Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.11.2019, Blaðsíða 34

Culinary Renais-
sance at Dill 3.0
Chef Gunnar Karl is lookin! to shake up
fine dinin! norms
Words: Shruthi Basappa Photos: Art Bicnick
Dill
Visit the restaurant at Laugavegur
59. For reservations, go to
www.dillrestaurant.is
“Drama, drama, drama.” Gunnar
Karl chuckles as the photographer
and I set up shop for his portrait
in the ascetic foyer at Dill’s newest
location. It’s hard to imagine that
Laugavegur is right outside these
very walls. In here, it is a womb
— dark, calm, and a little surreal.
Hand stained black wood panels
run the length of the double vol-
ume space, “I stained those myself,”
Gunnar confides. Furthering the
stylised country vibes, dried angeli-
ca flower heads brush against a faux
window. “There will be dried fish
and smoked lamb here, suspended,”
Gunnar continues enthusiastically
as we walk up the winding staircase
to the restaurant, “sort of like those
fish drying houses out West.”
Within three months of the
abrupt closure of Dill hitting the
news, like a phoenix from the ash-
es, Dill 3.0 has taken flight, and
would’ve already served its first
guests by the time you read this.
New Dill isn’t shy of colour — the
rusts and deep greens are a whiff of
the outdoors. “For a
while now, I’ve been
walking around with
this idea in my head,”
Gunnar pauses. “I
even thought about
opening up a space in Brooklyn and
a couple of investors were involved
too. I guess I could’ve pushed for this
small fine dining space, but we’d
been in New York for four years,
and we weren’t quite ready to put
down roots. So I bought the brand
Dill from my former colleagues at
Hverfisgata to relocate it here,” he
says, gesturing to the dining room.
Testing the tested
“We’re trying to tweak our menu
to the point where it is”, Gunnar
pauses, searching for the right word,
“as nature-friendly as possible.
I don’t know if you can use the
word ‘sustainable,’ but think
more about nature, think more
about utilising everything that
we get in-house. Using the
scraps, ensuring nothing goes
to the bin.”
Unlike a Japanese omak-
ase where the diner is treated to
what the chef finds best on that
day and season, Western tasting
menus have long been a way of
showcasing the chef’s greatest
hits. Dill has been no stranger
to this, but with their emphasis
on vegetables, they haven’t quite
played to the gallery either.
“We’ve always been veg-
etable-focussed, I guess we
might become more vegetable
focussed,” he nods. ”The old
tasting menu is getting bigger
as well.”
After their customary
snacks and a few vegetable
plates, the chef has a bold new
direction for the mains and will
serve multiple courses of the same
meat or fish, “we’ll do just cod, cod,
cod,” he smiles, “or just goose, like
on our winter menu,” in line with
their focus on using every ingredi-
ent thoroughly.
Stripped off frivolities
Gunnar wants to exorcise the staid
ghosts of fine dining by, ”making
it more fun, making it interactive.”
The wine pairing format is be-
ing redefined too. “There will be
no wine-pairing,” Gunnar declares.
“There will still be wines, but more
in a ‘here is a red wine which will
go with the three courses of goose
you are about to have.’” It allows us
to be more extreme
with the wines, and
it opens up the con-
versation with the
guests about what
they felt went best
with the goose or vegetables for in-
stance.”
I once described dining at Dill
as a careful narrative that gets you
from the start. Dill pioneered the
use of local ingredients and tradi-
tions in fine-dining, today a high-
street mainstay. Gunnar’s ability
to evoke memories through food
made it possible for an askur and
har!fiskur to grace Michelin-worthy
tables. Stripped off frivolities in his
drive for the next chapter, I can only
imagine the fireworks that await us
when the doors open.
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“There will be no
wine-pairing,”
The third time's the charm!
Food
ban thai
There's a reason why we get an award every once a year
B E S T T H A I F O O D 2 0 1 9
Always been the best from the reviews
in our local people and local newspaper.
Best goddamn restaurant 2011
Top Ten of Best restaurants in Iceland ( DV. 17.06.11 )
www.banthai.is tel : 55 -22-444, 692-0564 banthai@banthai.is
very reasonable prices
R E S T A U R A N T
recommend : two very good thai restaurants
MIXED thai restaurant, hverfisgata 125, tel : 588 -1818
YummiYummi thai restaurant, hverfisgata 123, tel : 588 -2121
FISH & MORE
SkólavörDustígur 23 • 101 reykjavík
Steamed Fresh Fish, Traditional Icelandic Fish ‘Stew’, Fish & Vegan Soups,
Smoked Salmon & Vegan Toppings on Sourdough Bread, Beer, Wine, Coffee & more
15% DISCOUNT
SALKA VALKA
15% discount of total bill, every day
IF you bring this ticket
Laugavegi 28
537 99 00
sumac@sumac. is
sumac. is