La Maison des Têtes

La Maison des Têtes is Colmar's most photographed building — a 1609 Renaissance townhouse whose façade is studded with 105 carved stone heads in a frieze that has been the symbol of the city for four centuries. The hotel and restaurant within are owned by the Rohfritsch family, and the dining room sits on the first floor in a space of oak-panelled walls, stained glass, and a fireplace that has been lit continuously every winter night since Louis XV's reign.

Marc Rohfritsch's cooking is contemporary Alsatian — a register that honours the regional canon (foie gras, choucroute, baeckeoffe, Munster) while lifting it with the technique and plating of his generation. The pike-perch from Lake Constance, served with a Riesling butter and braised endives, is a signature dish; the stuffed saddle of rabbit with wild garlic and spätzle is a case study in how the regional tradition can be modernised without being lost.

The wine list, unsurprisingly, is exceptional in Alsace — deep verticals of Trimbach, Hugel, Weinbach, Josmeyer, and the lesser-known biodynamic producers like Zusslin and Julien Meyer. White wine pairings with the tasting menu can be built entirely from Grand Cru Alsatian Rieslings if you request it, and the sommelier will happily do so.

Dessert is where La Maison des Têtes plays its most beautiful card. The Kugelhopf glacé — the Alsatian ring-shaped cake served cold, with a kirsch ice cream and a dried-fruit compote — is the dessert every birthday guest in the restaurant wants to order, and is brought with a candle on request.

For a proposal in Alsace, La Maison des Têtes is the second-oldest romantic address in the region (after Passédat's Le Petit Nice in Marseille). The building itself tells you everything about the evening's register — four centuries of Alsatian history behind a ring box — and the staff are genuinely practiced at orchestrating the moment exactly as you describe it.