Looking at The Nordics: Reykjavik
As Nordic bars increasingly draw more attention from the global bar community, Haley Forest looks at what makes the cities unique, pushing the boundries and inspiring both the local scene and the broader drinks landscape.
To many, Iceland is the home of vikings filled with inspired visions of burly giants drinking heavily while celebrating conquering their known world. While a long time ago that may have been the case, the last 100 years of so have been a bit quieter. While the rest of the Nordics has been experiencing a boom from “nordic cuisine,” Reykjavik is only just opening it’s eyes to the next level of drinks.
The Case of Missing Beer
Once upon a time Icelanders drank copiously, however in 1915 those boozy gates were closed when a nation wide prohibition came into effect. While its full lockdown didn’t last long – wines were legalized first in 1921, followed by spirits in 1935 – intoxication was seriously looked down on with any beer above 2.25% considered as the main source of depravity. Thankfully in 1989, the laws were finally repealed and beer in all its full strength glory was returned to the people and with it a slow but sure change in drinking attitudes and culture.
It was still be many years before Iceland branched out fully with craft beer, but they took to it intensely with an explosion of brewery openings, beer festivals, importing and exporting.
“The craft beer segment is growing very fast,” says Guðjón Guðmundsson, Managing Director of Einstök, one of the more globally successful Icelandic craft brewery which only opened in 2011. “Beer enthusiasts here are very happy with the increasing variety of great beer available. Mikkeller is one of the most notable additions here.” When the master phantom brewer opened the Reykjavik branch of Mikkeller & Friends early last year, with 20 rotating brews on tap plus bottles and more, it was a solid sign that craft beer had started to hit its stride.
Cocktails and Dreams
The icelandic journey into cocktail culture was not far behind its brewed cousin. During a stint in Copenhagen, bartender Ásgeir Már Björnsson witnessed their cocktail renaissance and was inspired to aim for similar at home. Opening Reykjavik’s first real cocktail bar, Slippbarinn in 2012, he worked nonstop to help build the local scene, educating both bartenders and guests alike, guiding tastes from lager beers and Coke & Brennivín to passionately made cocktails filled with house-made and local ingredients. As people on both sides of the bar became engaged, the interest spread, with other bars following suite.
“Before Slippbarinn opened there wasn’t a real cocktail culture in Iceland, and it is the genius of Ási that has brought it up to the high standards it has today,” reflects Henrik Hammer of Hammer & Son and regular visitor to Reykjavik. “Looking from the outside, seeing how the interest in cocktails in Iceland has increased over the past two years, I guess that more and more bars and restaurants will get on board.”
At Kol, a restaurant in central Reykjavik with a very strong beverage program, bartender Leó Ólafsson sees first hand the slow progression: “In recent years, the culture of cocktail drinking has expanded, but people need to be pushed and I really feel that I must sell the idea of buying a cocktail to my guests. But once they have tried a good cocktail they remember it and start trying new ones.”
Importing a Bar Scene
The world is becoming smaller and with it an era of global community and education. Through social media and travel, developing bartenders in Reykjavik (where the population is under 200,000) have seen a mixology world outside of their own bringing a level of advancement to the liquids poured, mixed, and ordered. Some, however, realized that the real celebration of the bar industry went deeper then just the glass and strived to get the message across.
“We want to build up much stronger cocktail culture here,” says Leó, “and bring in the innovative experience and the mystic that follows the world of cocktails directly to our guests.”
Ásgeir kept thinking over the experience gap and in 2015 the Reykjavik Bar Summit was born. Instead of waiting for guests and bartenders to visit developed drinking culture cities, they utilized Iceland’s neutral location and brought some the best bars of the world to them, essentially creating a mini, fully fledged, international bar community for everyone to experience, even if just for a few days.
“We have been trying to show the people of Reykjavik and bartenders that diversity of modern bartending,” explained Ásgeir, “which I think has helped the Reykjavik bar scene to grow and to get international publicity.”
With such a young cocktail scene, many are curious to see what is next in. As bartenders and guests palettes continue to be exposed and developed no doubt new tastes and methods will emerge The second RBS is set for February 29th – March 4th and with it will come a whole new influx of ideas and passion to continue to drive their unique scene.
