Red Hook’s Slice of Denmark
Frø, a Danish rye bread bakery, brings Copenhagen’s balance of pragmatism and beauty to Brooklyn.
My husband, our families and I had the good fortune of spending the recent New Year’s Eve holiday together in Copenhagen. It was our first time in Denmark, where pragmatism and beauty are so seamlessly intertwined they feel inseparable.
My husband and I had been watching The Bear, the TV show starring Carroll Gardens’ very own Jeremy Allen White as an anxious, obsessive chef, so it felt a bit surreal running into Ebon Moss-Bachrach, a.k.a. Cousin, at the restaurant where we rang in the New Year.
In Copenhagen, food is treated with both seriousness and restraint. Fashion follows the same logic: people dress simply and well, prioritizing utility and shapes in beautifully made garments that look as though they’ve been part of a wardrobe forever. There’s the kind of societal trust that allows parents to leave babies sleeping in strollers outside cafés. And then there’s the tap water, the taste of which I still can’t shake — a small but perfect example of how well things work.
Before our trip, I caught up with Maya Ebbesen, who co-founded Frø, a Brooklyn bakery specializing in Danish rye bread. Ebbesen and her sisters soft-launched Frø last year with limited bread drops.
