Totally Stockholm 1
BITESIZE Words: Austin Maloney, Peter Steen-Chris
tensen Food Trends The switching of the calendar over to a new one always gets people excited about what might change with a new year, and Stockholm’s ever-bubbling food scene is bound to be responsible for some new experiences and trends over the next months. And so to find out what we have in store, we got Lennart Wallander, CEO of the food and beverage communications agency Food & Friends to give us a little insight into what we can expect from our plates, restaurants and kitchens here in 2019. Brisket & Friends expands The BBQ restaurant Brisket & Friends opened its doors in an old car wash in Årsta a few years ago, and since then has proved a massive hit. With that success behind them, they’ve now decided to expand and right in the middle of the city, with another restaurant opening up in Vasastan. The restuarant’s specialty, hickory-smoked BBQ along with vegetarian alternatives, will now be available on Upplandsgatan. Unlike the Årsta lunch restaurant, the Upplandsgatan outlet will also be open on evenings, and will also offer alcohol, including a specialty craft beer called ‘Big Bone Brews’ from the microbrewery PKLK. The restaurant’s Niklas Elshazly says: “The concept is scaled-back, so that the food and drink can be the focus. It makes it simple and gives guests the freedom to do as they wish, eat as much or as little as they wish, grab a beer or just a little bite to eat. That’s how we like it here at Brisket & Friends. Everything we serve is smoked here, with hickory wood imported from the US. We slow-smoke for a long time, just like in Texas. The whole idea with Brisket & Friends is that the guest can put together their own plate, so that the flavour suits you and your company perfectly”. AM Brisket & Friends opens on Upplandsgatan 7 on February 22, and is open from Tuesday to Sunday. www.brisketandfriends.se 20 All Day Dining As our eating habits evolve towards more and more ‘grazing’, ie continuous snacking throughout the day, restaurants evolve too. With the format ‘All Day Dining’ the idea is to continuously change the menu according to the different parts of the day. The bar or restaurant becomes a place to spend better parts of the day, as a social spot or a workplace in the same way as the coffee shop and hotel lobby. As an example, have a look at Daily Provisions in New York, opened by famed Danny Meyer of Shake Shack, Union Square Café etc. The restaurant opens in the morning as a café with freshly baked goods, and then switched the menu boards six times per day. At mid-afternoon they start pushing rotisserie chicken. The best examples of All Day Dining in Stockholm are Nybrogatan 38 and Nytorget 6, that are happy to welcome you at any time during the day. Quiet revolution What annoys us the most when visiting a restaurant? According to a survey by the American restaurant guide Zagat it’s noise! In recent years the volume has been turned up and the interior decor has been turned down, creating restaurants devoid of rugs, tablecloths and curtains, all according to the ‘Rough Luxe’ trend. This has created restaurants where the sound ricochets endlessly, and noise levels that are downright dangerous are not unusual. At 70 dB it is much harder to think. At 80 dB damage is done to the hearing. In Stockholm the Ljudombudsmannen has measured noise in restaurants at 100 dB, which equals a power lawn mower at full blast. Now we’ve had enough, it´s time to invest not just in coollooking interiors but also in making the restaurant a social venue where we can speak without yelling. A good example in Stockholm is restaurant Hillenberg. No speakers in the dining area, and a well-designed sound landscape. Sublime! Another one is restaurant Tennstopet, which Ljudombudsmannen appointed most-conversation friendly restaurant in 2017. AM