Atlantica - 01.12.2006, Side 58

56 AT L A N T I CA
ICELANDa
fact that Sudureyri is where the clothing company
66ºN first started, back in 1924.
“We’re actually standing at 66º N,” he tells me.
Elli has ambition. Five years ago he purchased
an abandoned building, about to be torn down, for
less than USD 1,000, converting it into a guesthouse
sleeping up to 50 tourists, all in rooms named after
fish, like cod and haddock. In the adjoining build-
ing, which had been derelict for seven years, he
carved out a restaurant, the Talisman. While a bit
plain, the Talisman – the only restaurant in town
– is decorated with fish-skin menus, fish-skin lights
and paintings produced by local artists. As for the
food, it’s made from ingredients found in the area,
from the garnishes and vegetables to the lamb and
fresh fish.
“I bought the first building on my Visa card,”
he jokes. “The restaurant, well, we have a good
bank helping us. And we are making a profit so
it’s going well.”
It must be going well, because Elli’s hard at
work, he says, “repairing six other houses” to rent
to tourists.
“You own six houses?” I blurt out in surprise.
“Oh, no. I have many more houses,” he says,
including one fixer-upper he acquired for free from
the bank.
Elli owns more than houses. He runs the local
convenience store, which doubles as the town’s
only pub. Elli also rents the town’s only gas pump
to Esso, an Icelandic oil company. He has a share in
Fernando’s and Thaicoon (yes, a spin on tycoon),
two of the three restaurants in Ísafjördur. Topping
his various ventures are the candy and the ice
cream brands adorned by a cartoon character
named Bobby.
“It’s our brand. We’re branding the town,”
says Elli, talking about the cartoon, his signature
label, created by ENNEMM, a Reykjavík design
company.
While the cartoon character goes a bit over-
board, the branding is serious business. Elli wants
Sudureyri to be known as Iceland’s authentic fish-
ing village. When people think of fishing, Elli says,
he wants them to think of Sudureyri.
“We’re trying to change the way people think,”
says Benedikt, who studied marketing in Denmark,
and returned to this sleepy town after his wife real-
ized she couldn’t live anywhere except Iceland’s
west coast. Aside from trying to earn a Green Globe
environmental award for Sudureyri, Benedikt also
has plans to market the local lamb, fish and wool
as products that are ‘Made in Sudureyri.’
“We want the farmers to march their sheep
straight into town instead of selling them through
a middleman.” On the opposite page: Elli shows off his brands.
“You can’t leave Sudureyri without feeding the cod.” But beware.
“These fish bite. You gotta be careful when
feeding them by hand.”
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