The Culinary Delights Hiding Below, Inside, and Above Government Buildings

"Not many people get to attend the yearly Nobel banquets, as that’s reserved for geniuses, humanitarians, and Swedish nobility. But if your invitation got lost in the mail, never fear. With a chunk of change, you, too, can feast like a Nobel prizewinner in the cellars of Stockholm’s City Hall. The Stadshuskällaren, or the City Hall Cellars, is unique in more than just its location. City Hall is the venue for the Nobel banquet, and its restaurant offers the menus from years past. Want the Nobel banquet from 2017, with its crispy saddle of lamb and frosty bilberry bavaroise? It’s on the menu, served up on the bespoke green-and-gold Nobel china, used at the actual banquets each year. But it doesn’t stop there. Just pick a year, and the banquet is available. For a unique historical experience, visitors can have a banquet from a Nobel year that fêted one of their cultural heroes. Fans of Gabriel García Márquez can have the banquet from 1982 (with Arctic char in dill cream sauce and Nobel ice cream), while Marie Curie devotees can toast her 1911 chemistry prize by dining on fonds d´artichauts duchesse and poularde fermière (artichoke bottoms “duchess-style” and farm chicken). Unfortunately for those without Nobel prize money, Nobel banquets will set you back. The price of the 2017 banquet is currently 1865 SEK ($200) per person, but that will change after the 2018 Nobel banquet. Vintage menus (i.e., anything earlier than the previous year) have varying prices, require a party of 10 or more, and need to be booked at least a week in advance. If that sounds too lavish, you can always simply stop into the restaurant for lunch and gawk at the Stadshuskällaren’s vaulted ceilings and lush decor." - ATLAS_OBSCURA