Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.07.2015, Page 63

FOOD
BEST OF
The best of the bunch, and the winner of
our “Best Newcomer Bar” award, is the
recently opened Mikkeller & Friends, run
by the same trusty crew that brought us
Kex and the “pizza place with no name”
at Hverfisgata 12, within which the bar is
housed. Selling small-batch beers made
by the much-admired independent Dan-
ish breweries Mikkeller and To Øl, and
a handful of guests, Mikkeller & Friends
has twenty taps that offer an ever-chang-
ing range of new tastes.
“My personal favourites are the really
sour ones,” says Ólafur Ágústsson, one
of the figures behind the bar, as he sips
a mid-afternoon beer. “But I also like the
really delicate IPAs. They’re full of fla-
vour and body and volume, but they’re so
delicate and nice.”
Reykjavík has welcomed the new bar
with open arms. Their launch night saw a
queue down the stairs and out onto Hver-
fisgata, and the bar is full to bursting
most nights of the week. “The response
has been enormous,” smiles Ólafur. “It’s
crazy! People really love this. Being able
to go out and try several beers with very
different tastes is entertaining for people
I think. It’s something new.”
Some of the stronger beers—up to
a literally dizzying 17% ABV—come at
eye-watering prices of up to 2,000 ISK,
which Ólafur explains has a lot to do with
Iceland’s import regulations. “When you
bring in a beer over 12% ABV you pay an
awful lot in tax,” he says. “But the drinks
we have on taps one to ten are competi-
tively priced. People pay as much for our
Hverfisgata Pils as they’d pay for a pint of
Gull next-door.”
Mikkeller & Friends serves their beer
in measures 20% smaller than the stan-
dard—a small beer is served in a Mik-
keller-branded wineglass-style vessel,
which is a more continental system that
Ólafur says allows drinkers to savour the
complex favours of the beer, rather than
knocking it back.
He hopes that this more refined
method of drinking will catch on. “The
smaller measures mean people can try
out more tastes,” he says. “One of my
hopes is that we’re bringing new aspects
to the Icelandic drinking culture. I think
we can ‘drink better’—that is, starting
earlier in the day, and stopping earlier in
the night—the European way. With all
the craft places opening up now, I think
we’re getting there.”
As anyone who frequents Reykjavík’s downtown bar scene will have noticed, Icelandic
drinking culture has been undergoing a facelift. Over the past few years, the range of
beers on the average bar’s taps has gone from a handful of simple, similar lagers to a
wider variety of brews, both Icelandic and imported. And along with the emergence of
Iceland-brewed craft brands has come a crop of bars that cater to the evolving tastes of
the city’s drinkers.
Photo Art Bicnick
Words John Rogers
Better Drinking
Mikkeller & Friends hope to import European drinking
culture along with their craft beers
Hverfisgata 12 · 101 Reykjavík
Tel. +354 552 15 22 · www.dillrestaurant.is
Lífið er saltfiskur
#109 Dill is a Nordic restaurant with its
focus on Iceland, the pure nature and
all the good things coming from it.

It does not matter if it’s the
ingredients or the old traditions, we
try to hold firmly on to both.
There are not many things that make
us happier than giving life to old
traditions and forgotten ingredients
with modern technique and our creative
mind as a weapon.
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F R E N C H O N I O N S O U P
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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 9 — 2015