Breakfast at Wulff & Konstali Food Shop
Cocktails at Duck and Cover
Cocktails at Duck and Cover
Dinner at Geist
Friday, November 3, 2017
Day 14: Copenhagen - Being a Cocktail Nerd Pays Off
We had to get up a bit early today, because today is hotel moving day and check out is by 10:00 am. Dawn’s flight is at 6:00 AM tomorrow, and we decided that checking out of this place at 3:00 in morning and trying to navigate Copenhagen's metro system in the dead of night might not be as much fun as it sounds. Instead we booked our last night in the Clarion hotel that is physically connected to the Copenhagen airport.
We buy 24 hour public transportation cards so that we can zip around on the metro since we’ll no longer be so centrally located to everything. Fortunately we’re able to do an early check-in at the Clarion and then we head out our day’s adventure.
Our plan is to grab lunch and then attempt to visit Copenhagen Distillery. For lunch Dawn finds Wulff & Konstali Food Shop which is on the way from the metro stop to the distillery. When we get there the place is slammed. We obviously underestimated the draw of all day brunch on a Friday in the suburbs. We’re happy to wait and have a pretty good Danish brunch.
Next up we walk to where Google Map says Copenhagen Distillery is. This plan is a bit tenuous. We learned about Copenhagen Distillery by trying the Aquavit at Restaurant Barr. Google Maps claims that this is their location and they have public hours from 12 - 4 on Friday only. We walk into an industrial park and eventually try a nondescript metal door on the warehouse. Much to our surprise, the door opens and there are four guys in the warehouse doing distillery type things. The sales manager comes to meet us and we ask if they are open to the public, he says if made the trip to visit them, then they are open. Over the next two hours we get a full tour of the facility, history of how they started the company, get to meet all the employees, and taste pretty much the entire product line. The guys at Copenhagen Distillery couldn’t have been more generous with their time or knowledge. They explained some of the really cool and innovative things they are doing (making gin from mead!) and their philosophy on product development. What’s more, I learn that one of the gentlemen just co-authored and published a book on aquavit, and it’s one of the few books on the subject available in English. I tell them that I’ll definitely pick it up and they counter with I can get a personalized copy from the author right then. Too cool. I couldn’t be more pleased with this distillery visit. It’s the most thorough and casual tour we’ve ever had.
After the tour we had to head back to the room to drop of some bottles that we purchased to take home… and then we’re back out on the town. Our goal is to visit a cocktail bar named Duck and Cover. Dawn figures out that there is a train that leaves from the airport to the central station that should put us pretty close to the bar. After a short walk we find yet another nondescript door and walk down into Duck and Cover. We opt to sit at the bar and strike up a conversation with the bartender and his friend about how we were told this was the place to visit if we’re interested in aquavit cocktails. The bartender is happy to hear that and offers to make us a few even though the current menu is kind of light on them. We also mention that we just came from Copenhagen Distillery and tell them how excited I was to get a copy of the book (which they also have a copy of). They mention that is one of the two local distillery, the other one that just started is run by some Noma chefs called Empirical Spirits. We have a good nerdy conversation about cocktails in general, and then, things go from great to amazing.
The bartender pulls out three bottles from Empirical Spirits that are beta products. There are no official spirits available from that distillery and asks if we want to taste them. We enthusiastically say sure. They are super focused spirits, extremely sprucy spruce and smoked juniper snaps. After that he pulls out three other bottles that are very interesting….and are products that never got released. Evidently ten years ago there was a project to make hyper-local snaps. Rene from Noma got involved, along with others, to develop the spirits. Aquavit is just starting to make a resurgence now, and back then it was ultimately decided that there wasn’t a market for their product, so it was scrubed and the test batches never got released. But evidently, now some of those bottles are making their way out to a few trusted friends. We also got to try all three of those! Our humble cocktail pilgrimage somehow morphed into a private tasting of ultra-scarce Nordic spirits. Again, the guys at Duck and Cover were super generous with their time and great conversationalist. So much so, that we ended up hanging out there longer than we planned and were a bit late for our dinner reservations.
