Something Rotten

The Best Brunch I've Had In Copenhagen

Aaron Bateman — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Went for a terrific brunch at Canteen today. It was too good not to write about. Good service, immaculate attention to detail, and - most importantly - wonderful food. Definitely the best I’ve had in Copenhagen.

We had the big brunch (you can get it in two smaller sizes) and it came with some excellent cheeses, cold meats, crispy bacon, particularly lovely chorizo sausages, yoghurt with fresh fruit and muesli, pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, nice bread and homemade chocolate sauce. Nothing too fancy, but beautifully presented, and perfectly prepared.

Canteen; Nordre Frihavnsgade 52; Østerbro, Copenhagen.

Beyond the grave #1: assistens cemetery

Aaron Bateman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:19:00 GMT

Is it strange, when visiting a vibrant city, to seek out the local dead? Why do cemeteries – full of old stones and ancient history - attract so many modern travelers? Momondo asked our city bloggers to unearth an explanation and give us the low-down on the neighborhood necropolis. You'll read about the best burials in Berlin, the most entertaining interments in Prague, the graves of American heroes in New York and a cemetery with a magnificant view of Istanbul plus tips on what JP Sartre likes on his Paris grave and about Soeren Kierkegaard's and Karl Marx's last resting places in Copenhagen and London. Are you ready to go beneath the surface?

Assistens cemetery

Discovering this place on my doorstep was like waking up to find your pet dog has had puppies under your bed.

OK, it’s a cemetery but it’s beautiful in a peculiarly understated way.

Photo by Chat_K

You can wander round it every day and never take the same route twice. It’s a sprawling maze of a place with dozens of nooks and crannies where you can lounge around in the summer and catch a few rays. People treat it more or less as a public park so don’t be too perturbed by the sight of a few bikini-clad girls soaking up the sun. Not that that’s why I like it so much you understand.

It was originally conceived as an overspill for the crowded central cemetery but word of its attractiveness quickly spread. It rapidly became the place to be buried - something evidenced by the eternal presence of no less a personage as Hans Christian Andersen.

Photo by David Christiansen

Soren Kierkegaard’s (Kierkegaard actually means cemetery in Danish) last resting place (left) can also be found here. It’s the nearest thing Denmark has to Jim Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise, Paris, and there’s almost always a few straggly-haired philosophy students hanging around.

Photo by Double Feature

A lot of people use it as a shortcut to Noerrebrogade from Jagtvej or vice versa but most simply come and take a leisurely stroll and enjoy their surroundings.

You quite often see groups gathered round a grave, raising a beer to someone recently departed. Typically of the Danes, they don’t crow about their city’s attractions that much but this really is one of Copenhagen’s hidden gems.

Copenhagen's 'experience Diversity' Campaign

Aaron Bateman — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:03:00 GMT

As part of its ongoing Vi Kbh’r campaign (Us Copenhageners), Copenhagen city council has branded over 50 benches with its ‘Oplev forskellighed’ messaging (Experience diversity).

The benches, all painted in striking colours and bearing the URL and the slogan ‘Vi KBH’r taler sammen (Us Copenhageners chat together), are dotted in various city centre locations and are intended to encourage debate between citizens from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

While it’s pretty fanciful to think that two complete strangers will start swapping their life stories because of a bench, it’s still a noble aim. If nothing else, the benches do look pretty awesome.

Here’s some text from the section of the website that’s translated into English:

The goals of the campaign
“Copenhagen should be a whole city, where people live safely together with respect for diversity and fundamental common values such as freedom of speech and expression, democracy and equality.”

(Vision from the Copenhagen Council’s Integration Policy ‘06)

VI KBH’R is a 3-year running campaign and has the following goals:
• To strengthen inclusion and dialogue between the city’s citizens
• To highlight and celebrate the city’s diversity

The campaign will contribute to the prevention of polarization and radicalization in Copenhagen.

Given what I wrote only recently, I feel extremely heartened by initiatives such as these.

Tjili Pop: Defiantly Uncategorisable

Aaron Bateman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Photo: Multikev

Lurking in a particularly unpicturesque quarter of Noerrebro, rather like a rainbow fish in a heron’s gullet, Tjili Pop is a uniquely ramshackle little cafe you will fall in love with. Much in the same way you fell in love with your first remotely attractive primary school teacher.

It’s the kind of place you’ll casually refer to when you happen to be strolling around Noerrebro: ‘Oh yeah, I know this great little place just round here. You’ll love it. They have table football and they do great smoothies.’

Photo: Sepruda

Like the best Copenhagen cafes, Tjili Pop is defiantly uncategorisable. Neither out and out foodie nor exclusively boozy, it’s there for whatever you want I guess.

Which for most of the would-be bohos round here means hanging out in tight trousers and waistcoats doing nothing in particular.

Arch comments aside, it’s well worth a look. There’s live music on Wednesdays plus it’s open til 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

TJILI POP, Rantzausgade 28, Copenhagen

Take It To The Bankeraat

Aaron Bateman — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:12:00 GMT

Bankeraat is probably the strangest little cafe I’ve found in Copenhagen.

Stuffed animals abound. Louche artist types lounge around reading the thoughtfully provided array of foreign papers and staff sit at the bar drinking red wine.

This is boho paradise. I expected an improv poetry reading to begin at any moment.

I had nachos and a cappucino and sat next to a stuffed pelican who leaned over and explained that I hadn’t paid the tithe. When I asked what he meant he regurgitated a kipper onto my lap and flew off through the open window.

Not really. It was a herring.

It’s a lovely little place actually. It’s open til midnight and quite close to the centre of town so it’s a great place to start a night. If I lived any nearer I’d make it my local and probably make loads of annoyingly hip friends and grow a one-sided mullet.

BANKERAAT, Ahlefeldtsgade 27-29, Copenhagen