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Noma will be replaced by a new restaurant on the edge of Christiania in Copenhagen.
Noma will be replaced by a new restaurant on the edge of Christiania in Copenhagen. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters
Noma will be replaced by a new restaurant on the edge of Christiania in Copenhagen. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

No more Noma from end of 2016 as Danish restaurant farms itself out

This article is more than 8 years old

Rene Redzepi’s temple of Nordic gastronomy will move to fringe of Denmark’s Christiana neighbourhood and grow its own vegetables for seasonal menu

Noma, one of Europe’s most famous restaurants, is set to close at the end of 2016 and reopen as an eatery with its own vegetable farm on the edge of the Christiania neighbourhood in Copenhagen.

With a Nordic menu that changes with the seasons, co-owner Claus Meyer said the Danish restaurant would 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 number one restaurant by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

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

Noma will serve its final meal at the current location — an 18th century warehouse — on New Year’s Eve in 2016. Then it will move into what’s currently a graffiti-covered, derelict former navy building on the border of Christiania, with a tentative open set for mid-2017.

The restaurant’s menu will change with the seasons, with themes based on the forest in the fall, the sea in the winter and on vegetables — grown in its own urban garden — during the spring and summer.

Since the beginning Noma has primarily used local products to emphasise its Nordic focus, although it’s 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 Redzepi and Meyer sold some of their Noma shares to New York-based Overture Management, which currently is the biggest shareholder. Next year Meyer also plans to open a Nordic-themed brasserie in New York’s Grand Central Station, while Noma has set up temporarily in Tokyo and is planning a residency in Sydney.

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