Copenhagen’s Noma is Closing its Doors

Copenhagen’s Noma is Closing its Doors

Copenhagen’s three Michelin-starred restaurant, Noma is bidding adieu to guests and visitors as it is closing doors in 2024.

Having introduced its patrons to new and innovative Nordic flavours, the fine dining restaurant opened in 2003 and has topped the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants many times, as recently as 2021.

The restaurant is now ready to reinvent itself as Noma 3.0, a food laboratory and test kitchen.

Noma is closing down in 2024

Why is Noma ceasing operations as a restaurant?

In a statement published on the restaurant’s website, Noma’s chef and co-owner René Redzepi says, “To continue being noma, we must change.” He further added, “We are beginning a new chapter; noma 3.0.”

The Danish chef has been praised for creating and serving interesting Nordic cuisines, including edible pinecones, ragout of reindeer and crispy marigold with whiskey egg yolk sauce.

While a definitive reason is not stated, the statement also mentions that although serving guests and world diners will always be Noma’s priority, it will no longer work as a restaurant. There might be a lot of travelling and some pop-ups may also be conducted in order to learn new ideas and develop new products.

The statement also mentions, “Our goal is to create a lasting organisation dedicated to groundbreaking work in food, but also to redefine the foundation for a restaurant team, a place where you can learn, you can take risks, and you can grow!”

The news comes after Noma announced in 2022 that it will open for a short two-month period in Kyoto, Japan in 2023 between 15 March and 20 May. Previously, Noma had closed down for nearly six months during the pandemic and ran as a burger and wine joint in 2020 for a month. In 2016 as well, it shut down and later reopened in a different Copenhagen locality.

What is the future of Noma?

Noma derives its name from the abbreviations of two Danish words ‘Nordisk’ (Nordic) and ‘mad’ (food). While working creatively to bring classic Danish flavours and treating the world with gourmet Nordic food will be Noma’s aim, the brand will not operate as a fine-dining restaurant establishment after 2024.

In the statement, the owner mentions, “In 2025, our restaurant is transforming into a giant lab—a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavours, one that will share the fruits of our efforts more widely than ever before.”

What happens to the Copenhagen space?

The Copenhagen space was built in such a way that it could be transformed. Built with separate structures, the place was always deemed to be fluid enough to easily mould in different ways and grow to be used for different purposes.

The restaurant space will be used to house all kinds of creative and innovative endeavours that Noma is about to enter into in 2025. “A larger test kitchen and an expanded lab; creating new products, exploring ideas and a dining room where we occasionally serve guests,” mentions the Noma website.

(Main and featured image credit: Noma/ @nomacph/ Instagram)

This story first appeared here.