Double Skinny Macchiato - Bex's Coffee Travels: design

Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

18 September 2015

Copenhagen Day 4: Shopping in Nørrebro, Strøget and Vesterbro

Monday was my last morning in Copenhagen and the sun was finally poking through the clouds. I decided to try to burn off some of the pastries by running along the waterfront, past the Little Mermaid (who had fewer visitors early in the morning) and back down along The Lakes.

Nørrebro and Nørreport
After checking out of my hotel, it was time to hit the shops. I made a beeline for the creative-cool neighbourhood of Nørrebro, just north of The Lakes. It was a pleasant, 30-minute walk from my hotel near the central station. My first port of call was Jægersborggade, a lovely street with many cafés, restaurants and independent shops. At no. 9 is Meyers Bageri, a superb bakery and patisserie. I picked up a kanelsnegle with molten chocolate poured liberally on top. Perhaps not the healthiest breakfast but it was supremely delicious.

Just across the road, at no. 10, is the original Coffee Collective location. There are a few tables inside, squeezed in between the brew bar and the roaster, and a couple on the pavement. I will be doing a separate Copenhagen coffee post, but suffice to say that my cortado (30 krone) was very good. I also picked up a bag of Guatemalan beans to take home (95 krone).

Other places I spotted on Jægersborggade included: Kaktus (no. 35), a shop selling cacti and beautiful pots; Vanishing Point (no. 45; pictured below), which sells a beautifully curated collection of hand-made accessories; Gågron (no. 48), which offers homewares that are beautiful and sustainable and/or environmentally friendly; Manfreds (no. 40), a lovely, cosy-looking neighbourhood eatery; and Grød (no. 50), a restaurant specialising in the eponymous porridge.

I walked back down Nørrebro's main drag, Nørrebrogade (they're very creative with the street names here), crossing over The Lakes to Nørreport. A small homewares and toy shop called Maduro (Frederiksborggade 39; pictured below) caught my eye; they had some really pretty ceramics, lighting and rugs. For lunch, I stopped by Torvehallerne (Frederiksborggade 21), which was fully open this time. I had a final smørrebrod lunch at Hallernes, selecting one smoked salmon and one potato and onion open sandwich, which cost 95 krone.

Strøget
Strøget (pronounced, appropriately enough, 'stroll') is one of Europe's longest pedestrianised areas, running for around 1km. Strøget itself has a lot of the department stores, big shops and chains. I revisited Hay (Østergade 61), which has so many beautiful homeware and lifestyle products. I also went back to Illums Bolighus (Amagertorv 10), but left empty-handed, partly because I had spent a lot of money on food, and partly because the Scandinavian aesthetic is such that it's hard to buy just the odd item — you really have to go for all or nothing.

I also discovered a few cool shops on Købmagergade, including: Plint (no. 50; first picture below), which sells kitchen goods and homewares in a range of cheery colours; Message (no. 46; chain) and Samsøe ø Samsøe (no. 44), both of which specialise in good-quality Scandi style (lots of good basics in neutral colours). NORR (Pilestræde 36) is a boutique that sells a large variety of clothing, locally produced jewellery and beauty products. There's a café/juice bar inside the store and there's also an outlet selling sale items across the street. A little further west is a lovely little design store called Stilleben (Niels Hemmingsens Gade 3; second picture below), which has nice jewellery and bags and a great collection of prints. I had hoped to visit CPH Made (Brolæggerstræde 6), a local designers collective, but it's closed on Mondays.

By this point, I was in need of another coffee, so I popped into Risteriet (Studiestræde 36), a café-roastery, which sells its own whole beans and assorted coffee-brewing kit. They don't do hand-brewed filter coffee so I had another cortado (30 krone), which was pretty good, although a little longer than I usually prefer.

Vesterbro
On Saturday, I discovered the delights of Værnedamsvej, a quiet street just off the main Vesterbo drag (Vesterbrogade), which has various cool cafés and shops. Dora (no. 6) has a well-curated collection of homewares, including some vintage crockery and blankets that need instructions. Just next door, Playtype (also no. 6) is a font-lover's paradise. They sell notebooks, prints, ceramics and more decorated with Danish fonts. I liked the marble-print notebooks, but they only had the letters F, A, U and X (for obvious reasons).

