The Bakki brothers' coffee house
May contain traces of advertising.*
When we were on holiday in Iceland with our sons in July 2018, we had also planned 4 days for Akureyri and the surrounding area - and one evening we were invited to Dalvík, to a restaurant that I particularly liked on Instagram because of its beautiful cakes -Pictures was noticed.
When we stood in front of it for the first time, we looked at each other a little doubtfully - from the outside it seemed a bit modest and dark at first. But we had an invitation from Heiða and Bjarni, the couple who have been running the inn here since 2013, and the cake pictures on Instagram really made me smile. So join us!
Gísli Eiríkur Helgi - Kaffihús Bakkabræðra
From the inside it made a completely different impression and looked very interesting and cozy.
Before eating we took a short tour of the guest rooms in the house, first down at the front...
...then the back room...
...and finally via the stairs to the upper rooms.
I love the details in the equipment, I especially like the beautiful woolen underpants!
The selection of warm food is manageable: there is fish soup. From 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. With homemade bread and a plate of salad first. And a coffee afterwards.
The salad was really tasty, with walnut kernels and long coconut flakes on top, which made the whole thing even more interesting. There was also a tray of balsamic vinegar and oil as well as salt and pepper so that we could season the salad to our taste directly at the table.
The two homemade breads, baked with Kaldi beer, the beer from the local microbrewery in Árskógssandor (about 10 km from Dalvík), with butter and herbs, were also really tasty.
The fish soup was simply a poem! It wasn't quite a classic fish soup. In addition to potatoes, tomatoes, onions, peppers and cream, there were also pieces of fruit in the soup and it clearly smelled of coconut milk and spicy herbs. In any case, it had its own special touch and tasted really delicious!
We each had a large plate full, so full that it almost spilled over, and since the table was a bit crooked, I had a bit of trouble turning the whole thing for the photo so that the good soup didn't spill out of the soup bowl . In general, the plates - it felt like there weren't two identical plates, but they were all the same type, so that they "spoke to each other" - and the old book pages that were on every table as decoration - really really homely and cozy!
After the meal there was coffee - again so loving and old-fashioned and served with a milk jug and a sugar pot on a special coffee tray. Really nice! (I almost felt like I used to be in my great-aunt's salon.)
The restaurant is actually a Kaffihús, i.e. a coffee house. That's why there is a very nice selection of cakes and pastries on the counter and in the large display case.
I couldn't (and didn't want to) resist and tried a piece of cake for dessert - on the house's recommendation, cheesecake with berries and peanuts. Plus chocolate on the floor... an absolute poem! (Note to self: I definitely need to try peanut cheesecake!)
After the good meal we were really full and very satisfied.
But then came another highlight - Bjarni, the owner, took us on a tour of his theater.
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| No, that's not Bjarni, that's a wooden figure by Ólafur Grímsson, the last Icelandic president (1996 - 2016) |
The building next to Heiða and Bjarni's inn used to be the local cinema. The community then renovated the outside of the building and Bjarni and Heiða took care of the inside and made the auditorium even more comfortable with tables and chairs in the front area.
The evening we were there, Góss was still playing at 9 p.m. (However, we couldn't stay for the concert as we had to go back to Akureyri.)
The band of Sigríður Thorlacius, Sigurður Guðmundsson and Guðmundur Óskar has a relatively broad spectrum and is very popular in Iceland. (Three days before, the band had played at Vagninn in Flateyri and on the following days at the "Green Hat" (= græni hatturinn ) in Akureyri.
While we were still looking at the old cinema, Bjarni suddenly poked his head out of the hatch to the room where the film projector used to run and enthusiastically told us many details about his heart's project. The cinema had not been in operation for a long time, Bjarni said - there was still an old film in the film projector when they took over the premises. However, no one knows how to use the old projector anymore anyway.
Today, art events are regularly held here and World Cup games are also shown. The atmosphere was particularly great at the Iceland Games and the final, Bjarni told us.
Afterwards we also learned what the “Bakkabræður” is all about - the three characters who gave the restaurant its name.
The "Bakkabræður" were the Bakki brothers, i.e. the brothers from Bakki. They came from the town of Bakki - this probably means Bakki in Svarfaðardalur. This valley now belongs to the municipality of Dalvíkbyggð. The brothers were called Gísli, Eiríkur and Helgi and although no one knows when they lived or what their parents were called, they are among the most famous characters in Icelandic folk stories. There are numerous short stories about the Bakka brothers, all three of whom were probably kind of "village idiots".
After a last little walk through Dalvík we had to drive back to Akureyri.
If you have the opportunity to come to Dalvík in August: On the first or second Saturday in August there is always “Big Fish Day” in Dalvík, the “fiskudagurinn mikli”. Bjarni had raved to us about the folk festival: There are fish dishes everywhere, the longest grill is set up (usually with 20 gas burners and 12 grill stations), there are also exhibitions, boat trips, art, music and shows,... This year The “Big Fish Day” will take place on August 9th - 12th, 2018.
At a glance:
It's open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and soup is available from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The soup with salad and bread costs around 2,200 ISK during the day with self-service (including a second helping) (as of July 2018 - the equivalent of just under €18), and in the evening with service and coffee afterwards it costs 2,800 ISK (around €22.80).
* Legal notice:
Technically speaking, this is advertising because we were invited to dinner. But we only went to restaurants and bars that we had previously heard good things about and that we found exciting - for a variety of reasons. In that respect, we were honestly thrilled and when we burst into praise, we really mean it.
[Translated from here.]
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