We had reservations for our last night in Copenhagen at a place name Geist. Once I stayed at a W hotel in Chicago and was left with the impression that the hotel and the staff who worked there were way cooler than I was… Geist invokes that same sort of vibe. Everything is super slick and I start to feel that I might not be cool enough to hang out there. We sit at the food bar so we can watch the chefs do their thing. It is a hive of industry, unfortunately we pick a spot at the bar that has a computer terminal at the other side…. So frequently we’re watching the wait-staff’s chest from across the bar. Gesit has a tapas concept so everything is ala carte, which is fine, but restaurants that charge me $10 for fancy still water always rub me wrong. In the end there is some good food there, but compared to the more earnest experiences we had earlier in the day, it left me feeling kind of hallow. I will say this though, I can now honestly say I’ve used a bathroom with a mirrored ceiling.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Day 13: Cake
We started the day with coffee and cake in the apartment. That bakery makes a great confection with an ample amount of whipped cream.
Our big plan for today is to go to Christianborg Slot and climb the tower, but first we head back to the bookstore. Not for the Claude Shannon paper, but for a collection of H. C. Andersen stories translated into English in the 1850's. Souvenir acquired.
We walk to the castle which, now that we've got our bearings, is quite close to where we are staying. There are several areas to tour. First, the royal apartments, which are obviously bonkers and require guests to wear disposable booties to keep the floors clean.
The library is epic.
There is an annual dance each year, where much of this complex gets regular use. In addition to the lush wall treatments and interesting floor patters, there is also an exhibit about the Danish West Indies, slavery, the revolt, and the end of slavery in Danish colonies.
Next, we headed to the tower for the view. This is a 400 step climb. Or it would be if there weren't a set of elevators to take you up, after going through security and making sure to take you past the restaurant. There are still some stairs to get up to the last floor, but not nearly as many or as tight a spiral as our accommodations. The view is great.
On a clear day, Sweden is visible. On this cloudy day, the bridge and the edge of the Swedish coast are still visible.
After climbing down the stairs (yeah, down is steps), the next stop was the ruins of two former castles on this site. A section of the outer walls of both has been preserved in the basement of the current palace. The first was torn down by conquerors with the aid of 27 stone masons. The second caught fire and very few pieces of property were rescued. The current castle was completed in 1928.
Next was the Royal Kitchen, which is set up as it would have been during the largest feast ever prepared there. All the cookware is copper. The dessert menu was respectable.
The last area to tour was the Royal Stable, where to this day several white horses are kept. There are also plenty of historic carriages.
Having castled Bill out, it was time to start drinking. We headed to a cocktail bar on his to do list, arriving a few minutes before they opened. This was close to Halifax Original, a hamburger chain in Denmark, so we got an early dinner first.
The bar itself was small, but well appointed, including some leather and wood chairs we'd seen at the design museum. Our cocktails were good, but not at the same level of creative as Ruby. Before it got too crowded, we headed back out.
Our last stop of the evening was 1105, a cocktail bar right by our apartment that is only open Thursday through Sunday. We were the first to arrive and sat at the bar. The bartender here was very knowledgeable about his craft, and eager to share info about spirits and recommendations for other bars and restaurants. I got two of the cocktails on the menu, the first very floral, and the second warm and comfortable. Both were excellent. Bill tried a cocktail from the menu and then went for two rounds of dealer's choice with the bartender. The first was a twist on a negroni, which was good but not mind blowing. The second was an aquavit drink using whatever a Christmas flavored aquavit is, and it was heaven in a glass.
We returned to the room for a puzzle game we call "packing" and finished the drinks in the fridge. Tomorrow will be a slightly early start as we change hotels, but we still have one more day in Copenhagen.
Our big plan for today is to go to Christianborg Slot and climb the tower, but first we head back to the bookstore. Not for the Claude Shannon paper, but for a collection of H. C. Andersen stories translated into English in the 1850's. Souvenir acquired.
We walk to the castle which, now that we've got our bearings, is quite close to where we are staying. There are several areas to tour. First, the royal apartments, which are obviously bonkers and require guests to wear disposable booties to keep the floors clean.
The library is epic.
There is an annual dance each year, where much of this complex gets regular use. In addition to the lush wall treatments and interesting floor patters, there is also an exhibit about the Danish West Indies, slavery, the revolt, and the end of slavery in Danish colonies.