On the other side of Vesterbrogade, on Oehlenschlægersgade (no. 13), is Just Spotted, which sells locally inspired and/or designed prints at various sizes from postcard to poster. It's worth making the detour west along Vesterbrogade (no. 137) to Designer Zoo, a store and gallery space split over three levels, with a particular focus on glassware, ceramics and jewellery.

I walked back towards my hotel along Istedgade, another good destination if you're looking for independent clothing boutiques and design stores. Some of the shops that caught my eye included: ES-ES (no. 108-110), Girlie Hurly (no. 99), Kyoto (no. 95), Rude (no. 112) and DANSK (no. 80, interiors; no. 64, kitchenware).

This is my penultimate Copenhagen post — the last post will be a coffee guide — but I loved the city and I'm sure I will be back before too long.

14 September 2015

Copenhagen Day 2: Exploring the City Centre

On Saturday morning, I woke up relatively early and headed for The Lakes, a series of three artificial rectangular lakes (divided into five basins) that curve around the north-west of the city centre, which I had identified as the best running spot near my hotel. The sun wasn't shining, exactly, but the weather was mild and quite pleasant.

After returning to my hotel to shower and change, I went to grab some breakfast at Granola, a popular, French-style café in Vesterbro. I got there just after 9.30 and there were still a few tables available, but people who arrived after 10 were facing a considerable wait. I ordered a cortado (35 krone, or about £3.50) and the oatmeal with apple, banana, coconut and cinnamon (55 krone) and soaked up the view of the cool corner of Vesterbro as it came to life. Until a big car came and parked in front of me, anyway.

The oatmeal was very tasty, if a little overpriced, and the coffee was only OK (I guess they really are imitating those grand French cafés), but the atmosphere and experience were great. If there is a queue at Granola and you are seeking good coffee, try Rist, just across the street. And next to Rist are a couple of great shops: Dora, which has beautiful homewares, and Playtype, which is an altar to all things typographical.

Breakfast completed, it was time to crack on with the day's sightseeing. I am in Copenhagen for four days, but as I only arrived on Friday evening, this works out as three full days and an evening, which meant that there wasn't any time for dawdling. I walked past Tivoli to the National Museum of Denmark, via the Rådhuspladsen (town hall square) where celebrations of National Fish Day were in full swing. The museum is free to enter and has some good collections on the history and culture of the Danish people. I was in a bit of a rush so just explored the ground floor, which mainly focuses on Danish prehistory. There is free wifi and a decent gift shop too.

I crossed the bridge onto Slotsholmen ('castle island'), a small island that houses Christiansborg Palace and the Royal Library. Christiansborg contains lots of different buildings and you are mostly free to wander around the outside. I walked through the gardens of the Royal Library, said hello to Kierkegaard (his statue overlooks the fountain), and then joined the queue for the Tårnet, Copenhagen's highest tower. It's free to go up and, unlike some of the other towers in the city, there is a lift, and the view is indeed quite spectacular, even on a cloudy day. You couldn't quite see to Sweden (all of the towers highlight this possibility as the pinnacle of vistas), but the colourful buildings and red-tiled roofs did look very scenic.

By then, it was time for my second coffee and I crossed the bridge on the eastern side of Slotsholmen to get back onto the main city centre island. I went to Copenhagen Coffee Lab partly because its cosy basement ambience sounded lovely and partly because I had read that they did hand-brewed filter coffees. Unfortunately, when I arrived there was a big queue and only one barista and she looked as though she might cry when the guy in front of me tried to order a pourover, so I ordered a cortado (30 krone) instead. It was good, but I wish I'd arrived 15 minutes later because when I left, I saw some other customers enjoying a pourover. I'll do a full Copenhagen coffee guide at the end of my trip.

