In 2013, chef Frederik Bille Brahe transformed a former art gallery on Copenhagen’s Gothersgade into a sun-drenched café, filled with vintage and mid-century furniture. On the menu: avocado mad, red berry granola, a breakfast plate, and Kyoto grapefruit, occasionally served on a 150-year-old Etruscan plate. Today, Atelier September spans four locations across Copenhagen and beyond.
It has been a few months now since I have found myself catching myself, from time to time, from one time to another. The game begins with an initial choice: a singular silhouette, the tilt of a head, a set of features (of character). I write everything down, scrupulously. And then I follow. For what reason? To pique my curiosity. To live another life. To take a certain wicked pleasure. To think, "Ah! How wonderful it would be to love this stranger." Alone, I follow those whom I may never know, giving them the chance to tell me what they dare not tell anyone else. For me, it is a gentle grace to let them reveal themselves without ever naming themselves. This time, I land at Atelier September.
In 2013, Frederik Bille Brahe opened Atelier September in a former gallery on Gothersgade, in the heart of Copenhagen. A scattering of vintage and mid-century furniture, bottles of natural wine on the shelves, an open kitchen, and a flood of light: the spot quickly became one of the city's iconic cafés. There, Frederik cooks mostly for the daytime, using simple, seasonal ingredients: avocado mad, breakfast plate, red fruit granola, or Kyoto grapefruit.
But the tableware also demands that you look beneath your egg: some of the Etruscan plates are 150 years old. When the historic location moved in 2023 to Kronprinsessegade, Frederik kept the old French counter, the marble window tables, and the open kitchen, adding objects from his childhood and artworks created by his friends.
Atelier September has since expanded to Nordhavn, Frederiksberg, and Hellerup, and Frederik has even dedicated a book to this very Danish way of taking breakfast well into the lunch hour: Atelier September: A Place for Daytime Cooking.
FOOTNOTES
Book Suite vénitienne, Sophie Calle, 1983
