Copenhagen Black Book
Yes, there was Noma, but also smørrebrød, snaps, and of course, antiquing.
Last month I finally got to visit my brother Jason and his family in Copenhagen, where they moved several years ago. I hadn’t been to the city for close to 15 years (I know, I’m a creature of Italy/France/Greece/California habit), and we only had a couple of days in town, but we got such fantastic recs. My sister-in-law, Irene, gave me the most incredible list. She’s the head of communications for MAD (the nonprofit founded by Noma), but in her previous life she was an editor-in-chief at Sunset, Lonny, and an editor at Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler (which is where she met my brother). All that to say, she is a research hound and a great writer, so her list is gold. My other great list came from Tina Seidenfaden Busck, the founder of The Apartment—a design gallery that is one of the best curations I’ve seen. We were lucky to get a reservation at Noma (Matt and René Redzepi share the same publisher), and while I went into the evening skeptical (I’m not typically a fine-dining type), I was converted, from the greeting we received when we entered, to the thoughtfulness in every single detail and the pride of the staff (each course is presented by the person who prepares the dish). The 16-course menu was centered around fish, each one completely mindblowing. For those of you who’d like to go but are put off by the wait, hot tip: follow them on Instagram. They post whenever there is a cancellation, and you just might be able to do a crazy-quick trip just to go to Noma. The only other meals we had were at my brother’s place (he’s a chef!) and lunch at Restaurant Møntergade, where we had a beautiful and delicious trad Danish lunch of smørrebrød, open-faced ryebread sandwiches, along with snaps (Danish schnapps).
STAY
Villa Copenhagen: We stayed here and were very happy—it’s in the former Post & Telegraph building so it’s quite big, but we felt like we never saw (or heard) anyone except for in the lobby and in the breakfast room. High ceilings, no hotel art on the