Next, we headed to the tower for the view. This is a 400 step climb. Or it would be if there weren't a set of elevators to take you up, after going through security and making sure to take you past the restaurant. There are still some stairs to get up to the last floor, but not nearly as many or as tight a spiral as our accommodations. The view is great.
On a clear day, Sweden is visible. On this cloudy day, the bridge and the edge of the Swedish coast are still visible.
After climbing down the stairs (yeah, down is steps), the next stop was the ruins of two former castles on this site. A section of the outer walls of both has been preserved in the basement of the current palace. The first was torn down by conquerors with the aid of 27 stone masons. The second caught fire and very few pieces of property were rescued. The current castle was completed in 1928.
Next was the Royal Kitchen, which is set up as it would have been during the largest feast ever prepared there. All the cookware is copper. The dessert menu was respectable.
The last area to tour was the Royal Stable, where to this day several white horses are kept. There are also plenty of historic carriages.
Having castled Bill out, it was time to start drinking. We headed to a cocktail bar on his to do list, arriving a few minutes before they opened. This was close to Halifax Original, a hamburger chain in Denmark, so we got an early dinner first.
The bar itself was small, but well appointed, including some leather and wood chairs we'd seen at the design museum. Our cocktails were good, but not at the same level of creative as Ruby. Before it got too crowded, we headed back out.
Our last stop of the evening was 1105, a cocktail bar right by our apartment that is only open Thursday through Sunday. We were the first to arrive and sat at the bar. The bartender here was very knowledgeable about his craft, and eager to share info about spirits and recommendations for other bars and restaurants. I got two of the cocktails on the menu, the first very floral, and the second warm and comfortable. Both were excellent. Bill tried a cocktail from the menu and then went for two rounds of dealer's choice with the bartender. The first was a twist on a negroni, which was good but not mind blowing. The second was an aquavit drink using whatever a Christmas flavored aquavit is, and it was heaven in a glass.
We returned to the room for a puzzle game we call "packing" and finished the drinks in the fridge. Tomorrow will be a slightly early start as we change hotels, but we still have one more day in Copenhagen.
Day 13: Copenhagen - The Palace and The Cocktail Bars
Today was another sleep in day. For breakfast we had the slices of cake that we bought yesterday from the oldest bakery in Copenhagen. Then we started our day. The bookstore yesterday was a bust for rare Claude Shannon books, but Dawn has been looking at their online catalog for something she might like. The misleading ABE listing aside, the store seems really cool and Dawn discovered that it’s nearly 200 years old. She finds some Hans Christian Andersen books and we go back to check them out. Score one rare book for Dawn’s library. I’m sure she’s going to cover it in more detail.
Next comes a slightly sad bit of modern globalization. The thing is, I really like the blue watch I checked out at Skagen yesterday, but I passed on it because it was $80 more here than ordering it off the American Skagen website. This morning I checked the American Amazon listing and discovered the watch was almost a third of the Copenhagen price for the watch. So I ordered it from Amazon. I can’t say that I got it in Copenhagen, but I guess I could say I tried it on and then ordered it in Copenhagen. Not the same… but it’s hard to pay three times the price when it could be waiting for me when I get home in a few days.
After rare books and watches, it was time for today’s sightseeing. Dawn has been very keen to visit Christiansborg Palace, so we go there and check it out. It is the third palace built on the ruins of an even older castle. It’s the third version due to a combination of the having to keep up with the French and the obligatory fire that levels a palace. We started by walking around the modern palace and then toured the ruins underneath the palace. I actually thought it was pretty cool that they made the earlier ruins part of the tour. We also checked out the royal kitchen which is frozen in the moment of its most ambitious meal in the 1930’s. Lastly, we visited the royal stables, which still houses white horses still used for ceremonial purposes.
After the palace we headed back to the rental to fold laundry (the nice thing about being in an apartment instead of a hotel is access to a washer and dryer). Then we headed west to a cocktail bar named Lidkoeb. On the way there we realized that we only had a slice of pie to eat today and stopped at one of the many hamburger places in Copenhagen. Copenhagen is infested with hamburger joints. They are everywhere. We stopped at Halifax, and truth be told, we had some really good hamburgers complete with Danish beef. Lidkoeb was just around the corner so we went there next and enjoyed a few cocktails.
