Hanselmann

A tea room since 1894

Hanselmann is St. Moritz's long-standing café. It was founded in 1894 by Fritz Hanselmann, who had been head pastry chef at the Kulm Hotel, and his wife Theresia, and began as a bakery in what is now the Casa Elvezia. Their customers, mostly English, asked to be served in the family's flat, and so was born what the house considers probably the village's first tea room. During the 1928 Winter Olympics, according to the house itself, King Farouk of Egypt and the writer Thomas Mann passed through. In 2019 it turned 125, and the confectionery is now run by the family's fourth generation.

It is on the Via Maistra, the main street of St. Moritz Dorf, next to the St. Moritz fountain: the painted facade with its wooden shop windows is hard to miss.

What to order

Hanselmann is at once a café with table service, a pâtisserie, a confectioner's and a bakery. The item most associated with the house is the Engadiner Nusstorte, the shortcrust tart filled with walnuts and caramel that is made throughout the Engadine; they sell it under that name, along with the Birnbrot, the pear and dried-fruit bread of Graubünden, which keeps for days and travels well in a rucksack. In the pâtisserie they make cakes, tarts and pastries by hand every day with seasonal produce, and in the confectionery, chocolates and truffles to family recipes. In winter there is panettone too.

The website does not publish the café menu or prices: expect St. Moritz prices. It is a good place to have breakfast before the train or for afternoon tea on coming back from the mountain.

Hours and getting there

It is open every day from 7:30 to 19:00, and the takeaway counters from 11:30 to 19:00. It is in the centre of St. Moritz Dorf, above the station: walk up to the village and look for the St. Moritz fountain. If you are coming from Sils or Pontresina, the Engadine buses stop in the centre and at the station.