Travel

Fab 40: Meatpacking District, Copenhagen
 

Fab 40: Meatpacking District, Copenhagen

FAB 40: SCANDINAVIA

 

Think Meatpacking District and you most probably think New York. Our thoughts take us to a younger, arguably more exciting version, in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, where row upon row of vacant depots in Flaesketorvet are being filled by the finest of the city’s creative talent, making neighbours with the refrigerator lorries. You can very well spend a whole day without leaving the confines of the industrial complex, such is the breadth of things to see, do, eat and drink. Here are some of our picks.


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Dask (www.daskgallery.dk), which opened at the end of 2008, is the best photography gallery in the city.

Fiskebaren (www.fiskebaren.dk) is a new fish restaurant, which serves up the daily catch in the chicest of industrial, but comfortable, settings – complete with a mesmerising tank of jellyfish that gently pulsate whilst you enjoy your food.

A unique experience is to be had in Butcher’s Lab (www.butcherslab.dk), which is a clever, if unlikely, combination of a gym and art gallery in a 700 sq m space. It’s sometimes a little unclear where one starts and the other ends but that’s the point and the people who work out there are often very worthy exhibits themselves.

Karriere bar (www.karrierebar.com), which was the first to set up shop in Flaesketorvet two years ago, has weathered well. The chic cocktail bar-cum-installation gallery boasts an outdoor sign by Elmgreen and Dragset, lights by Olafur Eliasson and a maze of toilet cubicles by AVPD, where only five out of twenty doors work.

Copenhagen’s cool kids kick back next door at Jolene (www.myspace.com/jolenebar), which wears its heart on its sleeve (or behind the bar) with a sign saying 'This is not a f*cking cocktail bar”. Rest assured the service is more friendly.

22 October 2009 | Travel