Lunchtime in Denmark often revolves around smørrebrød, traditional open-faced dark rye bread sandwiches topped with ingredients like pickled herring or roast beef and grated horseradish. If there is one chef responsible for elevating this mid-day ritual from old-fashioned and ordinary to modern and refined, a reflection of today’s pervasive fresh, local, Nordic culinary aesthetic, it is Adam Aamann of Aamanns in Copenhagen. Now, New Yorkers can be treated to Aamann’s creations at Aamanns-Copenhagen, a white, airy second outpost housed in the Tribeca Film Festival building.

Anders Busk Faarborg of Copenhagen-based Fobsi Studio designed both locations, but for New York the look is “much cleaner,” he says, “as a way to emphasize that the Vikings have arrived.” Black graphics on the walls offer an edgy contrast to the pure daylight filling the space that makes for “bright, pleasant surroundings.”

Adds Busk Faarborg, “My goal was to substantiate the look and feel that Aamanns has created in Denmark—the raw but clean feeling you get when you eat the food, but also the look that occurs when you see how many well produced elements that just one piece of smørrebrød can contain.”

This vision translates to Arne Jacobsen chairs, Tom Dixon lamps, and wood tabletops that complement the restaurant’s neutral simplicity. “It was important for me that the material closest to the meal would feel warm and organic,” Busk Faaraborg points out.
 
The bar, with its shelves and “tiles all the way to the ceiling make it clear that this is a room where food is the center of the world and the sky is the limit,” he says. “It’s a shame I live in Copenhagen, otherwise you would find me in that bar every night.”