The five-bedroom Chalet Sofija

Courtesy of the hotel

Some entrepreneurs can never figure out quite how to retire. Svetozar Raspopović—“Pop” to his clients and friends—is one of them.

The Slovenian restaurateur ran Gostilna AS in Ljubljana for three decades, turning it into one of the most fashionable spots in town and a standard-bearer for the national hospitality scene. Along with hundreds of devoted regulars, local and international politicians and celebrities came to partake of his Italian-accented fare and private-label wines.

How his son is running that restaurant—and the gorgeous new boutique hotel that’s sprung up around it—while he’s retreated to the mountains that he loves. But instead of building a simple home, he created the splashy Chalet Sofija, which opened near Kranjska Gora in late 2023 and quickly became one of the country’s most exclusive places to stay.

The living room at Chalet Sofija

Courtesy of the hotel

His wife, Aleksandra, says he wants to be retired—he’s in his 70s, and has been running restaurants since the 1980s, after all—but she’s not ready for that. Instead, they’re still also doing things they love: welcoming people, cooking and creating an environment of unabashed sumptuousness. They have staff working in the hotel, but nearly every day, Pop’s still in the restaurant-style kitchen, making dinners like a zingy fresh crab salad, followed by a soft artichoke heart topped with an egg yolk that he’s flash-fried for 18 seconds (a dish he spent decades perfecting) and local fish and potatoes that he oven-roasts in fish stock and olive oil, a 40-year-old recipe “like the ladies from Trieste” make.

Even the breakfast is lavish: a perfectly poached egg resting on a bed of creamed spinach and topped with a modest dollop of caviar. Aleksandra says it’s Pop’s signature and insists that guests try it. “There’s no need to eat it all,” she says gently. Guests almost always do.

A similar spirit informs the aesthetics. The place is all soaring ceilings and glass walls, large terraces and high-gloss surfaces, white orchids and Roche Bobois furniture. There’s an overriding sense that more is more. The couple designed it all themselves, and while it may not be to everyone’s taste, it’s clearly a labor of love. Its name, Sofija, is that of Pop’s mother, and the five generously sized bedrooms are named for his children and grandchildren.

The pool at Chalet Sofija

Courtesy of the hotel

Other entrepreneurs can’t wait to get to the fun parts. Damian Merlak is Slovenia’s wealthiest millennial, having made millions at age 32 when he sold Bitstamp, an early cryptocurrency exchange. For the past few years, he’s also been in the hotel game, something he calls an “entrepreneurial adventure” rather than a moneymaking investment.

He’s adventuring heavily in the area around Lake Bohinj, an Alpine resort destination where he, like many Slovenians, spent his childhood vacations. In response to the decay of the old hotels that he saw as “the pride of Bohinj tourism,” he began purchasing and restoring them, collecting them together in his Alpina Group. The group aims to honor that pride while making sure Bohinj remains low-key and genuine, even as nearby Lake Bled gets increasingly busy.

It started with the reopening of Hotel Bohinj a few years ago as a hip four-star with a mountaineering theme. In January of this year, they opened the five-star Vila Muhr in the remains of the old house next door, which had fallen down in disrepair. The new building was designed to commemorate the legacy of Adolf Muhr, the villa’s first owner and the original author of its story.

Vila Muhr

Miran Kambic

The first chalet was constructed in 1902 using the designs of an Austrian architect and then sold to the Yugoslav Commissariat for Transport and Tourism. By 1922, it had become King Aleksandar Karađorđević’s lodge, and in 1926 it was given to Prince Paul and Princess Olga, who used it to host Yugoslav, Romanian and English nobility. The royal engagement of Prince George of England (the Duke of Kent) to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark reinforced its aristocratic bona fides.

⁠But its new incarnation doesn’t suffer beneath the weight of all that history. Rather, it’s light and cozy, with four large bedrooms—each named for a young princess or prince—that are resplendent yet warm, full of fragrant pale wood, furry throws and Alpine-patterned rugs, with private saunas or oversize baths.

“Such properties are increasingly rare, so we wanted to add something unique to our portfolio,” says Alpina Group general manager Jure Repanšek. “A place for guests who seek something more. The location itself is magnificent [and] if it was good enough for royal guests in the past, it will surely be perfect for modern-day visitors as well. However, the goal was not just to offer luxury and sophistication but also to incorporate a complete offering with a carefully curated interior, all while staying grounded in local heritage.”

The restaurant at Vila Muhr

Miran Kambic

Danijel Kovačić, a cofounder of the high-end Slovenian travel company Wanderlux Journeys, says it’s very welcome to have more high-end properties around the lake—and not only because it gives his company more products to sell. “Historically, Lake Bohinj was a high-end destination,” he says, but until recently, visitors were just renting houses and bringing their own food and drinks.

The Alpina Group is consciously working to change that. While the dining at Vila Muhr seems to have (very well-executed) Michelin ambitions, they also want people to go outside. They don’t offer full- or half-board rates, as is common in this part of Europe, and instead recommend local restaurants, whose owners have coordinated their schedules so that something is open every day of the week.

“In some places in Slovenia, the hotels are fully booked but the towns are dying,” says Kovačić. But this structure “gives more opportunities to local restaurants and farmers.”

This form of entrepreneurship also seems to be working out quite well for guests. In the short time that Vila Muhr has been open, it’s already seen some repeaters because “you can find things here that you can’t find in Switzerland,” he continues. “It’s so unique and beautiful. There’s a high level of hospitality. And there’s a feeling of being at home that you can’t find everywhere.”

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