The origins of Bergen's restaurant history

In the basement of Bergen Børs, the city's very first restaurant saw the light of day. The De Bergenske hotel and restaurant family continues to carry on this heritage and history with the deepest love, serving world-class food to this day.

Hotelier Kjetil Smørås looks across the table with a curious and friendly look. The unexpected challenge he has been given is the following question: "What was the first course of the big anniversary dinner served in this hall 112 years ago?"

We have tracked down the original, hand-drawn menu at the Bergen Public Library in which six courses are meticulously described, along with the accompanying drinks. The banquet was served in the Stock Exchange Hall, today better known as the Frescohallen.

Smørås laughs and allows his gaze to linger on the beautiful ceiling of what is recognized as one of the world's most beautiful restaurant premises. As if to find the answer from the stories told in the famous frescoes by Axel Revold.

"They used to eat things like turtle soup back then," he says tentatively.

He is quite right about that.

Turtle soup served with Madeira from Ferraz's Coma de Lobos was the very first course on this April day back in 1913, when the venerable Bergen Børs (Bergen Stock Exchange) duly celebrated its first hundred years together with 310 festive and formally dressed Bergen residents.

Bergen's first restaurant

Because what is considered to be Bergen's very first restaurant opened its doors right here, between these historic walls. Although there were several pubs along both sides of Vågen, but they are not considered by the Bergen City Encyclopedia to be full-fledged restaurants. Not even eateries.

Much has changed during the many intervening years. Not least, Western Norwegian eating habits, palates and ingredients. Because not everything that was on the menu back then could have been on guests' radars today. Neutered chicken, or so-called poularde, cigarettes, and goose liver, have been left behind by Bergen cuisine as menu options.

"De Bergenske is known for its uncompromising aesthetic sense and high demands on design, how is this expressed when it comes to its culinary philosophy?"

"Our culinary philosophy today is all about our fantastic local ingredients. These raw materials represent our very identity. The ingredients from the fjord landscape play the main role with us. These are then prepared and presented in many different ways, with inspiration from places including Japan, Spain, New York, and Mexico," Kjetil explains.

Perfect harmony

"A restaurant has three aspects: The interior, the people and the food. If the three of them all speak the same language, then you have a good food concept," adds Yngve Hansen, general manager at Bergen Børs.

The interior, the people and the food in perfect harmony. That's what creates the atmosphere, according to the duo seated at a table in Frescohallen.

"You should feel that you are being taken care of. That it's a good place to be. You should smile when you walk out the door. That's the optimal thing for me," says Yngve.

Kjetil Smørås tells us about something that happened recently:

"A guest at Izakaya Skostredet came up to me and said: 'Thank you very much for letting us experience this here in Bergen.'"

"And that is precisely the goal for me. That you can experience something that is valuable. When you cook Japanese food, even Japanese guests should experience that it is authentic and fantastically good Japanese food. When an experienced Japanese chef, with his gentle hands and sharp knives, gets access to Norwegian ingredients straight from the sea, well, magic is created," says the hotelier.

"World-class food"

"Is food art?"

"When you have professionals who have spent decades perfecting themselves, the visual end result is lifted to an extremely high level. The best chefs do present works of art that are a wonderful aesthetic experience," Yngve says.

And the critics clearly agree. "World-class food. This is great culinary art," was the opinion of the region's biggest media players when Omakase by Sergey Pak opened its doors in Skostredet Hotel. The hotel and restaurant family has a tradition of aiming for the moon. In 2019, De Bergenske brought the very first Michelin star to Bergen.

"It was absolutely crucial for Bergen as a culinary city to break that barrier. And we are happy that more restaurants have followed suit. The culinary scene in the city has grown in quality and generated increasing interest. It has provided a path for people and raised the level of expertise in the entire industry in Bergen. We are very happy about that," says Kjetil.

The dishes you only get in Bergen

What are the hottest food trends right now?

"A very big trend is that everything is made from scratch, and that the food has a story with a local origin. Seafood has also never been as popular before as it is now, and we have fantastic ingredients here among the fjords. Our guests are more concerned than ever that food should be locally sourced, and they want to know the whole story behind the food and ingredients that are served on their plate," Yngve explains.

But it's not just diners who are drawn to the culinary city between the seven mountains.

The Fjordic Experience

"Ingredients of the highest quality has become an international megatrend. We like to call our variant 'The Fjordic Experience'. We focus on the ingredients and their origin and are concerned that they should be pure, local and that the livestock and marine life should have good welfare. This trend has never been stronger than now," says Kjetil.

"But what about the old traditions? Do you still serve turtle soup?"

"No, the turtle soup is gone! But we serve traditional Bergen dishes such as prinsefisk and persetorsk in several of our restaurants, and of course we have Bergen fish soup in several places, which is very popular with many of our regulars.

Note 1: Prinsefisk consists of cod in cream sauce, a dish that got its name around the same time as the Bergen Stock Exchange saw the light of day. The two princes Charles of Sweden and Norway and William III of the Netherlands were served this dish during a visit to Bergen, leading to the name being coined (prinsefisk means 'prince fish'). Persetorsk is cod that has been pressed together, cured and cooled in a sugar and salt mixture. It even has its own day: January 28th. Prinsefisk and persetorsk are apparently not served anywhere else in Norway today, so don't miss your chance to sample them if you find yourself in the culinary city of Bergen.

Note 2: When the stock exchange building at Vågsallmenningen was completed in 1865, Hans Pedersen from Drammen opened the doors to the restaurant Børs Café in the basement, which quickly became a permanent meeting place for "Børsens Mænd", 'the gentlemen of the stock exchange'.