by As a long -time local with a brand in Copenhagen, Ditte Reffstrup knows the chic places and remains like no one. This is your guide to make the city with style.
What is your favorite destination and why?
Copenhagen! All my friends are here and I moved there at the age of 20. It is mine forever. It’s such a cool place when you are young – it’s a lot of fun, but it is also a fantastic place to take your family. I love the healthy work-life balance of locals.
Where do you like to stay?
The central hotel. It is a small, tiny house and there is only one room on a mini café, so call it the smallest café in the world and the smallest hotel in the world. It is in a really sweet area where there are many beautiful restaurants and vintage shops. It almost looks like something that Hans Christian Andersen came up with.
Or if I treated myself, I would go to Hotel Sanders, which really has beautiful interiors with English and Scandic influence. My latest collection for autumn winter is influenced by houses and interiors, so such places are so inspiring. It is right behind the Royal Danish theater.
What is your favorite food?
In the Maison restaurant you can order a tower with thin fries! I also love the shrimp that are equipped with a beautiful shrimp cocktail dip of the old school. They also have fantastic white fish with potatoes that are shown almost like a flower around them. I would also order a green salad.
What are you three top three restaurants?
Restaurant Maison is my favorite and you can always get a table – I don’t understand how! It is a friend of a friend and you have a very simple menu with just a few options that are all super good. Then there is Hos Fischer who is Danish, but the cook lived in Rome for many, many years and specializes in pasta and pizza. And Apollo, if you are more in the city center and want a bit of a party atmosphere. It is a pretty nightly place that is busy with people who have drinks and sometimes dance. It has an inner courtyard for the sun and it is a mood!
If you only had 24 hours, what would you do?
In the morning you have a bath in the harbor because it is something special that there is such a peaceful place in the city. After that I would kick a coffee in the Dallas Coffee, which is very charming. Then I would eat in the September Atelier, which is known for the breakfast menu.
Next I took the train and visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which is beautiful. It takes about half an hour and it’s a nice trip. You can spend all day there, then I would return to Maison for dinner. The perfect day.
What is the only thing you do, what you recommend?
Rent a bike and get through the city to enjoy the best restaurants and bars. It is something special that you can actually see the full city in one day. It’s in the pocket.
Are there hidden jewels that you want to share?
Three great vintage shops! They are a bit expensive, but they are so curated and have some real treasures. There is time’s up vintage, which is central, then Jerome Vintage in Vesterbro and Paloma Vintage in Frederiksberg.
They are first -class for textiles in which I am very interested in. The owners will pull out a beautiful piece of pointed or silky piece and have a story about the lady who belonged. And it is fun to go shopping from shop windows to look at crazy archive pieces that they would never wear.
Where do you go to let your hair down?
I’m older, so I’m not going to go out that much, but if I died, I would say to Vega. It is a beautiful building to visit and there is always a good concert. I saw a Danish local band there and she had fantastic sound. I also made a show there while covid for Ganni.
Although here in Denmark people are not good at inviting people to their houses. So if you can find a house party somehow, you are the best! We always share meals and you will end up in kitchen dancing.
What are your favorite transactions?
My friends at Hay have this really big place in the city center. It is over a few floors and you have your own products, but you also have many other different brands and you can spend a lot of time there. Oh … and of course you shouldn’t miss Ganni.
What is your dress code for Copenhagen?
Wear how you feel. However, make sure that you have different variations of layers because you cannot trust the weather. Wear your sneak, but then you have sure that you have ballerinas or a little pumping in your pocket so that you are ready and cycling for the day. You could wear some of the beautiful printed jeans from the new Ganni collection-with a T-shirt and then a blouse and a few high heels at night.
What is the only souvenir you should take home with you?
Something from our great meal scene. We have an in-house cook named Eva Hurigkarl-Sie here in Ganni and has a book called Spis Med (Eat with Us).
What is your favorite beauty point?
The garden of the royal library. It always surprises me how nice it is. And there are also the royal stables and you can see them in this beautiful old building.
Which songs remind you of the city?
When I moved from a small fishing town to Copenhagen, I was really homesick for two months. Then this girl raised Portishead Dummy album. It is one of my favorites so that I felt like that. It reminds me that I just moved.
Have you ever had an emergency incident?
I was a bachelor party seven years ago and fell down the stairs of the apartment. I was very drunk and broke my wrist! It was almost worth it because it was a lot of fun.
