The unlikeliest of accessories at luxury hotels, honey has become decidedly trendy in recent years. From California to Paris, hotels are installing rooftop beehives to demonstrate their commitment to the local “farm-to-table” food movement, or in this case, “roof-to- table”! There’s a honey-themed afternoon tea at the Athenaeum in London that features Regent’s Park honey in its sweet cakes and patisseries; the Waldorf-Astoria in New York uses honey from its colony of 45,000 bees in dishes at its restaurant.
In Paris, the rooftop beehives have been buzzed about for years. Bees actually thrive in the City of Light because of the lack of pesticides in lush gardens like the Tuileries, Luxembourg, and Butte de Chaumont. Urban beekeepers sell their goods at the city’s neighborhood markets, and it’s become quite a sought-after product. (You can buy honey harvested from the roof of the Opéra, and even the Louis Vuitton flagship has its own hives now.) Joining the ranks of the Westin and the Six Senses Spa, the Mandarin Oriental Paris installed a beehive on its roof, and in just a matter of days, will harvest its first honey. On your next trip to Paris, cap off a meal at Sur Mesure (the hotel’s excellent restaurant by chef Thierry Marx), with a sweet dessert to take home: a little honey pot.
Photo via Twitter/MO_Paris