Five Specialty Coffee Shops To Visit in Copenhagen

With only three and a bit days in Copenhagen, I had to prepare my plan of coffee attack very carefully, especially as good coffee shops are quite scarce in the area in which I stayed — the central station end of Vesterbro. But I did manage to visit five different coffee bars and spotted a few more that looked promising.

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.

Copenhagen Day 3: Louisiana and Christianshavn

The mediocre Copenhagen weather couldn't last. When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was rainy and windy, which was somewhat unfortunate as I had planned to take the train up the coast to a modern art museum and sculpture park famed for its beautiful, scenic views. But when you only have a few days in a city, the show must go on and I headed out in search of some coffee to spur me on.

 I forgot to check the Sunday opening hours for Kent Kaffe Laboratorium (CLOSED) in Nørreport and it was closed, so I nipped around the corner to my back-up: the Torvehallerne Market branch of Coffee Collective.

I should note that Coffee Collective was only a back-up because I had planned to go to its original branch in Nørrebro on Monday and was worried I might not get another chance to visit Kent. Torvehallerne is a gourmet food market, split over two, glass-walled halls, each of which contains dozens of food shops and eateries. Coffee Collective had a few different filter coffee options, but I went for a pourover with the Guatemalan coffee (38 krone), which was very good.

Louisiana is located in the town of Humlebaek, a 30-minute ride north of Copenhagen on the Øresund suburban train line. I think the journey costs about 90 krone each way but, without wishing to sound like a broken record, it is free with the Copenhagen Card. So too is entry to the museum, which costs 115 krone otherwise. 

The museum is a ten-minute walk from the train station, which is probably windy even on a sunny day, but the rain was really throwing it down and I was convinced my brolly wouldn't survive. I arrived just as the museum doors opened and was happy to escape into the dry.

As well as an impressive permanent collection (including works by Danish artist Asger Jorn, shown below), Louisiana usually has a couple of temporary exhibitions. When I visited, there was a fascinating exhibition on Africa, encompassing art, society, politics and health. 

I was less interested in the Lucien Freud exhibition (I'm not a fan of his work). The building is beautiful: huge glass walls looking out onto the sea, accented with wood and black metal. It looked a lot like the setting of Alex Garland's Ex Machina or a Michael Haneke film, in fact, which was a little eerie.

There is a sculpture trail in the museum gardens, but the rain was so bad that I only managed to sneak out for a couple of seconds before retreating inside. Eventually, though, after I had browsed the excellent gift shop, which sells stylish clothes and accessories as well as homewares and books, the rain subsided and I ventured outside. It was still extremely windy but I enjoyed the stark coastal views.

Back in the city, I warmed up with an Aeropress brew at Kent, which had finally opened. The coffee was great — they offer pretty much every hand-brew filter coffee method you can think of and a choice of two beans — and the café is decorated in a casual, homey style.

Refreshed, I hopped on the metro to Christianshavn and walked along the canal until I reached Papirøen ('paper island'), so named because they used to print newspapers here. The small island now hosts Copenhagen Street Food in a giant warehouse with dozens of food trucks and eateries. It's more on the scale of Smorgasburg than Maltby Street Market, and they even had a few vintage clothes and accessories stalls at the front. 

There wasn't much in the way of Danish street food, other than one lone smørrebrod vendor, so I went for fish and chips. I felt that I hadn't had enough fish during my time in Denmark, anyway, and 50 krone for two pieces of cod, chips and a salad was probably the most reasonably priced meal I had had since arriving. The market opens late morning and closes late at night. There are a few seats outside if the weather is nice and the indoor seating is full.

After lunch, I walked west through the neighbourhood of Christiania, an autonomous neighbourhood within Christianshavn. It's an interesting place to walk through, notable for its DIY houses, colourful street art and, of course, the infamous 'Pusher Street'.

Christianshavn felt even fancier and, perhaps stuffier, when I left Christiania. I headed for Vor Frelsers Kirke ('the Church of Our Saviour'), which has a beautiful, helter skelter spire that you can climb to the top. It costs 35 krone to go up the tower (free with a Copenhagen Card) and it is a pretty steep and often narrow climb. It's worth it, though, when you are standing at the top on a step that's only 30 cm wide looking out over the city. Possibly one to avoid if you have vertigo — or a weak stomach.

I walked back to my hotel via the Cirkelbroen ('circle bridge') and then rested my aching feet before heading out for dinner in the meat-packing district.

There are a dozen or so restaurants and bars in the former warehouses just off Halmtorvet in Vesterbro. I had my eye on Nose2Tail, but it's closed on Sundays, so instead ended up at Kødbyens Fiskebar, a Michelin-listed restaurant in an old fish factory. If you want a table, you usually need to book, but I managed to score a seat at the bar. 

I ordered a Flemming Collins (105 krone) — gin, buckthorn, lime and licorice — and almost didn't recognise it when it arrived, orange and spotty. It was delicious, though, and went well with the cod (265 krone) I ordered for my main course. The cod was beautifully cooked and came with tarragon potatoes (they looked like green olives from a distance) and vegetables. It was an expensive meal, but the food was excellent and the atmosphere was great even on a rainy Sunday night.

My final destination of the day was Lidkoeb, the Vesterbro cocktail joint I had had my eye on all weekend. Located inside a courtyard off Vesterbrogade, Lidkoeb is spread over three floors of the building, as well as a fairy-light-accented patio. The indoor space is the definition of hygge: comfy leather booths with reindeer pelts for extra warmth and a long, low-lit wooden bar. 

It actually reminded me a lot of Huckleberry in Brooklyn. The bartender was very friendly — it was relatively quiet on a Sunday night, but the place is rammed on Fridays and Saturdays. I perused the leather-bound cocktail menu and picked one of the Nordic cocktails: the Skovens Julep (110 krone), which combines walnut-smoked akvavit with fresh chervil, birch syrup, horsetail and nettle tea. It was unlike any cocktail I had ever tried before, but the flavours worked very well together and it really did feel as though I was drinking the essence of Denmark. < / cliché >

Coffee Collective. Vendersgade 6D, Torvehallerne, Nørreport. Website. 
Kent Kaffe Laboratorium. Nørre Farimagsgade 70, Nørreport. CLOSED
Copenhagen Street Food. Trangravsvej 14, Papirøen. Website.
Kødbyens Fiskebar. Flæsketorvet 100, Vesterbro. Website.
Lidkoeb. Vesterbrogade 72B, Vesterbro. Website.

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.

Copenhagen Day 1: Hej, København!

After short trips to Stockholm and Helsinki, Copenhagen was next on my Scandinavian travel to-do list. As I feared that the city would be prohibitively expensive, I decided to limit this first excursion into Denmark to a three-night stay, and managed to use some air miles to limit the costs. I arrived early evening on Friday and was amazed that I could reach the city centre under 30 minutes after landing. All airport transfers should be this convenient.