Image by David Brandt

One of the oft-overlooked museums in Copenhagen is the Designmuseum Danmark (Previously known as The Danish Museum of Art & Design). I think it is a shame as the museum illustrates both Danish and international industrial and functional design history.

Housed in an old 17th century hospital the museum has a large permanent collection of historic applied arts and crafts ranging from European and Asian textiles over Chinese ceramics to colonial furniture. But more importantly there is a permanent collection on 20th century Danish design. All the famous Danish designers (Arne Jacobsen, Poul Henningsen etc) are represented with drawings, models and furniture. This is my favorite collection and it makes a visit worthwhile if you are interested in Danish design.

There’s always a number of special exhibitions on display as well. The special exhibitions differ enormously in range and focus. Currently you can see a photography exhibition on Northern Women in Chanel by Peter Farago & Ingela Klemetz Farago alongside an exhibit called Phantom Limbs featuring: “elaborately-crafted architectural constructions whose materiality houses inbuilt physical and conceptual absences.”

In the museum is a Cafe (complete with Danish design furniture, of course) and a gift shop.

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Designmuseum Danmark | Art & culture | Entrance adults DKK 60.00
Bredgade 68 | Inner City | +4533185656
Tue – Sun 11:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by David Brandt

Tugged along the canal behind the Parliament building, a hidden gem lies in a high basement. One of my favorite things to do is step down the couple of stairs to the restaurant. It’s like entering a time capsule.

Waiters in traditional Danish wait staff attire of white shirts and black vests embroidered with sponsored beer names run around serving Aquavit and open-faced sandwiches between red-clothed tables and an odd maritime theme. The walls are full of old sepia photos of sailboats and you have the random ore and Ships Wheel hanging from the ceiling. 

The food is traditional Danish lunch with open-faced sandwiches. You can find this all over Copenhagen, but at Kanal Cafeen they manage an excellent balance between tradition and ingredients. More modern interpretations exists (check the Schønnemanns article) but at Kanal Cafeen you’ll find an authentic honest version. You can of course get the whole range of classics, including my favorites Pickled Hering, Filet of Fish with remoulade sauce and Roast Pork with red cabbage. The wait staff are jovial and usually hung over from drinking too much Aquavit the day before. The manage to run a high service level regardless, but they might give you some good-hearted heat if ordering non-alcoholic beverages with your meal.

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Kanal Cafeen | Restaurants (Danish) | Sandwich from DKK 60.00
Frederiksholms Kanal 18 | Inner City | +4533115770
Mon – Fri 11:30 – 17:00, Sat 11:30 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by Margrethe Kofoed Olsen

Wullf+Konstali is a strange little shop. It is part small café, part coffee house, but mostly it’s a place where you can buy delicious things. They call themselves a Food Shop and I think that is quite an accurate name.

In the small shop there are a few places to sit, an Apple iMac with internet access for free use, free wi-fi, but most people stop in to pick something up on the way somewhere.

In the morning people choose the freshly made bread from the artisanal bakery on their way to work. Later in the day the delicious sandwiches and salads are popular with local business people and various workers in the area. When people start getting off work they stop by to bring home Beuf Bourgoignon or Spagetti Bolognese.

For the sweet tooth, there is a large selection of quality chocolates from Summerbird as well as home made cookies, brownies and cupcakes. And of course a selection of coffees, tea and juices.

The bakery is located on Lergravsvej 57, 2300 København S and has the same hours and selection as Wulff+Konstali on Isafjordsgade as well as an open bakery where you can watch the bakers in action.

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Wulff+Konstali | Coffee & tea, Snacks
Isafjordsgade 10 | Amager | +4532548181
07:00 – 20:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by David Brandt

In Denmark we have a special type of bar called a Bodega. A bodega is dark, has tinted windows and is frequented primarily by old drunks. You can smoke in a bodega and the beer is cheap! Most bodegas are empty during day except for a handful of regulars, but come to life at night with young people coming in, in search of indoor smoking and cheap drinks. Palæ Bar is an upscale bodega. It is located on an expensive address and it shows in the clientele. You’ll find old retired lawyers, architects and doctors alongside artists and journalists. The average age is well above 50 but it lends an informal air to the place. People play chess, discuss jazz and politics and in general just enjoy life over a beer or a glass of rose wine.

