International restaurateur Claus Meyer's (formerly of Noma, currently of Bolivia's Gustu) multi-restaurant complex the Standard opened in Copenhagen late last week. Featuring three restaurants, a jazz club, and two bars, the Standard is housed in a restored Art Deco building on Copenhagen's harbor. Almanak, an all-day restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, will be run by chef Andreas Møller. Studio, perhaps the most ambitious of the three, will feature tasting menus as well as a la carte items from Noma alum Torsten Vildgaards. The third restaurant is Verandah, a modern take on Indian cuisine from Karam Sethi. (The press release below notes Sethi is "the youngest Indian chef ever to receive a Michelin star" for London's Trishna.) Take a look inside the complex below:
Copenhagen's new jazz and restaurant venue THE STANDARD opened October 3rd. Reservations and online booking now open. Designers, architects and craftsmen have been working at full speed to transform the historic Art Deco building at Havnegade 44 (Harbor Street 44) in downtown Copenhagen's waterfront district, into a jazz club, three restaurants named Studio, Verandah and Almanak, and two bars.
THE THREE RESTAURANTS:
The Standard have three restaurants; Almanak, Verandah og Studio. Jacob Kocemba, a former winner of the World Championship for Waiters and the Nordic Championship for Sommeliers, and whom up until recently headed the Nimb Hermann restaurant in Copenhagen, will be the General Manager at The Standard.
ALMANAK
Almanak is located on the ground floor to the right as you enter the building from the main entrance. The restaurant, which has been interior designed by Christina Meyer Bengtsson and Ulrik Nordentoft has a 100 seat capacity. Almanak will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner all days of the week, except Monday.
The kitchen will be headed by Andreas Møller, who after 2 years as a sous-chef under Erwin Lauterbach at restaurant Saison, most recently has been head-chef at the Bib Gourmand restaurant Kanalen in Christianshavn. Almanak has gotten its name because Andreas, with support from co-owners Claus Meyer, Torsten Vildgaard and Søren Westh, wants to try to set a new standard as to how one can use Danish nature and the change of seasons as a principle for structuring the work in the kitchen.
The breakfast will consist of, among other things, organic freshly baked bread, pastries and cinnamon rolls from Meyer's Bakery, freshly squeezed juices, apple juice from Lilleø, homemade marmelades, simple egg dishes, cold smoked salmon and cold cuts from Nordhavn, a wide selection of primarily green and black teas and coffee from Estate Coffee. For lunch focus is on the traditional Danish open faced sandwhiches supplemented by a single warm dish. And wide selections of tasty beers and schnaps to accompany the meal. Andreas and the team at Almanak will not have the longest open faced sandwhich menu in town, but everything will be home made from scratch. The restaurant will celebrate the classic open faced sandwich format, but will also attempt to renew the tradition. With respect for and in synch with the seasons. In the evening, the restaurant will according to Andreas Møller serve "the food that my grandmother would have made if she had known what we know today".
Price examples from Almanak:
• Open faced sandwiches from DKK 75
• Appetizers from DKK 110
• Main course from DKK 185
• Three course menu DKK 350STUDIO
Studio is head-chef and co-owner Torsten Vildgaards – studio. He was creative headchef at noma for several years uptill recently. All of the food is prepared and served from an open kitchen in the restaurant, which is located on the first floor and with a breathtaking view of Copenhagen harbour. The Studio interior is, just like Almanak, designed by the design team Christina Meyer Bengtson and Ulrik Nordentoft and seats 48 guests and will be open on the evening, Tuesday through Saturday.
Torsten Vildgaard states: "At noma, from 2005-2012, I was deeply involved in developing new dishes, and at Studio we of course will continue this tradition and work intimately with our closest suppliers to create dishes that represent our nature, which no one has tasted before and which many hopefully will want to taste again. But after 8 years at noma I feel a need to look up and widen my perspective. At Studio we will also work with ideas and produce from other landscapes than our own. As long as it enhances good taste, which - along with warm superior service - means more to me than setting an intellectual agenda. Whenever we learn something useful, whether from an Indian mother, a native Bolivian, French cuisine or a stellar chef from San Fransico, we use it and embrace it openly."
