The Team Behind Noma Is Opening A Casual Restaurant This Spring

The chefs behind acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant Noma plan to open a more casual (and affordable) restaurant dubbed 108 this spring. "Our restaurant will be a place for families to come together for a quick dinner on a Monday night or for friends to sit down on a Friday evening for a longer meal and really explore what we have to offer. We want to add value to the existing traditions of an already-brilliant dining scene—and hope to influence the Copenhagen kitchen," Noma staffer and 108 co-owner Kristian Baumann writes on the Noma website.

Locals and Noma fans who happen to be in Copenhagen this winter will get an early taste of the restaurant during its test run at Noma, when René Redzepi takes his more formal restaurant on the road this winter for a 10-week run in Australia.

The à la carte menu will offer dishes like a linseed tart with braised sunflower seeds in truffle cream with fresh cauliflower and smoked scallops and caramelized milk skin with braised veal tongue and watercress. 

To make those sorts of dishes work, Baumann says her team has been working for six months to forge collaborations with farms, as well as "salted, pickled and preserved all the delicious berries, plants and flowers that nature has to offer."

The dishes are impressively ambitious considering the price point (dishes run from 75 to 180 DKK or approximately $11 to $26), a welcome change considering the $300 price tag at Noma.

2016 should be a big year for the Noma team. In addition to the launch of 108 and Noma Australia, Redzepi plans to close down the original Noma at the end of the year to relaunch in a new location in 2017 with a new menu and an urban farm.