A simple lunch is served every day, as Palæ Bar gets a big order of Smørrebrød (the infamous danish open-faced sandwich) delivered from a local take-out place. It is served for lunch as long as they last, and if you are really lucky, there might be a piece or two left later in the evening as well. Every 3 weeks on Sundays there is live jazz.

On sunny evenings quite a crowd can gather on the sidewalk outside enjoying the last rays of the day. Not a bad place to spend an evening.

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Palæ Bar | Bars
Ny Adelgade 5 | Inner City | +4533125471
Mon – Wed 11:00 – 01:00, Thu – Sat 11:00 – 02:00, Sun 16:00 – 01:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by David Brandt

Spring is fast approaching and Valbyparken, one of the largest parks in Copenhagen has a few surprises. Mostly known to locals as the venue for large concerts and one-day festivals, Valbyparken is located a 15 minute bike-ride from the city center. In the park you can find playgrounds, people barbecuing and a quite nice collection of roses in the Rose Garden (boasting 12000 roses).

However, my favorite part of Valbyparken and why I go there, is the Disc Golf course. Disc Golf is an – admittedly – odd sport that basically combines golf with Frisbee. Disc Golf allows for both beginners as well as experienced players to play as you can choose to start from the easy (red), middle (yellow) or hard (white) tees. And just like in regular golf, the goal is to get to the target in as few strokes/throws as possible.

You throw the disc towards a strange basket on a pole equipped with chains for catching the disc. The Valbyparken course has 18 holes in a varied landscape with both water hazards and small hills. Most holes in Valbyparken are par 3 or par 4. You should expect a round to take about 2 hours. For me, it is one of my favorite ways to spend Saturday afternoon before a night out with friends.

The Disc Golf course is free, but you need to bring your own discs as there is no onsite pro-shop.

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Valbyparken | Relaxing | Free
Hammelstrupvej 100 | Valby
24 hours daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by Salon 39

Salon 39 is a cocktail bar and restaurant in the Frederiksberg neighborhood of Copenhagen. It is small place with an amazing ability to mix a few ingredients together to create outstanding flavors in both food and drinks. It started out as a cocktail bar founded by two Copenhagen friends, a Michelin-star trained chef and a trained bartender from Hotel Vier Jahrzeiten in Hamburg. They wanted to create a great cocktail-bar while serving a few simple dishes and snacks so people would stay around instead of leaving to go get food elsewhere.

Food is prepared with lots of love and great ingredients, cocktails are made with the best liquors imported from around the world; Pisco from Chile and Peru, Bourbon from small American distilleries and homemade infused vodka and cognacs. One of my favorite things to do is sit at the bar, let the bartender surprise me with new concoctions and listen to him chat with off-duty cocktail-bartenders from around Copenhagen who somehow always hang out at Salon 39. Don’t be surprised if the topic is something geeky, like how to make the perfect ice cube for shaking cocktails.

The décor is dark and somber. The soundtrack is vinyl jazz records. The main reason I love this place is their insane passion for making sure that both food and cocktails are the very best. Not the most fancy, but the very best.

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Salon 39 | Bars, Restaurants (Italian ) | Cocktails DKK 85.00
Vodroffsvej 39 | Frederiksberg | +4539208039
Wed – Thu 16:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 16:00 – 02:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by Brass Monkey

Housed in an old Poulaine shoe store, Brass Monkey is a blast from the past. Back in the 1940s Don The Beachcomber, the worlds first Tiki-bar opened up in Hollywood. Brass Monkey in Vesterbro, is trying to bring back the celebration of Polynesian culture, the fruity rum-based drinks and pacific island bar snacks.

Tiki-drinks are made with lots of juices and flavors like pineapple and banana. Drinks are served in traditional porcelain Tiki Mugs and served with loads of rum. Brass Monkey boasts the largest selection of rum in Scandinavia.

Their snacks include fish burgers, shrimp skewers and other delicious pacific island bar foods.

Opened by the crew behind the best classical cocktail bar in Copenhagen (Check the Salon 39 article), Brass Monkey aims to continue the traditions of classical bartending – impeccable service, a little bit of showmanship and honest great tasting drinks – that has rendered Salon 39 so successful.

Brass Monkey is dark and decorated with wood carvings and palm trees. The bartenders wear Aloha Shirts and don’t be surprised if you get a Lei hung around your neck when you enter.