Heading northeast along the waterfront, I stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Almanak, which occupies the ground floor of The Standard, a large, pistachio green building that resembles a ship. Almanak specialises in smørrebrod — open-faced Danish sandwiches — and the restaurant itself, tastefully decorated in soothing shades of grey, is beautiful and elegant. Most of the smørrebrod were between 80 and 110 krone and you really need two to make a lunch, but you can also get the 'chef's quick lunch', which includes two smørrebrod selected by the chef for 150 krone. This seemed like good value (relatively), so I went for this option and was really impressed with how tasty and beautifully presented the food was. The smoked salmon with fennel and cucumber was my favourite, but the roast beef, horseradish and crispy onions was also very good.

A couple of blocks northeast takes you to Nyhavn, a scenic, if touristy, row of colourful buildings along the canal. Boats bob in the harbour and there are plenty of restaurants, but I feel like my meal at Almanak was probably much better value. I carried on walking until I reached the Design Museum Danmark, a place where all chairs hope to go when they leave this life. There are a lot of chairs in the museum, but plenty of pop art, fashion and style too. It costs 100 krone to go in but is free with a Copenhagen Card. Unsurprisingly, it has a great gift shop, stocked with plenty of lovely homewares, accessories and books.

I stopped for a third coffee at Kafferiet, a tiny, cosy spot near the Kastellet (fortress), and then, spurred on by the caffeine, mustered up the energy to fight through the throngs of other tourists to visit the Little Mermaid. I was surprised that they let you go right up to the statue (although you do have to negotiate some rocks on the shore), which meant that every person on every tour bus wants to get a photo of them touching the mermaid's fin and that it's difficult for everyone else to get a photo that doesn't have other people in it.

I left pretty quickly and walked back to the city centre through the star-shaped Kastellet, whose interior buildings are painted a vibrant red. There was a wedding taking place inside and it was nice to see people strolling through the grounds in black tie.

As I was in the area, I decided to visit a few of the design shops on my shopping list, notably Hay (a haven of colourful gorgeousness), Illum (a department store whose fourth floor has many lovely homewares) and Illums Bolighus (three floors of homewares, stationery and other beautiful products from a variety of Danish designers). All of these shops are located on Strøget, a 1km pedestrianised shopping street (pronounced — approximately — stroll).

I probably wouldn't have bothered taking one of the super-touristy canal-boat tours of the city (80 krone for one hour), but it was free with my Copenhagen Card and I was in need of a sit down. It was quite a nice way to see the city but as the guide was — impressively — conducting the tour in four languages, I didn't learn much more about the city than what I had read in my guidebook.

About an hour before sunset, the sun decided to peep through the clouds and as I was in the area, I decided to climb up the Rundetårn (round tower), a 17th century tower that allows you to amble your way up to the top via the steeply sloping but stair-free path. It costs 25 krone to enter (free with Copenhagen Card), and isn't quite as good a view as Tårnet, but I enjoyed the climb and it was nice to see the city at what was likely to be the closest I would see of a sunset in Copenhagen.

For dinner, I crossed the bridge over one of the lakes into Nørrebro and went into Sliders, a casual-cool burger restaurant that looks out onto the lake. There are nine options on the slider menu and you can order one for 45 krone or three and a side for 115. Naturally, I went for the latter, choosing a beef patty topped with corn, cabbage (!) and crispy bacon; a pulled pork and coleslaw slider; and a Thai-inspired chicken and duck patty with peanuts and spring onions. You order at the bar and when your food is ready, the staff bring it out to your table. The packaging is so beautiful — black paper adorned with gold stickers and text — that you feel like you are buying a gift at a fancy department store. The food was tasty too, although the pulled pork was a little disappointing. Next time, I would try more beef sliders.

I went for a nightcap at a hip little bar called The Barking Dog, a cosy, fun spot with friendly bar staff and great drinks. The cocktail menu has plenty of quirky twists on classic drinks as well as some of their own concoctions. I went for The Last Hipster (85 krone); because Copenhagen. Vodka (gluten-free, natch) is mixed with a spice syrup, a fruit syrup, lemon and a touch of absinthe and shaken over ice. It wasn't something I would normally go for but it was really good and probably won't be the last Last Hipster. Once I heard that the Christian J. Collins (also 85 krone) was a Tom Collins made with my local Jensen's Bermondsey gin, I couldn't not order one, and it was also expertly mixed. Finally, it was time to head home and rest my aching feet after a busy day.

