Open Café, Valhallavägen 79, openlabsthlm.se
story /Micha van Dinther
When news broke that newly inaugurated OpenLab, a platform and creative centre that looks into finding solutions to challenges in growing and sustainable cities, had teamed up with top chef Henrik Norström to create “an experimental and sustainable food café”, my imagination ran riot as to what this collision of innovation could entail. The choice was particularly interesting as Norström, who runs the restaurants Lux Dag För Dag, B.A.R. and EAT, has had his own fair share of challenges and setbacks since Lux burnt to the ground in 2010. As the former fine-dining restaurant rose like a phoenix from the ashes, Norström showed both an extreme resilience and a will to reinvent himself and his establishment, recasting the exclusive Lux as the more casual Lux Dag För Dag.
Although entering Open Café is more like stepping into a student canteen than the chic surroundings of Noma Lab, the stark monochrome space gives a sense of a scientific laboratory.. A number of communal tables lined against the walls encourage the mingling of students, researchers and professors at the nearby universities, as well as those of us merely passing through. The display cases in the self-service cafeteria, enveloped in perforated metal sheets, is filled to the brim with wraps, noodle salads, sandwiches, juices, smoothies and baked goods – all cooked using local and organic produce.
Today’s daily special (95 kronor, the dish changes every day) is a spiced and roasted chuck steak. After paying at the cash register, the generous portion of protein is handed to me through a window before I fill up the rest of the plate with carbs and fibres at the extensive buffet of salads, sides and breads. It offers the same soothing sensation of a really great, high-quality home-cooked meal, but with a refinement that few can achieve at the stove at home. Two juicy wraps – containing roasted chicken, romaine lettuce, pesto, lentils, peppers and lemon dressing (65 kronor) and Boston butt, romaine lettuce, ginger, humus and kale (60 kronor) – are tightly wrapped in squares of stone oven-baked flatbread.
As I sit nursing a cup of organic coffee, along with an assortment of small traditional Swedish biscuits (ranging between 15–30 kronor), I’m physically content with the meal – but I feel mentally snubbed. The intentions are good, but the outcome is only halfway. Whatever happened to the promise of a unique food café, which would be a place that reflects OpenLab’s atmosphere of innovation and creativity?
