Noma Is an Outdoor Wine and Burger Bar, for Now

In what feels like a taste of normalcy in These Difficult Times, Noma has bestowed news the dining public: Starting on May 21, René Redzepi’s award-winning Copenhagen restaurant will reopen to the public as an outdoor wine-and-burger spot — no reservations required.

Redzepi temporarily closed Noma on March 14, saying at the time “These will be difficult times... On behalf of our industry, and to our guests and guests of restaurants all around the world, if you wish to help, rather than cancel you could perhaps postpone your reservations to a later date or even buy a gift card to support your favourite restaurant.”

Now, Redzepi is following in the footsteps of many other fine dining chefs, pivoting to a different format to carry his restaurant through to when he can reopen the dining room and resume some semblance of the restaurant’s prior life. He’s using a few strategies we’ve seen working so far: leaning into outdoor dining, which should be safer; and providing a cheaper, more comforting grab-and-go style menu. The Noma cheeseburger will be $15, and there will also be a veggie burger. As of yet, the restaurant hasn’t released how, exactly, it will manage crowds — presumably there are a lot of people who will be eager for the chance to try Redzepi & Co.’s latest creation and enjoy the Noma grounds.

But American chefs and operators looking to learn from what Noma’s doing should note that the situation in Denmark is profoundly different from ours here. Namely, Denmark has mounted a seemingly thorough and competent response to the pandemic and its economic side effects. Among the highlights:

• Denmark’s government covers 75 percent of payroll for businesses impacted by the pandemic, taking that burden off of restaurant owners and preventing mass layoffs without the labyrinthine and ultimately ineffective PPP stipulations.
• Denmark has free healthcare, meaning that restaurant workers have had access to the care they need in the pandemic regardless of the operational status of their restaurant. It’s also a cost burden not carried by restaurant owners in Denmark (though Noma has offered supplemental private health care as a perk).
• Denmark’s chief epidemiologist says the chance of a “second wave” is low, and the country has a robust testing and contact tracing plan.
• Denmark has reported no coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours.

Instead, American chefs and owners are contemplating reopening without government guidance, in states where the rate of infection is still climbing, and where PPP loans aren’t fully forgivable unless full staff levels are rehired by June 30 even though reduced capacity measures suggest continuing to pay those staff members past the 30th will prove challenging. Few big city restaurants have access to the outdoors in the same way Redzepi does either, though street closures could provide a way.

Even though Americans are stuck in mandated shelter-in-place states or else states that are reopening into a still-active pandemic, Noma’s outdoor burger-and-wine bar does feel like hope. Who among us wouldn’t rather be at a picnic table in Noma’s beautiful garden, drinking wine and eating a burger? I certainly would be.