Day 274 part II -- Our anniversary dinner

As Collin has already mentioned, we celebrated our 8th anniversary last week.  Collin wanted to take me out to dinner at a Copenhagen restaurant called 1.th.  The closest reservations we could get were for last Thursday night.

Suave Collin on the metro

1.th stands for "første, til højre" which means, first floor, to the right, as in an address.  The concept of the restaurant is to mimic going to a friend's house for dinner.  There is no sign outside the building.  In fact we walked past it the first time and had to look up the address to find it.  You just ring a buzzer labeled "1.th" like you would when visiting a friend and they buzz you up.  (for our American friends, 1st floor in Denmark is actually the second floor.)  When you walk in, they take your coat and welcome you into one of their two living rooms that are set up with couches, chairs, coffee tables, bookshelves, etc and music is playing.  Again, just like anybody's house.  They bring you a cocktail and an appetizer.

hanging out in the living room

Everyone who is eating at the restaurant that night is supposed to arrive at 6:30.  Close to 7, they open the doors to the dining room where you are lead to your table.  I was happy to see that each party did get their own table and we did not have to sit at one communal table!  The kitchen was at the end of the dining room.

Dinner consisted of 6 courses plus a few desserts.  These were paired with two whites, two reds, and a dessert wine.  The waitstaff was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.  Each course was explained, both the food and the preparation.  The head chef himself brought out a number of the dishes.  My favorite dish was probably the "Vandmelon, bacon, and hørfrø"  This was a little soup of a mussel and bacon broth with watermelon and roasted flaxseeds.  The way the watermelon infused with the smokey bacon flavor over time was amazing.   One of the desserts, "gedefriskost and fennikel" was also amazingly simple and inventive....whipped goat cheese with buckwheat and just raw fennel stems/leaves, where you used the fennel like a spoon to eat the goat cheese.  That would have been a good use of all our root/bulb-less fennel Collin and I grew in Boston!

After the desserts we were invited back into the living room for coffees, liquor/liqueurs, and small chocolates.  We really had a fabulous night.

menu from our dinner