Smør

Smør Opens a Restaurant and Bakery in Clinton Hill | Eater NY

"Opened in 2019 by Sebastian Perez and Sebastian Bangsgaard in the East Village, Smør began as a catering gig and then a tiny, under-500-square-foot order-at-the-counter cafe built from a $40,000 loan and Ikea furniture; when COVID hit the owners expanded with an adjoining bakery so they could bake in-house, iterating through many cardamom versions under head baker Rowan Gill (a Bien Cuit alum). Five years later they’ve launched a larger, full-service restaurant and wine bar in Clinton Hill with a fully all-electric kitchen, skylight and courtyard, and a minimalist, Scandinavian-leaning design that evokes Copenhagen canteens. By day there’s a to-go bakery counter with cardamom buns, bread loaves and pastries and a daytime menu of egg sandwiches, pickled herring smørrebrød, Danish pancakes with lemon zest and a snowpea carrot salad with rye crunch; by night it operates as a reservation-able restaurant and wine bar serving fluke crudo, a Norwegian shrimp salad with roe and lemon on sourdough, sesame-crusted schnitzel, sausage with apple chutney and rice pudding for dessert, plus Danish-style hot dogs with curry ketchup or remoulade and Danish sodas (elderflower, lingonberry) among the non-alcoholic options. The menu and concept explicitly reflect the founders’ Danish upbringing while also nodding to their Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian roots, aiming for a casual, non-pretentious Copenhagen-style all-day spot where people can linger." - Emma Orlow