Alsace and the Copenhagen Fashion Week

Tonight I spontaneously dined at one of the less famous places in Copenhagen, Restaurant Alsace, where I have dined on and off for about 15 years. This place was founded by Austrian born Franz Stockhammer and is now run by his daughter Josephine Stockhammer and Franck Dietrich. It remains a mystery to me why the restaurant specializes in Altasian cuisine when Franz was so obviously proud of his country especially with regard to the wines from that region. Anyway, what I love about Alsace is that I can always find the basic epicurious food elements such as foie gras terrine, lobster, bouillabaisse, scallops, turbot, truffles, oysters etc. So, when I feel like something like traditional gourmet food I like to visit Alsace, which is a great place if you’re keen on Liim Fiord oysters – like me. Alsace serves some of the best oysters in Copenhagen and I couldn’t missed this rare chance tonight of pleasuring palate and my senses with a couple of Liim Fiord oysters. And they were lovely!

I enjoyed a glass of very nice 2005 Willi Bründlmayer, Berg-Vogelsang Grüner Veltliner with my oysters and with my starter the Salade Gourmandise comprising lobster claw, a scallop, a huge langoustine and two big pieces of delicious foie gras terrine. The taste of the ingredients was just right but the fish was, very sadly, a little bit too cold. Like taken out of the fridge. I hate to send back bad feedback to the kitchen, and felt really bad about it. But it was so cold that it to be said. I was also pondering about writing a few lines about Alsace and wouldn’t like if Josephine and Franck were the last ones to know about this. This is the first time that Alsace did not perform their best.

My main course offered a delicate veal fillet cut in small pieces to fit the mouth and a good sauce spiced up with foie gras. The meat was cooked perfectly with the red middle and served with a delicate Jerusalem artichokes pure, truffles tagliatelle and sprinkled with fresh black truffles and truffle crumbles. The scent of the truffles were obvious and very delighting. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t a hot as I’d hoped for, and it made me wonder what was going on in the kitchen.

I remained in Austria wine wise and drank a glass of 2001 Johanneshof Reinisch, Pinot Noir, Thermenregion which was good and a bit more spicy than what I’m used to with French PNs. What went really well this evening, though, was the temperature of the wines – both the white and the red were nicely cool, the way I prefer.

Anyway, please mind that these slips won’t make me stay away from Alsace. I really like this place, and it’s mostly fairly easy to get a table when a sudden craving for oysters roll over me.

So, where does Copenhagen Fashion Week 2008 fit into all this? Well, at Alsace I found a little orange guide book to all there is to know about this event. I quickly browsed to the section that refers to recommendable restaurants, obviously Alsace is mentioned under the French section. I laughed a little at the keywords which are suppose to describe the various restaurants. For example I disagree with these statements: noma to be romantic, Il Senso non-smoking, I mean all places bigger than 40 m2 are non-smoking now! Kong Kans Kælder to be five star. What does that mean? I wouldn’t exactly call FIAT luxurious, and I furthermore lacked these notes on e.g Restaurationen – classic Danish, Paustian – innovative and molecular.

Sorry to say and with the risk of being stamped as… I don’t know what, but it’s not that often that I go out to funky bars late at night. Yet, I’ve most recently discovered the coolest bar in CPH right now and I’d like to share this with you: RUBY Bar. The Copenhagen Fashion Week guide state this bar as luxury, flat, jazz, cocktails – and it’s exactly that! Try it!