Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2010, Side 11

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10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2010
Special | Best Of Reykjavík
Local Favourites And Secrets
While compiling our BEST OF
REYKJAVÍK list, we consulted with
a large group of people from all
around town. Some of them were
very detailed in their preferences,
and some of what they like about
our fair city is very likely some of
what you’ll like about it, once you
try it out for yourself.
In that spirit, here are some
excellent folks and their excellent
thoughts on Reykjavík.
DAGNý ÓSK
ARADÓTTIR PIND
STudENT
Hidden streets and late
nights
Favourite Bar?
Kaffibarinn. Excellent music and
everyone I like to hang out with. No
other bar is a candidate, even though
this might mean I need to expand my
horizons a little.
Favourite Restaurant? Á Næstu Grö-
sum. A fair price, you get some great
bread and hummus with your meal and
the food is always spot on. So are the
cakes.
Favourite Street? Haðarstígur, 101
Reykjavík. It’s a totally hidden street
within Þingholt, which is uniquely quiet
and beautiful. I definitely intend to live
there in the future.
Favourite Store? Brynja. They have
everything, and fools such as myself
that don’t know anything about equip-
ment and hardware supplies receive
some great service, whether we’re pur-
chasing a light bulb or a jackhammer.
Favourite Favourite? Walking home
from town after a good night, with the
sun rising. It’s hard to explain. It’s just
such a great feeling.
FRÍMANN
FRÍMANNSSON
PROfESSIONAL HIPSTER
Picnics with girls
Best restaurant? Hornið, because
it is straight up delicious and fun to
watch the emo kids leaving Café Rót.
Best bar: Bakkus has reasonably
priced beer and a lot of shit you can
climb.
Best coffee: Kaffismiðjan, it’s close
to my house so I go pick up smokes at
Drekinn and go to Kaffismiðjan and lie
on the bench, hobo-style.
Best kept secret: The picnic table
hidden in the woods by Tjörnin is fun.
It’s a good place to take a girl.
BIRTA GUðJÓNSDÓTTIR
dIREcTOR Of NýLISTASAfNIð
My favourite things about
Reykjavík are not very original, but they
are good and classic. For instance:
Kjarvalsstaðir: It’s always nice to
attend exhibits there, the café is an
excellent place to read up on some
art magazines and the building itself
is especially beautiful, human-friendly
and open to Reykjavík’s Central Park
(Klambratún).
Norðurmýrin: Where the streets are
all named after Njála, Landnáma and
Laxdæla characters. The neighbour-
hood is like a little village on the out-
skirts of downtown, a quiet neighbour-
ly paradise. The architecture is basic
“concrete functional” from the forties
and the hood itself is full of cats, large
trees and moss.
Elliðaárdalurinn: Where the salmon
play within city limits. Where the
distant traffic roar blends with the hum
of the river and song of the birds, and
you bid all passers-by a good day. It is
most certainly a place to ponder ones
existence, to enjoy being a city kid in
nature, not too far from ones next latté.
Múlakaffi: Where you can get Þorri-
food well beyond the season, Icelandic
home cooking in an institutional diner
environment. It’s the kind of place I
would love to visit as a tourist else-
where, basic mom-food and no fancy
stuff. It isn’t very healthy either...
Favourite art-space: Aside from
Nýlistasafnið, where I am director, I
would like to mention the art-book
store Útúrdúr, which shares a space
with the music shop Havarí, right in the
middle of downtown in Austurstræti.
Útúrdúr was founded around 2007 by
a group of artists, and they use the
space to honour artists’ work by dis-
playing their art books (“paper art”).
Útúrdúr also publishes books and has
linked in to a large network of similar
entities in Europe and the US that are
all oases’ in the cultural deserts of
their towns.
MARKúS BJARNASSON,
AKA MARKúS & THE
DIVERSION SESSIONS
MuSIcIAN
Secret sauna
Best Bar? It’s nice when you go out
to start up Laugavegur, maybe around
Boston. It’s a sure bet if you go down-
hill. It’s all downhill from there! If you
get bored you head down to Karamba
or then Bakkus. It’s a combination of
those three places.
Favourite Pool? Vesturbæjarlaug. I
was raised there. People like to talk in
the hotpots because they are round.
You meet the same people over and
over. I recommend going and paying
extra for the dry sauna. They have one
but they don’t want you to know about
it! Supposedly it’s a gay hot spot for
one day a week.
Best Place To See A Show? Hemmi
& Valdi. It’s the old wooden house on
Laugavegur that used to be the Hljó-
malind record shop. A rock show there
is the best.