Granola. Værnedamsvej 5, Vesterbro. Website.

Copenhagen Coffee Lab. Boldhusgade 6, Copenhagen city centre. Website.

Almanak. Havnegade 44, Copenhagen city centre. Website.

Kafferiet. Esplanaden 44, Copenhagen city centre. Website. Twitter.

Sliders. Peblinge Dossering 2, Nørrebro. Facebook.

The Barking Dog. Sankt Hans Gade 19, Nørrebro. Website.

19 August 2015

Exploring Netil Market

A few years ago, I headed east to Hackney in search of the Designers/Makers Market, an ill-fated journey as it turned out that they weren't holding it that Saturday (it now seems to have found a pop-up spot at Spitalfields). I did come across a small food and vintage market nearby, however, which could well have been on the same site that now hosts Netil Market.

I love to have a wander around a new (or new-to-me) market on a Saturday afternoon, so I hopped on the bus to Shoreditch and then walked along the canal to Hackney. Netil Market is located in a small yard near the railway arches on Westgate Street, near the south side of London Fields and just around the corner from the lovely, bustling Broadway Market. I had heard on the social media grapevine that Netil Market combines food and drink, with vintage and design-oriented shopping. My kind of market, in other words.

It was smaller than I was expecting: just a handful of wooden shacks serving the food and drink, and a few more and some market stalls for the shopping. It was early afternoon by the time I arrived — way past brunch o'clock — so I headed straight for the food. I had a quick scan of the options and then made a beeline for Bao. I've been wanting to try Bao's Taiwanese buns (the eponymous baos) for some time, and although I was tempted to have one of each of the fried chicken and the classic pork baos, I just went for the latter to save room for other comestibles. With hindsight, I should have done the double because the pork bao (generously stuffed with braised pork, pickles, peanuts and coriander) was bloomin' marvellous, and only £3.50. The pork was juicy and the flavour combinations were most excellent. No wonder there was a big queue!

Other food choices included Pizzas Don't Cry, which stakes a possible claim as the world's smallest pizzeria (the sourdough pizzas looked ace, but one bao in didn't leave me with enough room to try one); Morty & Bob's, which serves grilled cheese sarnies and bloody marys; and the Gamby Shack, which offers Afro-Caribbean soul food. All of this had to be savoured for another visit, but I did finally get to sample a macchiato from Terrone (UPDATE: the coffee bar is now permanently closed but you can still buy Terrone's coffee online), an Italian coffee producer and Netil Market resident. It's been way too long since I had a coffee roasted in Italy and produced, made and served by Italians, but my macchiato was worth the wait. If the sun is already over the yardarm (or even if it isn't), Terrone also serves cocktails.

Then it was time for some shopping. Actually, I ended up window-shopping as I'm on a bit of budget prior to my next overseas excursion, but when all of the goods are so beautiful and lovingly curated, it was a pleasure just to look. My favourite stall was Hopscotch, where every object was beautiful — and most were useful too. They sell candles, stationery, vintage cards, ceramics and much more. Rebecca Gladstone's delicate silver and golden jewellery is also lovely and exactly my style.

There are also lovely cards from Barney and Claude, teeny terraria from Arma Glass, and some really fab vintage pieces.

Despite being full, I found myself ordering a slice of orange and lavender cake from Victoria Yum, which was very good. On a warm but not especially sunny Saturday afternoon, there was a lovely atmosphere at Netil Market. The vendors were all very friendly and happy to talk about their wares, and although there isn't a huge amount of seating areas, there is just enough space to sit and enjoy your food and drink. If you haven't been yet, check them out on Saturdays from 11–6 pm.

Netil Market. 13–23 Westgate Street, London, E8 3RL (Cambridge Heath rail). Website. Twitter.