The Nordic cuisine is known for promoting clean eating, using locally sourced ingredients, and there's a lot of grains and bread. When it comes to bread, it is often consumed several times a day, often for breakfast, lunch, and as an evening snack before bedtime.
Oh, and the desserts are worth mentioning. The Scandinavian countries are big on desserts, everything from cake to pastries and all things sweet, often with cream as the main ingredient.
The eatery Smør in the East Village, New York City, celebrates the Nordic and the Danish food and cuisine. The cafe was founded by two Danes, both named Sebastian. Sebastian Perez and Sebastian Bangsgaard. They wanted to create a place in the city where you good get a solid Scandinavian meal for a fair price.
Open-faced sandwiches
Their specialty is smorrebrod, which are open-faced sandwiches on dense, crunchy rye bread. These sandwiches are found in almost any cafe in Scandinavia. You'll get large toppings such as curried herring and soft-boiled egg, or roasted potato with aioli. And of course, smoked salmon.
Their smoked salmon smorrebrod comes with dill crème, lemon curd, marinated cucumber, and is a favorite on the menu.
The menu has a fair amount of choices, but it's not too overwhelming. And the choices are excellent, the signature being their open-faced sandwiches. It's truly the best of Scandinavian food (coming from a Scandinavian native).
They also offer a variety of natural wines, beers, and cocktails.
Minimalistic and cozy
The Scandinavian countries and especially Denmark is known for the term hygge (in Sweden, they call it mys, and in Norway, they say kos). The New York Times has written about it several times, and the term has become trendy and cool. If you're not quite sure what hygge is, this spot is the definition of it. Warm, cozy, friendly, mouth watering-comfort food, and much more. Everything you need for a relaxing time-out in a busy everyday life.
Smør translates to butter in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. This is probably why the main color of the cafe is yellow. The cafe on East 12th Street is stylish with minimalistic and nordic vibes. But the cafe is really tiny, as you can see in the photo above. And there are no restrooms. They have a few dining spots inside, and a handful of tables for outdoor seating, but being a small cafe in a big city this place is a popular one for takeout.
East Village
This is an ideal spot to visit if you want to know what Nordic food is all about. This cafe is hip, local, and Scandinavian with a touch of urban New York City-living to it.
Smør is located at 441 E 12th St, New York, NY 10009.
The surrounding area in the East Village is a beautiful place for a walk or a bike ride to see authentic New York City living and taste delicious food. The cafe is pretty close to Avenue A which is a quieter area and is everything Times Square is not.