Best Kept Secret? A walk out to
Grandi or Grótta.
HANNAH HJöRDÍS
HERRERA
STudENT
Rolling down Arnarhóll
Best Restaurant? Ban Thai, espe-
cially no. 19, if you want to burn your
mouth with spice!
Best kept secret? Rolling down
Árnahóll at ungodly hours in good
company, and dancing to live African
drums at Baðhúsið.
LANA VOGESTAD
yOGA INSTRucTOR
Favourite Restaurant? Nauthóll
in the summer, because you can sit
outside, it’s near airport and there’s a
great view of the ocean.
Favourite Pool? The Seltjarnarnes
pool. It’s a little secluded and by the
sea. I love being by the sea! It’s new
and clean and it has minerals in the
water, which is really nice.
Favourite Walk? Around Hljómskál-
agarðurinn, the park by the Tjörnin
pond downtown.
Favourite Ice Cream? Ísbúðin Ísland.
They have a local ice cream maker and
sorbets. Lots of nice options, like the
coconut frozen yoghurt.
Best Kept Secret? Coffee at Café
Haiti and good healthy food at Maður
Lífandi. It’s great. They have all kinds of
wonderful juices and organic foods.
DÓRI DNA
RAPPER
Drunk actors, poets and
journalists
Favourite Bar?: I think I’m a bit of a
cliché! I like Prikið because I’ve been to
clubs all over the world and I’ve never
experienced anything like the madness
that happens there. It’s really small
and it has fireworks when the mood is
right. Afterwards, I like going down to
Næsti Bar to visit some drunk actors
and poets and journalists as they hang
out.
Favourite Restaurant? The new pizza
place, Gamla Smiðjan. It reminds me
of something from back in 1997 when
Iceland thought it had developed into
something culturally diverse. Back then
we cherished pizza places.
Best Kept Secret? There are a lot
of good theatre productions in town.
Some have a real international feel
about them. The new theatre in Seltjar-
narnes, The North Pole, is really great.
It’s a hidden gem for now.
MUNDI
cLOTHING dESIGNER
Sweating it
Favourite Bar? Kaffibarinn, Bakkus
and Boston. Those are the only bars I
go to, because of the crowd and the
atmosphere. I wish we still had Sirkus
but we don’t. I also like Prikið, but only
during the day.
Favourite New Clothing? Kron Kron
definitely has the best clothes and
brands in Reykjavík. I also like GK,
where I sell my brand.
Favourite Ice Cream? Ísbúð Vestur-
bæjar, maybe just because I lived there
for a long time. They really stick to an
old fashion way of making ice cream
and there’s an old charm to it that you
can’t really fake.
Favourite Gallery? Kling & Bang, be-
cause they are all good friends. I know
they aren’t doing it for the money,
because they’re all fucking poor. They
have had some of the greatest artists
I’ve been able to see.
Best kept secret? The Sweat. It’s a
Native North American style sweat-
lodge in Elliðaárdalur run by a gay
couple. It’s a five hour affair with sing-
ing and dancing and you sit in a super
hot tent with a fire. It’s really great.
MEGAN HERBER
dESIGNER
Hot yoga
Favourite Bakery Treat? The tower-
shaped chocolate soufflés with the
gooey fudge centre from Sandholt.
Favourite Place For An Aimless
Rummage? Friða Frænka
Best Hot-Dog Experience Down-
town? That little hole in the wall milk-
bar on Laugavegur just down the hill
from Kaffibarinn. Always fresh, always
good. Especially in the wee hours.
Favourite Thai Place? Ban Thai. Par-
ticularly their giant, come-one-come-
all tom-yum soups.
Best Sushi? The new sushi bar in the
Kringlan food court. I'm pretty sure it's
called Zusushi. The chef’s special is
sensational.
Best yoga Class? Lana Vogelstad’s
Hot Yoga.
ÁRNI VILHJÁLMSSON
MuSIcIAN, fM BELfAST
Best Pool? Sundhöll
Reykjavíkur. Because of their hot pot.
It’s great.
Best Burger? Hamborgarabúlla
Tómasar. The hamburgers are ALWAYS
good, and the staff is great.
Best Ice Cream? A chocolate shake
at Ísbúð Vesturbæjar. Made with the
“old” ice cream, of course.
Best Restaurant? Saffran. Ridicu-
lously good and healthy food at a fair
price.
Best Sauna? The sauna at Vesturbæ-
jarlaug. Excellent location and environ-
ment. Peace and quiet and some great
conversation.
Best Coffee? Kaffismiðjan. The
best coffee, excellent location and a
fabulous environment. They also serve
great cheese and jam scones.