Bargruppen: A Small-Town Company with a Global Outlook

A bold can-do outlook defines the way the Bergen-based company looks beyond building a local bar scene.

Story and photos by Elyse Glickman

To say Scandinavia is a hotbed innovation in the cocktail world is a grand understatement. The public will point to the way Sweden’s Absolut Vodka brought fun and prestige to a once-humble spirits category through inventive advertising, sponsorships, and on-premise campaigns. Copenhagen, Denmark, has reigned alongside London as one of the world’s craft cocktail capitals. 

But what about Norway? That’s a question business partners Simon Theodor Selvik and Odd Fjeldsgaard Rasmussen contemplated early on in their bartending careers. Selvik, holding court at the recently-opened Lukket Selskap (“Closed Company”), reminds customers that Bergen (Norway’s second largest city) has been a “bar town” for over 1,000 years, thanks in part to the Vikings and Hanseatic League members. As he sees it, the foundations and the talent for Norway’s modern bar culture were in place. The next step was to create a nightlife and cocktail experience that would enable his bartending brethren to put their talents to work—and getting locals excited about a Bergen bar scene in the process.

“Six years ago, most adults were into Vodka Red Bulls and Long Island Iced Teas, rather than classics you would find in New York or London,” Selvik recalls. “We were five guys with a combined 40 years in the industry wanting to make to make at least one great bar in Bergen. To start changing things around, we created No Stress, in the former location Stress, Bergen’s first street clothing shop. It was and still is our baby, as it took about nine months to get it open because of the many strict regulations set up by the Norwegian government. However, we hit the ground running as it was the only place where all cocktails were made from fresh ingredients, and within six months we earned a reputation of being the bar in Bergen.”

Selvik’s theory about locals being thirsty for new experiences proved to be spot-on. This prompted the team to take a pulse of what the public wanted and open up the kinds of bars they felt Bergen was missing to be a great bar town. The success of No Stress was parlayed into a second venue, a whisky bar called The Tasting Room fueled by their collective passion for working with brown spirits. Bargruppen’s rapid growth, however, meant everybody had to pitch in and learn about the intricacies of business administration in real time.

“One of us was doing the accounting a few days a week, while everybody else (did other jobs in shifts) the rest of the week, from tending to working the door to promotion,” Selvik details. “We hired more part time staff, but our ideas and concepts kept getting bigger and bigger, and we had to sell the Tasting Room so we could open our third project, dance-focused nightclub Vaskeriet. However, our real objective evolved into opening up a lot of new concepts Bergen missed but needed.”

The enterprise expanded to encompass Vinyl (music-inspired brown spirits cocktails accompanied by old school vinyl records), Parken (a seasonal venue with impressive graffiti murals), Tiki bar Dark & Stormy (“It’s every bartender’s dream, as we get to use ovenproof rum, and intense flavors,” says Selvik), Duns Sportsbar (a decidedly kitsch-free approach to the genre), and Magda (a bar/club with a fizzy gin-and-tonic menu, pizza and a lot of wine). However, prior to the opening of Lukket Selskap, their most ambitious endeavor was to open a second No Stress in Copenhagen…no small feat given that city’s reputation in the cocktail universe.

“We wanted to prove we could become successful in one of the world’s most competitive markets,” says Selvik. “It was risky and we knew it going into it that we may fail. On the other hand, if we took off in Copenhagen—super international and known for its great restaurants and bars—we would know we could open anywhere and be successful. Down the road, my dream is to have places in Barcelona, Rome, and elsewhere.”

For now, Selvik and Rasmussen are putting much of their attention into Lukket Selskap (“Closed Company”), which Selvik refers to as a speakeasy, though the he and the bartenders have played a bit with the format.

“To me, a speakeasy is where you do classics—and classics are basically booze mixed with booze and maybe a few other things you happen to have at hand,” he explains. “We (carry) spirits made from Norwegian botanicals, as well as a cocktail bar upstairs with two karaoke rooms inspired by our trip to Tokyo accommodating about ten people and a menu of strong liquor cocktails.”

In Good “Company”

Selvik’s and Rasmussen’s vision of a speakeasy is a balanced hybrid of neighborhood pub and showcase for some innovative bartending that plays fast and loose with the foundations of classic cocktails, adding in some interesting food culture and warm hospitality to boot. Every guest entering the bar is presented with a complimentary non-alcoholic “refresher”—a cold palate cleanser made with black tea, ginger, and a house-blended apple shrub.

“The first page of our menu covers our nine signature cocktails, that are liquor, liquor and more liquor mixed with some tinctures, sugar syrups and bitters, served with a small plate of food prepared with ingredients that are harmonious with whatever is in the drink,” says Selvik with a wry grin. “The Son Gin Son is an Old Fashioned made with Irish whiskey, but instead of using cardamom in the waffles we put them in the drink and we put the bitters into the waffle recipe. This gives the guest a full experience of the flavors. It is highly dynamic food pairings that bring together the ingredients of food and drink into a cohesive whole. It is the way we are getting Norwegians into spirits-heavy cocktails.”

Other signatures include the Fru Catherina, an aquavit based drink with traditional Norwegian crisp-bread and brown goat cheese—which like aquavit, is traditionally Norwegian. The Rey Jimador, a Mezcal cocktail served with tortilla chips and house-made salsa, is made more “Norwegian” with the addition of local honey and rosemary. Customers simply searching for an interesting cocktail on its own, meanwhile, will find some imaginative options on the menu’s second page.

“The second page focuses on ‘long drinks,’ easygoing cocktails most Norwegians have been into for a while,” continues Selvik. “We keep the selection small, at no more than 11 cocktails, because we have a rule that everything we use for one cocktail will never get thrown away or wasted. When we make lemon juice for our cocktails, we will take the peels aside and make limoncello. When we squeeze lime juice for some cocktails, we will use the remnants to make a lime cordial for other cocktails. Having too many ingredients is an expensive proposition in Norway so therefore we reuse and repurpose as often as we can.”

Selvik points to a recent lecture at a local university where a Dutch academic discussed Bergen as a one-time center for drunkenness and debauchery. He acknowledges that as a centuries-old port city for centuries, it was almost impossible to not run into people to drink. However, he stresses that as times and tastes change, the scene—with their influence and that of other bar owners and the customers—is becoming more refined. 

“Because of the constant flow of tourism, it makes sense that we have more bars per capita in the country,” he concludes. “As people visit us from all over the world, we have to be creative and come up with interesting bar concepts. What’s pushing things forward now is that all of the cocktails and beers offered are high quality.”

For more information, visit Bargruppen.no and Lukketselskap.no.

Lukket Selskap Recipes:

Photo: Lukket Selskap