the dining rooms' fireplace, while a puzzle of glazed ceramic tilework, veiny alpine woods, and plush textiles counterbalances its rigorousness with warmth.
Contrasting other neutral-tinted alpine establishments, the chromatic scheme varies from deep green and charcoal to warm ochres and burned reds to reflect the five areas' functions and atmospheres, with the Piano Lounge and the Central Bar crowned as the destination's most glamorous spots — wrapped in the finest wood and made even more precious by softly glowing, jewel-like lighting.
From sculptures and paintings to glazed ceramic detailing, the atmosphere at Beefbar keeps the eye attentive through continuous textural and chromatic shifts.
Uniquely commissioned objets d'art by local craftspeople and artists, from sculptural pieces hinting at "the geology of the surrounding peaks," Wearstler explained, to "custom wood paneling, forged metal details, and hand-finished surfaces that carry the imprint of the maker," make Beefbar from a luxe mountain refuge into an ode to craft.
Could the most extraordinary designs come from a greater connection between those who conceive them and the outside? Wearstler seems to have found the answer.
Book your stay at L'Apogée Courchevel, part of Oetker Hotels, or discover the stay's culinary offerings.
Get the Reloaded Alpine Style Look
Though like with any noteworthy mountain hotel, the greatest inspiration can be savored outside.
These Italian vintage stools are some of the most iconic stars of the Wearstler-designed Beefbar Salon. And now you know where to find them, too.
Sometimes a simple stoneware touch is all you need to give your living room that raw atmosphere. This near-black Dito candle holder by Ferm Living is a compact way of integrating a mineral accent into your interior design scheme.
There's something about the shape of these Soho Home dining chairs that screams mountain. Think about the traditional alpine-style wooden seating you'd find in so many of those huts: Soho Home reinvents them through fabric.
Wood, wood, wood, but done right! This mango wood side table beautifully marries the sculptural essence and playful edge of Wearstler's design for the Courchevel hotel.
Manifesting a large wooden serving board like this one for my next mountain-inspired cheese fondue party with friends. Jokes aside, even small accessories like this one can bring a little alpine style into your everyday life.
Hard to recreate the retro-chic effect of the rugs and carpets Wearstler picked for Beefbar, but this humble yet mighty, textural indoor/outdoor rug by H&M carries part of their organic charm.
Spring might have just sprung in London, but mountain lovers know alpine living is a 12-month affair. So, if you're still debating which chalet to hit next, let yourself be inspired by the Monaco-infused extravaganza of Maya Hotel Courchevel 1850.
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