Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.09.2018, Síða 20

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Best of Reykjavík 2018
20
Frakkastígur 16, Melhagi 22, Fákafen 11, Hlemmur Mathöll,
braudogco@braudogco.is
“Opening the restaurant was an attempt to
bring the produce closer to the people.”
INTERVIEW
Straight Outta
Suðureyri
Fisherman brings the Westfjords to Reykjavík
Words: Björn Teitsson Photos: Timothée Lambrecq
Suðureyri is a small fishing village
in the Westfjords with a popula-
tion of roughly 300 people. Once
isolated, it is now connected to
Ísafjörður, the largest town in the
area, and since October last year
Suðureyri has had an ambassador
in the affluent Reykjavík neighour-
hood of Vesturbær in the form of a
fishmonger and restaurant called,
simply, Fisherman.
Gourmet travels
Fisherman is also a travel agency
for “slow food travel” in the West-
fjords. Visitors stroll through
the tiny fishing village with an
English-speaking tour guide and
taste the wonderful local seafood
while watching people at work in
the industry. That way people can
see the lifecycle of the produce,
from being pulled up in the fishing
vessel until it is packaged, ready
for the market.
Elías Guðmundsson, manager
of Fisherman, says his life sim-
ply revolves around fish and his
dream of giving people a chance
to try the country’s staple food
and number one export. “Open-
ing the restaurant was an attempt
to bring the produce closer to the
people,” Elías says. “Most of our
clients in Suðureyri are travellers,
people who might be visiting us
for just a day from a cruise ship,
wanting to experience fisheries
through the eyes of the locals.
Opening up in Vesturbær gives
the people of Reykjavík a chance
to eat delicious fish with mini-
mum hassle. They can eat there,
or have dishes cooked for them to
take away.”
A fast-growing
business
Fisherman has grown rapidly
in the first year of its existence.
The most popular menu item is
a build-your-own-dish, including
one type of fish, a sauce, and some
vegetables. This is assembled by
the staff, who prepare the dish, ei-
ther cooked or packaged and ready
to put into the oven at home.
Elías says that business has been
booming. “This is a model that
has been working really nicely,”
he explains. “We also cater work-
places who use this system to put
together terrific lunches and our
staff has a well established rou-
tine putting everything together
from the early morning. This gives
us time to serve the lunch crowd,
most of whom try our menu items
in house.”
A fresh option
Fisherman is also selling through
the Hagkaup supermarket chain.
“We had some ideas about what
the market needs,” says Elías. “So
we started our own line of prod-
ucts and made them available for
people to buy.”
Elías adds that the supermar-
ket brand offers similar products
to the dishes sold in the restau-
rant. “People want to get a healthy
and delicious meal for a fair price,”
he says. “Be it in our restaurant or
at home. We have our doors open
until 9 PM every day, and people
are calling and coming in until
the last second, assembling their
favorite dishes from the best pos-
sible ingredients—and that is our
local fish.”
Food, glorious food
A peaceful spot by the window