Noma Co-Founder Claus Meyer to Open The Standard, a Food and Jazz Concept in Copenhagen

Noma co-founder Claus Meyer will be opening a waterfront jazz club/restaurant/bar concept, The Standard, to take the place of Custom House Bar & Grill in Copenhagen. It will include three restaurants and two bars in total.

The first restaurant is Studio, the debut restaurant from sometimes-rockstar-chef and former Noma head chef of R&D Torsten Vildgaard. He is very excited. The second will be an Indian concept helmed by chef Karam Sethi of London's Trishna with ex-Osteria dell'Arancio (Grottammare, Italy) pastry chef Rizwana Merchant. The third restaurant, according to Meyer's official website, will be a collaboration between himself, Vildgaard, and another Noma alum, former sous chef Søren Westh; it will serve food "centered around the food that our grand parents would have made if they had known what we know today."

About the jazz bit: Meyer will be collaborating with Danish jazz pianist and record producer Niels Lan Doky to curate the music offered at The Standard. The ultimate goal of the project is to help Copenhagen "[regain] its past reputation as jazz center of Europe," and to provide a place to find what Meyer has newly coined "jazztronomy." The Standard is expected to open this September.

Claus Meyer has been busy these past two months, what with René Redzepi buying majority ownership of Noma, and his recent move into Bolivian cuisine with the ambitious (there are dishes with alpaca and llama) Gustu. But as far as The Standard goes, check the press release below for more details:

CUTTING EDGE STELLAR CHEFS AND WORLD CLASS JAZZ TO SHARE THE SAME ROOF IN NEW COPENHAGEN VENUE:

Food, jazz and Copenhagen:
In something like ten years the New Nordic Cuisine has been established as one of the most innovative movements that the world of gastronomy has seen for decades. Naturally, Copenhagen is now also a hub for international gastro tourism, with its new vibrant cutting-edge restaurant scene, where demand seems to keep outgrowing supply.

In parallel, Copenhagen has in recent years come closer and closer to regaining it's past reputation as "jazz center of Europe". With a record number of expat American jazz legends settling there, due to its great audiences and high quality of life, in the 1960s and 1970s, and interacting extensively with local talent, the jazz scene in Copenhagen inevitably evolved into becoming one of the strongest and healthiest in the world. The Copenhagen Jazz Festival is today – objectively and quantitatively – the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, with its more than 1,000 concerts in 10 days every Summer.

The new initiative:
CLAUS MEYER (founding father of the Nordic Cuisine movement and co-owner of noma) and NIELS LAN DOKY (Danish jazz legend and internationally acclaimed pianist and producer), have teamed up to transform the historic custom house building at 44 Havnegade (Habour street) in downtown Copenhagen into a jazz club which will be named "The Standard". The jazz club will have two bars and three restaurants, including a contemporary gastronomic Indian restaurant.

Torsten Vildgaard, who has been at "noma" for 8 years including 4 years as creative head-chef, will have his debut as head-chef/restaurateur and will be running the restaurant "Studio" on the building's first floor. The Indian restaurant will be led by Karam Sethi (who co-owns the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant "Trishna" in London, and also the newly opened "Bubbledogs" that serve Champagne with gourmet hot dogs, also located in London) in association with Rizwana Merchant (former pastry chef of the original "Osteria dell'Arancio" in Grottammare, Italy and General Manager of their sister restaurant in London).

The concept of the third restaurant is currently under development by Torsten Vildgaard, Søren Westh (formerly creative sous-chef at "noma" for 7 years) and Claus Meyer and will be centered around "the food that our grand parents would have made if they had known what we know today".

Jacob Kocemba, a former winner of the World Championship for Waiters and the Nordic Championship for Sommeliers, and whom up until recently headed the Nimb Hermann restaurant in Copenhagen, will be the General Manager at The Standard. Ulrik Nordentoft, Christina Meyer Bengtsson and the award-winning Danish-Italian design team GamFratesi will do the interior design of The Standard.

The active partners in the project are, besides Niels Lan Doky and Claus Meyer, Torsten Vildgaard, Søren Westh, Karam Sethi and Rizwana Merchant.

Will their food change once the chefs are exposed to great jazz everyday?
New owners are moving into the attractive prime location along downtown Copenhagen's waterfront, close to the Royal Theater, The Opera and noma. Niels Lan Doky, who has spent most of his life abroad, has moved back to Denmark to realize with Claus Meyer their common dream of exploring what will happen when placing creative master minds from the fields of respectively jazz music and gastronomy, under the same roof, although separated from one another.

Niels Lan Doky explains:

"The music industry has for far too many years been all about packaging and hardly about content, and this is not how it is going to be at The Standard. It is our ambition to present projects and programs that are especially created and designed for our venue and therefore cannot be heard anywhere else in the world. As Music Director and Producer I plan to challenge the artists who will play here and help them go beyond their own limits, with respect of course, for all the timeless values that define jazz. We hope that The Standard will recruit new fans for both the jazz and the food. But Claus and I are particularly anxious to see if we can succeed in creating a grander experience for those who choose both to eat dinner and hear a concert on the same night, because we can offer that and under the same roof. In a larger perspective, we would just like to contribute to making Copenhagen an even more wonderful place to live in and to visit".

Claus Meyer adds:

"There is probably no doubt that some good has come out of the fact that we for the past 10 years have looked inwards and explored the possibilities in our own produce, raw materials and food history. Nevertheless, it has always disappointed me whenever someone has claimed that the New Nordic cuisine has something against for instance aubergines or lemons. We have gathered a fantastic team with a very broad perspective and we have some exciting ideas as to how the three restaurants can cooperate, overwhelmingly, on a daily basis and even remain in dialogue with the outside world at large. And finally I just have to say, that after having known and followed Torsten Vildgaard for 15 years, I am extremely excited and looking so much forward to him fully blooming and unfolding. It is his turn now to shine. And in terms of the music, Copenhagen has in recent years come closer and closer to regaining its original historic position as a jazz metropole, and with our initiative the city should surely come even closer".

THE STANDARD IS EXPECTED TO OPEN IN SEPTEMBER 2013.

JOIN US ALREADY NOW ON FACEBOOK ("THE STANDARD COPENHAGEN") AND FOLLOW THE DEVELOPMENTS

WWW.THESTANDARDCPH.DK IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND WILL OPEN FOR BOOKINGS LATER IN THE SUMMER.

· The Standard [Claus Meyer]
· All Claus Meyer Coverage on Eater [-E-]