Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.08.2018, Blaðsíða 49

Litlibær Café
Home-Made Cakes And Hospitality On
A Winding Road In The Westfjords
Words: Christine Engel Snitkjær Photos: Art Bicnick
If you’ve travelled the Westfjords,
you probably know that driving
through this region of Iceland re-
quires following roads along the
coastlines of a seemingly infinite
number of fjords—which means
that you have to drive far—all the
way into the mouth of each fjord
and all the way back to the ocean
again—to travel only very short
distances. It can take you hours
to reach a destination that looks
deceivingly close to your point of
departure on Google Maps.
So while you’ve probably found
yourself awe-struck by the beauti-
ful fjords of the region, you have
probably also found yourself
frazzled by the repetitive nature
of these endlessly winding, lonely
roads in the Icelandic wilderness.
Be our guest
Litlibær Café helps you regain fo-
cus. At the tip of a fjord opening
and just when you feel that nature
is truly at the forefront, a small
sign reads “welcome” on the side
of the road and beckons you to
stop your car, walk up to a café,
and rejoin civilization.
Inside a small turf house, a
hospitable Icelandic family greets
you and invites you to relax,
let them pull up a chair, as they
proudly present: your afternoon
tea.
As if through magic, they un-
veil hot, vegan cakes fresh out
of the oven, crispy waffles, and
your choice of coffee or tea. The
long drive here had made you for-
get that a bakery could smell so
sweet. You learn that the blueber-
ries in the cake come from the lo-
cal mountainside, while the rhu-
barb in the pie was grown in the
garden right outside. After hours
of driving through fjord upon
fjord without any contact with
other humans, these homemade
delicacies will make your mouth
water.
Mysterious turf home
Adorning the wooden walls that
surround you as you eat are pic-
tures of families past who used to
live in the turf house. Some of the
people represented on the photos
are the ancestors of the family
who currently own the house.
“Before we made the turf house
into a café, people would come to
ask our family if they could have
a look inside the structure,” says
Guðrún Fjóla Kristjánsdóttir, the
daughter of the owners. “The idea
for the café came when people
would talk about the long journey
they had made through the West-
fjords and asked for coffee and re-
freshments.”
Even though Guðrún and her
parents own the turf house, it is
also part of the National Museum,
which restored it so that the home
now consists of both new and old
parts.
Don’t stress
As you finish eating the deli-
cious refreshments on offer and
prepare to continue your journey
through the Westfjords with your
stomach full, you realize that, in-
deed, the family’s idea to turn the
turf house into a café was bril-
liant. As the animated character
Lumière, from ‘Beauty and the
Beast’ sings, “if you’re stressed,
it’s fine dining we suggest!” This
wise recommendation seems to
be the slogan of the Litlibær Café.
Icelandic hobbiton
Perfection
ÓÐINSTORG | 101 | REYKJAVÍK | ÍSLAND
SNAPSBISTRO.IS | +354 5116677
FRENCH ONION SOUP
Icelandic Ísbúi cheese, croûtons
2.390 kr.
MOULES MARINIÈRES
steamed mussels from Breiðafjörður
2.600 kr.
FISH OF THE DAY
chef´s special
3.890 kr.
Lunch offer from 11:30 - 14:00 1.990 kr.
EST. 2012REYKJAVIK
gpv.is/food
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49The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15— 2018
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