Later in the evening we also sought out a cocktail bar called 1105. The bartender there was Norwegian and we manage to strike up a rapport. He made us some tasty drinks while also providing a list of bars and restaurants we might want to check out while in Copenhagen. Spoilers, we had been working down his list on our own. While talking I expressed an interest in Aquavit and how surprised I was that I hadn’t seen more of it around, being that Scandinavia is its home. He said that it has a bad reputation here. It’s mostly drunk at Christmas and other festivals, and people drink too much of it then and don’t remember it fondly. He shared my enthusiasm for its use in cocktails and gave us the inside scoop on another bar, that we almost visited earlier today, but the description just didn’t seem strong enough. He informed us the Duck and Cover was a aquavit focused bar… so now I’m very interested to check it out. He also made me an aquavit themed cocktail that even Dawn liked (she’s not a fan of the spirit in general).
Now we’ve returned the room to write up the day’s adventures and pack because we need to move to the airport hotel tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Day 12: Fifteen
Today was our day to stick close to the apartment and shop. I had wanted to check out Christianborg Slot this afternoon, but it looked like rain would hit about the time I wanted to climb the tower, so instead I added a closer attraction to our day out itinerary.
Also, we have coffee in the room. Glorious, wonderful coffee. We spent the early morning poking about in the room with coffee.
We started with breakfast at the Atelier September cafe, which is undergoing a bit of renovation work. My soft boiled egg with toast and cheese was good, but we arrived too late for the poppy seed pastry Bill wanted.
Our next stop was a bookstore Bill wanted to visit. This is very strange as Bill has declared paper books dead to him and e-books the new standard. A hardcover copy of a technical journal with a paper signed by Claude Shannon is an acceptable, nay, desirable dead tree. While the book turned out to not be signed, the bookstore itself was pretty great. You had to buzz in and navigate a narrow isle of familiar but poorly aging titles and a century old cash register. Most of the stock is upstairs, accessible by providing the shop keeper a catalog number. Kind of what you expect when you walk into a bookstore that is almost 200 years old.
We also hit Petitgas, the world's second oldest hat store, which celebrated 160 years in operation in the spring, Skagen, which is slightly more expensive here than in the US, Peter Beier, a chocolatier, and Conditoriet La Glace, the oldest bakery in Copenhagen. The last was added to our list by the coffee store employees yesterday. We picked up slices of cake for breakfast tomorrow.
At that point, even though it would have been smart to eat, we weren't really hungry, so the next stop was the Round Tower ahead of the impending rain. This is an observatory connected to a church. The trip most of the way to the top is via a spiral ramp rather than stairs. Followed by a narrow spiral stair about 25% the height of the climb to our hotel room.
We then thought maybe lunch would be a good idea, and headed towards a brew house Bill had found via google maps our first night here. On the way we stopped at a glass shop with some cool stuff in it.
The brewery had an interesting looking menu for both food and beer. We didn't want to go too heavy as we had dinner reservations, ordering a tasting platter. There was a bit of a miscommunication, though, and we ended up with 2. Mistakes were made.
They also had a brett on tap that was interesting. A good sour on the front, and a long malt rich, evolving finish.
After several more stops at various clothing stores (and even the shoe store we're staying above), we ducked out of the rain at the apartment and checked with the tour book to see if it had any recommendations. Of the stores listed, there were three nearby that all looked interesting: Stilleben, Illums Bolighus, and Hay House. Stilleben had some interesting prints, but nothing that really captured our attention. Illums Bolinghus was a vast cornucopia of excellent kitchen, dinning, and furniture finds which we somehow escaped with only pot holders. Hay House contained such a dangerously clean lined set of goods we were lucky to only walk out with tea towels.
Shopping bender accomplished, we settled in at the apartment and tried out the new board game I purchased yesterday. I think we almost had the turn order down before it was time to head to dinner.
