Copenhagen’s famous Noma restaurant to relocate in 2017

Denmark’s famous Noma restaurant is set to close at the end of 2016 and reopen as an eatery with its own vegetable farm on the edge of Copenhagen’s edgy Christiania neighbourhood.

Noma, Copenhagen. Image by Håkan Dahlström / CC BY 2.0

Co-owner Claus Meyer said Noma, which boasts a Nordic menu that changes with the seasons, will reinvent itself to maintain its “international impact”.

The 40-seat Noma – a contraction of the Danish words for Nordic food – opened in 2003.

Led by chef and co-owner Rene Redzepi, it has two Michelin stars and was voted the world’s best restaurant by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Mr Meyer said: “Restaurants tend to freeze, so if Noma wants to have 15 really good years ahead, then Rene needs to challenge himself.”

Noma will serve its final meal at the current location, an 18th century warehouse in Copenhagen, on New Year’s Eve next year.

It will then move into what is currently a graffiti-covered, derelict former navy building on the border of Christiania, with a tentative opening date set for mid-2017.

The restaurant’s menu changes with the seasons, with themes based on the forest in autumn, the sea in winter and on vegetables – grown in its own urban garden – during the spring and summer.

Noma has always used local products to emphasise its Nordic focus, although it has strayed far beyond pickled herring, meat balls and other traditional regional dishes.

Guests book tables months in advance to taste deep-fried moss, edible flowers, live ants and other Noma specialties.

In 2013, Mr Redzepi and Mr Meyer sold some of their Noma shares to New York-based Overture Management which is now the biggest shareholder.

Next year, Mr Meyer also plans to open a Nordic-themed brasserie in New York’s Grand Central Station.

(Press Association)