Scan Magazine | Café of the Month | Norway
Café of the Month, Norway
Traditional home-cooked food in world-famous venue Idyllically located across the river Nidelva from the stunning Nidaros Cathedral is the wonderful café Baklandet Skydsstadion. Imagine walking through the picturesque streets of an old part of town, then being able to enter one of the houses to enjoy an exclusive home-cooked meal. By Didrik Ottesen | Photos: Baklandet Skydsstadion
The building itself is from 1791 and is as packed with history as it is of inviting aromas from the kitchen. Its back garden, where guests can enjoy their food and drinks, remains in all its originality from when it was built – a feature that has seen the entire building listed as a cultural heritage. Having been awarded Café of the Year by the National Geographic in 2012, the peaceful cafeteria proudly produces its own traditional Scandinavian food and can offer 111 different types of aquavit, guaranteed to add that something extra to the dining experience. 98 | Issue 84 | January 2016
“We are very preoccupied with traditional food, like fish soup, reindeer stew, salmon and of course herring,” the owner, Gurli Riis Holmen, says. “Herring is a personal favourite of mine and I am constantly trying to invent new ways of preparing and serving it. We have a large Danish herring buffet every Friday, Saturday and Sunday year-round. A number of our guests have learnt to enjoy herring here, young people too, and they’re always surprised by how good it tastes.”
Like a public living room Dane Riis Holmen, who has owned the café for nearly seven years, says that
one of the key elements of the café is tradition and combining all things Scandinavian. “I’d probably say that tradition and home-cooked meals, combined, of course, with a good aquavit, have always been key elements,” she says. “After Lonely Planet described us as ‘probably the best fish soup in Norway’, guests from all over the world have been walking through the door. And that’s exactly what we want to be: a place where guests from all over the world feel welcome and can enjoy good company as well as great food and drinks.” Like a public living room, guests are usually placed rather close together, with every chance of meeting a local over a cup of cocoa, or indeed meeting a tourist. Quite fitting, in other words, that National Geographic described Baklandet Skydsstaion as ‘an old fisherman’s café turned student