Danish Michelin restaurant Noma to open burger bar after pop-up success

Two-starred Michelin restaurant Noma is to open a burger bar in Copenhagen's Christianshavn neighbourhood.

Published: 20 November 2020 15:43 CET

Danish Michelin restaurant Noma to open burger bar after pop-up success

The team at Noma's new burger bar counterpart, Popl. Photo: Popl

The famous Danish restaurant ran a pop-up burger bar earlier this year, after its normal operations were closed down due to coronavirus restrictions. The concept was popular and is now returning for good.

The burger bar, Popl, is pitched as a burger restaurant with a simple menu, inspired by Noma’s pop-up from the summer. The name comes from the Latin, populus, meaning people.

The restaurant’s owner, René Redzepi, told newspaper Politiken that the initial expectation of 300 customers per day for the pop-up burger bar was increased to 1,200 at the last moment.

“We realised how fantastic it was to make something for everyone,” Redzepi said.

The permanent restaurant will have seating as well as offer takeaway, with meat, vegetarian and vegan offerings on the menu.

“Fine dining and Michelin felt a bit dated and wrong once we were able to re-open [after coronavirus lockdown, ed.]. We wanted to make something for everyone. And what does everyone like? Burgers,” the head chef and restaurant owner told Politiken.

The new restaurant will be located at Strandgade 108, the former home of Restaurant 108, which closed this year. It will be staffed by “Noma veterans (from) both front and back of house,” the new restaurant said in a press release.

“This year we have faced some of the biggest challenges ever in our seventeen years of operating Noma, dealing with the effects of the pandemic both at the restaurant and sadly the resulting closure of Restaurant 108, but it also came with a few major highlights. Above all, our summer burger season, when our doors were open for everyone to stop by,” Popl’s statement also read.

The new burger bar is scheduled to open on December 3rd.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Bonuses on the new “CopenPay” scheme include a kayak or boat tour, a vegetarian meal, a museum ticket, or an e-bicycle ride — free of charge.

Why does the city want to give away these freebies?

“It is a core task for us to make travelling sustainable. And we will only succeed if we bridge the large gap between the visitors’ desire to act sustainably and their actual behaviour”, tourism board CEO Mikkel Aaro-Hansen said.

The public’s reaction has been “overwhelmingly positive”, although some disappointed visitors “would have liked the scheme to be in place during their stay,” Copenhagen tourism office communications director Rikke Holm Petersen told news agency AFP.

Although the tourist board says it wants the scheme to change behaviour to a more eco-friendly approach, it admits the initiative alone cannot dent the environmental impact of tourism.

More than 100,000 passengers flew into Copenhagen in June, resulting in a much higher carbon footprint than bus or train travel, according to airport data.

“The environmental burden of transportation to and from Copenhagen is much more significant than that of local transportation,” said tourism website VisitCopenhagen.

“We have chosen to limit our advertising efforts to Copenhagen Airport, the central station, and within the city itself, rather than conducting marketing campaigns abroad,” Petersen said.

The tourism office will consider extending the scheme beyond the city — perhaps even abroad — if it proves successful.

“We hope to reintroduce CopenPay as a year-round, green payment experience within the economy and broaden the concept to other parts of Denmark and the rest of the world,” according to the VisitCopenhagen site.