One of my favorite things to do is get a Volcano – a big tub of tiki-licious cocktail for 4-5 people served with 5 extra long straws. You can’t really be sparse with the alcohol in Tikis. Maybe that’s the reason that I’ve never had a boring night out at Brass Monkey. Or maybe it’s because you never know when they’ll break out the Limbo stick at Brass Monkey!

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Brass Monkey | Bars | Cocktail DKK 85.00
Enghavevej 31 | Vesterbro | +4533223433
Wed – Sat 20:00 – 03:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by Grand Fromage

Far away from downtown Copenhagen and even a bit out of the way from downtown Frederiksberg, lies a small cheese shop near Peter Bangsvej Station. Even though it is out of the way, it is most certainly worth the trip. I frequently do a 20 minute bike ride detour home from work to buy cheese in the small shop.

Grand Fromage is originally from Denmark’s 2nd largest city Århus, but due to their popularity with Copenhagen restaurateurs, they opened up a small shop in Frederiksberg. Grand Fromage is run by father and son, who both have a cheese-making background. The family have been cheese-makers since 1883. This of course shows in their selection of products for sale in the shop. Cheeses are chosen from small artisan producers in Denmark as well as France, Italy and the UK.

The staff is of course extremely knowledgeable (it is usually the son working the shop) and you can be quite sure you’ll get a taste of cheese and a good story when in the shop. Apart from cheese, the shop has a small selection of Salamis, hams, freshly baked bread and relishes and other condiments to go with a cheese platter. My personal favorite is the French Epoisses de Bourgogne which you can get at Grand Fromage at a perfect level of ripeness. It becomes extremely smelly and runny when it is mature enough to eat. Yummy!

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Grand Fromage | Shopping
Peter Bangs Vej 89 | Frederiksberg | +4538161303
Tue – Thu 10:00 – 18:00, Fri 10:00 – 18:30, Sat 09:30 – 14:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by Lior Zilberstein & Lone Eriksen, www.ediblematerial.com

In downtown Copenhagen between shops and busy offices you’ll find one of my favorite cocktail bars: 1105 (named after the zip code). An English expat and longtime Copenhagen bartender started 1105 a couple of years ago and became an instant hit on the Copenhagen cocktail-scene.

The room is black with a big black long bar, a few black couches and black walls. The bartenders are a shining contrast with crisp white lab coats and the colorful drinks they produce at the bar. There is ample space to hang at the bar and plenty of standing room on busy nights.

The focus at 1105 is classical cocktails but with a modern twist. This is best exemplified by the head bartender being Hardeep Rehal, two-time Danish Bartender of the year. You shouldn’t miss his infamous Cucumber Yum-Yum, a pink concoction of gin, aquavit mixed with raspberries, honey and of course cucumber. It’s one of my favorite cocktails.

The crowd is in their 30s, well-dressed and well off, but 1105 manages to keep a good atmosphere where having fun and high quality drinks comes before social ranks. A DJ plays R&B on weekends.

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1105 | Bars | Cocktail DKK 90.00
Kristen Bernikows Gade 4 | Inner City | +4533931105
Wed – Sat 20:00 – 02:00, Fri 16:00 – 02:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen

Image by David Brandt

On the Copenhagen cityblog, there is a number of places for Smørrebrød (the infamous open-face sandwiches, check out the Hansens Gamle Familiehave and Kanal Cafeen articles). Each of those are amongst my favorite spots. They each have their own personality, Hansens being kitsch and classy and Kanal Cafeen being old and traditional. But my top favorite is Schønnemanns.

Schønnemanns is a fairly new player on the scene. Well, actually Schønnemanns has been operating since 1877! but it was only after new owners in 2007 that it entered the big leagues.

Schønnemanns is – without a doubt – the best place in town for smørrebrød. The menu is rather large and provides both authentic classics as well as new interpretations. But common for all is high quality, great flavor and the fantastic use of ingredients. Everything is of course home made. Smørrebrød is served with the largest selection of Aquavit I’ve ever seen. Schønnemanns has more than 70 kinds sourced from all of Scandinavia and The Netherlands as well as a few homemade varieties.

My only problem with Schønnemanns is that it is so popular. It is almost impossible to get a table on short notice, so make sure to book in advance.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Schønnemanns | Restaurants (Smørrebrød) | Smørrebrød from DKK 70.00
Hauser Plads 16 | Inner City | +4533120785
Mon – Sat 11:30 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Copenhagen