Kadeau was listed in our tour guide as an option if one couldn't get reservations at Noma. As Noma is currently closed, with plans to reopen in another month or so, we decided to check Kadeau out instead. They do a 15 course tasting menu, seating only a few dozen guests a night. The front door is almost not marked and a doorbell is how you get in. Before dinner, they bring you to a casual seating area with a view of the courtyard and a wonderful, fresh herb and citrus cocktail.
What followed, in any other year of my life, would have easily been the best meal I'd had this year. However, this year also included dinner at Alinea. In terms of service Kadeau's friendly, engaging servers and earnest chefs made for a far more welcoming, relaxed experience than the honed to perfection service at Alinea. We were as well cared for and cherished as the food here. And the food was incredible. Nothing quite as good as the coconut soup at Alinea, but playful and experimental in a way that was very appealing. I'm delighted we were able to get reservations.
Also, we have coffee in the room. Glorious, wonderful coffee. We spent the early morning poking about in the room with coffee.
We started with breakfast at the Atelier September cafe, which is undergoing a bit of renovation work. My soft boiled egg with toast and cheese was good, but we arrived too late for the poppy seed pastry Bill wanted.
Our next stop was a bookstore Bill wanted to visit. This is very strange as Bill has declared paper books dead to him and e-books the new standard. A hardcover copy of a technical journal with a paper signed by Claude Shannon is an acceptable, nay, desirable dead tree. While the book turned out to not be signed, the bookstore itself was pretty great. You had to buzz in and navigate a narrow isle of familiar but poorly aging titles and a century old cash register. Most of the stock is upstairs, accessible by providing the shop keeper a catalog number. Kind of what you expect when you walk into a bookstore that is almost 200 years old.
We also hit Petitgas, the world's second oldest hat store, which celebrated 160 years in operation in the spring, Skagen, which is slightly more expensive here than in the US, Peter Beier, a chocolatier, and Conditoriet La Glace, the oldest bakery in Copenhagen. The last was added to our list by the coffee store employees yesterday. We picked up slices of cake for breakfast tomorrow.
At that point, even though it would have been smart to eat, we weren't really hungry, so the next stop was the Round Tower ahead of the impending rain. This is an observatory connected to a church. The trip most of the way to the top is via a spiral ramp rather than stairs. Followed by a narrow spiral stair about 25% the height of the climb to our hotel room.
We then thought maybe lunch would be a good idea, and headed towards a brew house Bill had found via google maps our first night here. On the way we stopped at a glass shop with some cool stuff in it.
The brewery had an interesting looking menu for both food and beer. We didn't want to go too heavy as we had dinner reservations, ordering a tasting platter. There was a bit of a miscommunication, though, and we ended up with 2. Mistakes were made.
They also had a brett on tap that was interesting. A good sour on the front, and a long malt rich, evolving finish.
After several more stops at various clothing stores (and even the shoe store we're staying above), we ducked out of the rain at the apartment and checked with the tour book to see if it had any recommendations. Of the stores listed, there were three nearby that all looked interesting: Stilleben, Illums Bolighus, and Hay House. Stilleben had some interesting prints, but nothing that really captured our attention. Illums Bolinghus was a vast cornucopia of excellent kitchen, dinning, and furniture finds which we somehow escaped with only pot holders. Hay House contained such a dangerously clean lined set of goods we were lucky to only walk out with tea towels.
Shopping bender accomplished, we settled in at the apartment and tried out the new board game I purchased yesterday. I think we almost had the turn order down before it was time to head to dinner.
Kadeau was listed in our tour guide as an option if one couldn't get reservations at Noma. As Noma is currently closed, with plans to reopen in another month or so, we decided to check Kadeau out instead. They do a 15 course tasting menu, seating only a few dozen guests a night. The front door is almost not marked and a doorbell is how you get in. Before dinner, they bring you to a casual seating area with a view of the courtyard and a wonderful, fresh herb and citrus cocktail.
What followed, in any other year of my life, would have easily been the best meal I'd had this year. However, this year also included dinner at Alinea. In terms of service Kadeau's friendly, engaging servers and earnest chefs made for a far more welcoming, relaxed experience than the honed to perfection service at Alinea. We were as well cared for and cherished as the food here. And the food was incredible. Nothing quite as good as the coconut soup at Alinea, but playful and experimental in a way that was very appealing. I'm delighted we were able to get reservations.
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