Lifelong Stockholmers and best friends Andreas Bergman and Joel Soderback are the former bartenders turned superstar owners of Tjoget, a eating-and-drinking emporium in Stockholm’s trendy Södermalm. Tjoget is one of only two bars in Sweden currently on the World’s Best Bars list.
This interview is part of The World Made Local, a global collaboration between the seven international editions of Condé Nast Traveler in which 100 people in 100 countries tell us why their home turf should be your next destination.
Tell us about your connection to Stockholm.
We are from Stockholm. We really feel a close connection to the city and especially the neighborhood of Södermalm, where we have lived almost all our lives. It is also where two of our three restaurants are located. It is definitely a metropolitan area, but you can reach nature easily by car, bus, subway, tram, or boat.
Where should we go for a less-touristed Stockholm?
Go to Solna, our neighbor town, and walk around Gamla Råsunda to get a feeling for how Stockholm used to be. Walk back to Stockholm through Hagaparken. There is a beautiful park with a butterfly house, botanical garden, the Haga Castle, and a Chinese pavilion. Tourists go to Stockholm Archaeologies, but so do we! Check out Artipelag.
Leave town for Gustavsberg and eat great pizza and drink natural wine at Il Porto Dal Storko. It's only 25 minutes by bus from town and a beautiful area. Bring swimwear, and don’t miss the Gustavsberg porcelain outlet.
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Find an outdoor rave in the woods around town—just ask anyone that looks cool at Paradiso or a bar in Södermalm, and they will help you. Shoot pool at our local pool hall Biljarden on Hornsgatan in Södermalm, and be nice to the locals. Have a shitty beer at Loch Ness, a dive bar in Södermalm. Get some sun at Skogskyrkogården, a cemetery 10 minutes south of the city. There is some good Swedish architecture out there, too.
Go to Hellasgården for a swim and walk in nature. We go here in the wintertime, too, for a sauna and a dip in the ice-cold water.
Where to go to relax?
Södermalm is the southern island of Stockholm. There you can go to Mariaberget or Skinnarviksberget to chill, enjoy an epic view over town, and bring some food to enjoy in the park. A good spot to bring food from is Abowl, a Middle Eastern restaurant with the best takeaway in town. Långholmen, in Hornstull, used to be a prison island, but nowadays it’s just a great place to chill, swim, eat ice cream, and relax. Vitabergsparken is a great park in the eastern part of Södermalm. Lots of fun stuff to do in that area, too.
You are barmen. Where are we drinking?
For wine, do Savant Bar, Cave Nizza, Hornstulls Bodega, and the natural-wine bar at Reimersholme Hotel. For beer: Tjoget, Omnipollos Hatt, Stigbergets Fot, Bar Central, and Liebling. If you're after something more atmospheric, Riche, Sturehof, and Strandvägen 1 are all in the inner city. And don’t forget Tjorget!
And when we finally need to eat dinner?
We are big into Thai and Vietnamese. Visit Thongwiset for the best Thai food in Stockholm, and for authentic Vietnamese do Viet Kitchen in Söderhallarna, a small indoor marketplace. The marketplace isn’t the best but Viet Kitchen makes it worthwhile.
We really love Symbios on Skånegatan. Some old friends of ours from the industry teamed up with some young chef and opened a Swedish French bistro. They serve the only tacos to eat in Sweden in their basement, plus Mexican beer and tequila to wash it all down.
Follow Andreas Bergman on Instagram @dongiannibergmani; and Joel Soderback @joelsoderback