At Studio there will be a choice between a la carte or set menu. The set menus are combinations of the 12 daily a la carte dishes.
• 5 course menu + snacks and after dinner sweets DKK 695
• 7 course menu + snacks and after dinner sweets DKK 895Examples of dishes:
• Sautéed langoustines, broth cooked on the shells, pigs ears and chickweed
• Salt baked celeriac with yoghurt, truffles, hasselnut and thyme.VERANDAH
Verandah is located on the ground floor to the left as you enter the main entrance of the building. The restaurant's interior is designed by the Danish-Italian design team GamFratesi and has a total of 80 seats including 58 in the restaurant, 8 in the bar and 14 in the lounge. Verandah will serve dinner all nights of the week, except Monday. And in addition, brunch on Sundays and Indian cocktails, nashta and snacks during all opening hours of the restaurant.
Verandah is the first contemporary gastronomic Indian restaurant in this region and is the result of a shared vision between celebrated Indian chef Karam Sethi (the youngest Indian chef ever to receive a Michelin star) and creative director Rizwana Merchant, a former pastry chef of the original Osteria dell'Arancio in Grottammare, Italy and General Manager of their sister restaurant in London.
Verandah will serve Contemporary Pan-Indian cuisine, using seasonal and regional ingredients.
A carefully selected wine list is an important feature as well, just like hospitality and service, which in Indian culture is often attributed the same level of importance as the food itself.
To help the Danes get a head start on finding their way through all the new exotic dishes, Verandah offers a set tasting menu of 5 dishes and an vegetatian version as well.
Verandah menu and vegetatian menu:
5 dishes DKK 395
INTERACTION
With the three restaurants under the same roof, there is of course plenty of opportunity for interaction. A few examples: the chefs at Verandah will do the curry mix for Almanak's curried herring and will prepare tandoor baked roti for Studio. Every Sunday evening the entire house works together around a common Sunday Roast theme.
THE JAZZ CLUB:
During the opening week, Niels Lan Doky will release his 37th album, entitled "Scandinavian Standards", and aside from celebrating the October 3rd opening, he also celebrates his 50th birthday on the exact same day.
An ambitious program
The jazz club, which will have 68 seats, including 6 standing in the bar, and will have fixed ticket prices for all concerts, regardless the program. All shows will run from Tuesday through Sunday with two concerts per night for a minimum of one week at a time. Selected concerts will be streamed i HD quality and access to the webcast can be purchased via The Standard's website, just before the concert starts.
During the first months of opening, the jazz club's offerings include among others, the great vocalist Roberta Gambarini, making her first-ever appearance in Denmark. She has been Grammy nominated in the USA where she has also been called "the best new jazz vocalist to come along in fifty years". The Stardard will host the world premiere of The Oscar Peterson Legacy Quartet, featuring among others the American drummer Alvin Queen and the Canadian bassist Dave Young. The Swedish singer Viktoria Tolstoy will deliver an exclusive pre-premiere of her new forthcoming album "A Moment Of Now". And other leading Scandinavian jazz musicians will appear also, such as guitarist Ulf Wakenius (Sweden), vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo (Finland), saxophonist Tore Brunborg (Norway), trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz (Sweden), saxophonist Benjamin Koppel (Denmark), pianist Jacob Karlzon (Sweden), bassist Jonathan Bremer (Denmark) and drummer Niclas Bardeleben (Denmark).
From the USA comes among others bassist Kyle Eastwood (Clint Eastwood's son) and the drummer legend Albert "Tootie" Heath.
"We have received hundreds of acknowledgements and requests via email, phone or Facebook. The interest for our project has been overwhelming and we are looking so much forward to welcoming music and food aficionados from all over the world and to making our contribution to Copenhagen", says Niels Lan Doky, who intends to perform at the piano often himself at The Standard – especially in the beginning.
The fixed ticket prices of the jazz club will be:
DKK 235 (USD 42) for normal tickets
DKK 185 (USD 33) for restaurant guests
DKK 99 (USD 18) for youngsters until 18 years of age, and for students.As of today, you can see concert dates and buy concert tickets and book reservations for the restaurants at thestandardcph.dk
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