Olivia Hahne, our hottest new contributor, is on a one woman-and-baby mission to find the best place to have a coffee in Stockholm. This week: Kungsholmen.
Not your ‘hood? Check out the rest of our café culture series.
En Nypa Socker
Address: Fleminggatan 107, 112 45 Stockholm. Tel No: 08-211 311
Love is in the air at En Nypa Socker. It could be due to the canvas prints of wedding rings and honeymoon scenes adorning the walls or the trail of bunting hanging above the counter. The interior is unashamedly pink and girly with a pastel colour scheme, cupcake stands in the windows and cute-as-a-button style cake pops in the window.
En Nypa Socker is the passion project of 23 year old qualified konditor and self-confessed ‘decoration nerd’ Sandra Boart. This Kungsholmen konditori and café also hosts cupcake courses, Saturday afternoon tea (with home-baked scones for those who appreciate them), möhippa fika packages and venue hire for weddings, baby showers etc. If you’re looking for a wedding cake to blow the socks off the ones FB friends have posted on Instagram recently, look no further than the selection on En Nypa Socker’s website. Hell, I’m tempted to order the macaron cake and I’m not even getting married…..
All the food, from soups and salads to cakes and desserts, are made from organic and locally sourced ingredients. The cupcakes, cake pops, macarons, semlor, tartlets and mousse desserts on offer are enough to satisfy even the most sweet-toothed of patrons.
For those of you travelling with little guests in tow, buggies are welcome and there’s even a mini sized table and chairs for anyone small enough to fit on them.
Cost of a Latte: 35 kronor
Perfect for: möhippas, baby showers and general girly get-togethers
Avoid if: your idea of a möhippa is more strippers and tequila shots rather than cupcakes and cake pops – this possibly isn’t your ‘pinch of sugar’.
Musical equivalent: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyonce
Petite France
Address: John Ericssonsgatan 6, 112 22 Stockholm. Tel No: 08-618 28 00
As the name suggests, Petite France is a little piece of France, cunningly hidden away on a side street in Kungsholmen. The fact that Petite France has won numerous awards comes as no surprise when you see the quality of the sweet treats on offer. No dried out old supermarket pastries here – you can almost smell the butter wafting from the counter.
This bakery and cafe has all the classics you would expect such as croissants, pain au chocolat and pain aux raisins, as well as a selection of classic Swedish bullar, but it’s where the French croissant and Swedish bulle meet that things get interesting – apricot and vanilla croissant, chocolate and vanilla bulle or brioche aux framboises, anyone? Just looking at the big glass cabinet full of macarons, crème brûlée and semlor sends my blood sugar into overdrive. I’m going to need to find a treadmill that goes up to eleven to work this lot off.
The adjoining dining room is packed with Kungsholmen locals tucking into classic French lunch dishes, and if you can’t make it in the daytime, fear not, the bistro is open evenings from Wednesday – Sunday.
No room for prams inside but there is a large outdoor seating area which, with the onset of Spring, has the potential to imitate that ‘sitting on a Parisian trottoir’ feeling.
Cost of a Latte: 35 kr
Perfect for: experiencing a little piece of France in Stockholm
Avoid if: you’re after a quintessentially Swedish fika – this place is Vive la France all the way
Musical equivalent: anything by Nouvelle Vague
Il Caffè
Address: Bergsgatan 17 112 28 Stockholm. Tel No: 08-652 30 04
Walking into Il Caffè on a cold, dreary day in January is a bit like being transported on holiday. You know when you walk into a friendly bar on the first night of your holiday and you feel right at home straight away? That’s what this feels like, maybe due to the heating being on full whack, which was very welcome on a grey day.
Il Caffè in Kungsholmen is a bit smaller and, well, scruffier than its sister cafe in Nytorget. The walls could do with a lick of paint and the furniture is of the basic wooden table and chairs variety that wouldn’t look out of place in a class room, but that all adds to the comfortable vibe.
There’s not a lot of space for buggies but they are welcome. In fact, on seeing me struggling to get mine through the front door and up the steps, the guy behind the counter runs out to help me – that’s a big tick right there.
In terms of food, it’s the same deal as it’s Söder counterpart – sourdough bread sandwiches, bullar and Italian sweets. Service is relaxed and friendly (take note, certain Söder locals, it is possible to lose the attitude and still keep your hipster tag). The back room is full of people sat at a table by themselves and I feel out of place not sipping a latte stooped over a laptop working on my next novel / start-up business idea.
Cost of a Latte: 30, 35 kronor (depending on size)
Perfect for: feeling the warmth, whatever the time of year.
Avoid if: you value immaculate paintwork and the latest interior design trends over a well worn, welcoming vibe.
Musical equivalent: Rock The Casbah by The Clash
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