Totally Stockholm 1
If you have Hornstull at your back and your sight
s firmly set on Kungsholmen, as you travel across the Västerbron, you can turn your head left and see a mint green wooden house from the 1800s, among the trees at Smedsudden. If you make a sweeping turn off the busy bridge and let your bike roll down towards it, it immediately feels like you’re arriving at a summer holiday hideaway. Surrounded by water and grass, this spot feels a long way from urban. Behind the project of injecting life into the old house, which has stood empty for the last ten years, are Jakob Grandin and his team (who are also behind Trädgården among other things). After long negotiations with Stockholms Stad, who own the listed property, they’ve finally gotten the green light – to turn a vision of a place for food, fitness and art into reality. The restaurant entrepreneur Sally Voltaire has been signed up as creative director of the kitchen. ”Last year my dream of a summer restaurant became a reality, when I ran Sally på Sudret on Gotland. That was lovely, but it was exhausting to be away from home on Södermalm all summer. When I met Jakob to discuss the project before the summer, it felt perfect right away. This is that same lush restaurant, but only ten minutes away from home,” Voltaire says, as she shows me the outdoor section of the restaurant, which stretches around the building and can seat 100 people. In 1884, captain Oscar Fredrik Kreüger had two wooden houses built in the Swiss style typical of the time at Smedsudden, the Kreügerska Villan and Annexet. The first burned down 1997, and the latter is what is now being renovated and turned into a restaurant. The inside, most recently a kayak rental café, is now morphing into a bar, an open kitchen and an indoor seating area for days with poor weather. Upstairs a space is being prepared for larger gatherings like weddings, dinners and conferences. Broad wooden floors, large windows and two tiled stoves adorn the room. “The first time I came here, I felt that this is like something you’d find in the archipelago - but here in the city,” Sally says. Because Jakob Grandin also owns Trädgården and Under Bron, should people expect this to become Stockholm’s new party hangout? The restaurant will be open from 11:00-23:00 every day during the high season, and the outdoor bars stay open until 01:00. But we have no intention of becoming a night club. The idea is a city hangout where dinner begins early and stretches on for a long time. We want to work with food, art and fitness, things we think are suitable for this place. We collaborate with several figures in the world of fitness and exercise, who want to do outdoor activities at Smedsudden this summer. Among them are the team behind Gympa 3000, who will arrange outdoor workout sessions by the bathing area. Voltaire usually means a healthy theme - will that be manifesting itself here too? Well, I mean there will both be vegetables and fitness. The food will have a Mediterranean theme, think olive oil and sea salt. A light and summery menu with a lot of fish and seafood, greens, barbecue and flowers and herbs from the kitchen garden. But you can also have chips. So you can decide yourself what you want to do. And let me guess, mid-sized dishes? You know what, there won’t be sharing plates. It will be starters, mains and desserts. But then you could of course have several starters, if you really do want to share. And there will be Mediterranean snacks on the bar menu. Like hummus with acidic greens, pistachios and good olives - a fitting match for the cocktails. What about the wine list? Mixed. Some natural wines, some heavy Italians. Caroline Sjöberg, who’s responsible for the wine list, has put her all into compiling a list that should have something for everyone at Eden. But as we have a Mediterranean theme, there are of course several good wine countries to choose from. We have talked about having a more wellbehaved wine expression around the house, and then being more playful with natural wines in the other areas. In June we’re also opening an outdoor bar on the wooden decking by the Smedsuddsbadet bath. Wooden decking even. Sounds very ambitious! It’s going to be huge! It feels a bit like this project has grown gradually. We have kind of swelled and taken over the whole area. At the back of the house there’s a group that will open a small restaurant with a Mexican theme. And in the future, there are plans to build a sauna and some other, for now secret, projects. Will we get to see you in the kitchen? Absolutely! I will be here. We are an energetic bunch here, and I have really missed being part of a team and having people to lean on, both during and after work. There really are pros on board this train - Viktor Nyman from Häktet, Jakob Grandin, Kaj in the bar has previously worked at Trädgården and Punk Royale, and Caroline, who looks after the wine, comes to us from Bockholmengruppen. A fusion of restaurateurs. Eden at Smedsudden opened in late May. 15