Hello Darkness My Old Friend ....
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Cafe Gavlen is a lovely cafe/bar in Norrebro.
It has standard bar offerings, standard coffee options and a handful of substantial snack boards such as cheese plates and charcuterie plates.
I saw several of these snack boards.
They looked excellent.
Most of the bars in the neighborhood have excellent selections of both beer and spirits, and first rate coffee.
Cafe Gavlen is no exception.
I went with Arnbitter, a superior Danish bitters.
Danish bitters are like an improved version of Pernod.
Darker, suaver, and richer but keeping the challenging licorice flavor that makes a pastis an interesting beverage.
Bad pastis tastes like cough syrup.
A fine Danish bitters is a long complex dialogue between you and the glass.
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Many bars in Norrebro are essentially similar.
There are tables out on the sidewalk.
There is a darker room inside.
The inside room gives you a fine view of the passing street scene.
In Copenhagen, this means watching nine hundred thousand young adults bicycle from here to there.
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What sets bars apart are two things.
First, Is there a stupid television on inside?
At Cafe Gavlen, the answer is no.
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Second, how is the ambiance of the room?
Is the room suavely decorated to make it interesting?
Is it a loser's bar that is black and depressing?
Is it a party bar that is as cheap as the swill in the kegs?
* * *
The inside of Cafe Gavlen could be called "Study in Sepia".
There is fine antique brown wallpaper with dark green and burgundy flowers.
There are ancient photographs.
There is a boar's head mounted on the wall.
The boar looks stately and porcine.
The color of the room matched the flavor in my glass.
Rich, brown and deep.
There was mellowness in the walls, in the furniture, in the decoration.
The room was a warm, dream-filled sleep.
* * *
This is what bars are for.
There are people who go to bars to be social.
Plenty of Danes around me were doing just that.
For me, bars are a way to change the operation of my mind.
To let the alcohol do its work.
To let the brain fuse with what is in the glass and what is in the room.
The scrabble of the human horde falls away,
The details of the room begin to talk to you.
A really good room has a story to tell.
* * *
In a really good room. your musings distill like brandy in the vat.
Your grape juice thinking turns into wine,
Your wine thinking turns as clear and forceful as German Mark.
This is how you tell the best bars.
The best bars are more than just a way to obtain alcohol.
They are places in their own right with their own deep spirit.
At Cafe Gavlen, not all the spirit is found in the bottles on the shelves. read more