At Copenhagen's New Epicurus, Fine Dining Meets Subterranean Jazz

Forbes

12-06-2025

A rendering of the jazz club
It wasn't the legendary jazz clubs of New York, Chicago or New Orleans that inspired Epicurus—an audacious new fine dining and subterranean jazz club hybrid in Copenhagen—so much as those in Tokyo. The Japanese version, says Niels Lan Doky, a partner in the Danish venture, combines the improvisational music with a rigorous attention to aesthetic detail.
Doky knows what he's talking about. He's one of the most esteemed jazz pianists of his generation, having performed on stages from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall and collaborated with legends such as Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker. He's also proudly knowledgeable about the deep history of jazz in Copenhagen, especially in the 1950s and '60s. That's when American legends like Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz and Dexter Gorden decamped to Denmark and give the capital one of the most flourishing jazz scenes in the world.
Doky, who was knighted by HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark for his musical contributions, is the musical director of Epicurus, which opened in April. He often takes the stage himself, and he plans to continue doing so, behind the brand-new, state-of-the-art Bösendorfer 230 Vienna Concert piano that he picked out himself from the instrument maker's factory in Austria. But it's never about him. Nor is it only about any other artist who takes the stage.
Niels Lan Doky at the piano
As musical director, Doky likens his approach to that of a director of a classical or opera venue, who would devote a season or cycle to Bach, say, or Verdi or Wagner. The performers are world-class, but the repertoire is what Epicurus is selling. The residencies last a few weeks, long enough for word of mouth to spread. Last month, Camille Sledge paid delightful tribute to Aretha Franklin. Word spread—she had a room full of otherwise restrained Danes dancing in the aisles by the end of at least one evening.
Or as Doky puts it, 'Everything I've ever done in my career as a musician has always been to try to bridge the gap between, what shall we call it, deep artistic substance and accessibility—a broad appeal.'
The other things that Epicurus is selling are equally substantive and appealing. The subterranean concert hall has superb sound and aesthetics—the work of the Italian-Danish duo GramFratesi, who drew inspiration from Epicurean philosophy, ancient Greece and the history of artistic expression through the ages—and it's arranged with great precision and attention to detail. The spacing between the café tables is just so, the plush chairs are comfortable, and the lighting is perfect.
The jazz club before a performance
The drinks are likewise well thought out. The price of admission buys seats for the concert and a flight of drinks—sparkling wine followed by a choice of wines, cocktails or non-alcoholic concoctions. The bar is curated by Epicurus partner Rasmus Shepherd-Longberg, one of Denmark's foremost cocktail entrepreneurs (owner of Ruby, which has been among the World's 50 Best Bars six times), and Michael Hajiyianni, the former head bartender of the famously creative restaurant Alchemist.
An original painting by Miles Davis—the only one on display on Danish soil—hangs at the entrance to the combined Epicurus space, a welcome beacon for downstairs concertgoers, upstairs diners and the fullest 'Epicureans,' who buy the combined tickets for the culinary pleasures followed by the musical ones below. During his comeback in 1981, Davis gave the painting to Bill Evans, who has now loaned it to his longtime collaborator Doky as a gesture of friendship and faith in the Epicurus vision.
He has reason for that faith: Epicurus's other partners are Lars Seier Christensen, the Danish entrepreneur and investor behind the country's first Michelin three-star restaurant, Geranium (as well as the two-star Alchemist), and Mads Bøttger, the owner of Dragsholm Castle and its one-star restaurant. They clearly know how to nurture fine dining talent, and they know how to stand out in a city that's awash in creative dining.
Scallops with kale, watermelon radishes and caviar
And here they know how to make the meal one pillar of a harmonious, well-balanced evening out. While it's a truism that elite gastronomy has become its become its own kind of theater, with dinners running to 30 elaborate courses and stretching five or six hours, the restaurant portion of Epicurus isn't that.
The menu, which was devised by head chef Oliver Bergholt, a veteran of other popular projects around town, is a compact six courses. It can be completed in less than two hours. (There's also an à la carte menu for guests who only want to dine.) There's minimal theatricality, but plenty of quality and pleasure. There are also some parallels with jazz music, like collaboration, harmonization and improvisation around seasonal ingredients.
The dishes change, of course, but they include the likes of smoked salmon trout wrapped in shiso leaves; lightly seared scallops with curly kale, watermelon radishes and a dollop of caviar; grilled venison with parsnips and green asparagus; and a summer salad with whitefish roe and 'grandma dressing.'
Servers explain this last ingredient to their foreign guests: It's a classic comfort food that nearly everyone in Copenhagen seems to have grown up with, a mixture of lemon, sugar, vinegar, cream and dill. It's humble but high quality, and here it's a reminder. Even with all its Japanese, American and otherwise global influences, Epicurus retains a distinctively Scandinavian soul.