Photography by Mikkel Adsbøl courtesy of Apollo Bar & Kantine.
After the success of Atelier September, Danish chef Frederik Bille Brahe’s Copenhagen café, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, the contemporary art museum of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts called on owner Bille Brahe to bring the vacant cafe space back to life.
So Bille Brahe and Rune Bruun Johansen, a longtime friend and antiques dealer, set out to redesign the interior with statues borrowed from the museum, Danish midcentury furniture, and a color palette inspired by the academy library.
The Kantine is a casual everyday canteen for Royal Danish Academy students and others. On top of the refrigerator is a potted palm and 1970s plaster wall lamps refashioned as tabletop lighting.
The dining space has its original oak parquet floors, but Bille Brahe and Johansen repainted the walls in matte shell and accented the space with a dark gray paint inspired by the academy’s library shelving system.
Seating is made up of vintage Børge Mogensen 6286 Oak Tables and J39 Chairs (repurposed from the academy’s classrooms).
Detail of the hand-branded “A” on the back of each vintage Møgensen chair to represent the Academy of Fine Arts (and Apollo).
Bille Brahe in the canteen; lit by Poul Henningsen Charlottenborg Lamps that were redesigned for the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in 1979.
The Apollo Bar is separate from Apollo Kantine—open morning through dinner—where Bille Brahe and staff serve small plates (Danish sweet buttermilk soup with berries, for example), drinks, and natural wines.
Johansen designed square tables and banquettes in cherrywood that were built by local cabinetmakers.
A series of custom handblown glass lamps were made by a local Danish glassblower.
Bille Brahe and Johansen planned to paint the base of the bar in black, but after coating it with a bright red primer, the unexpected color was “too bold and beautiful to cover with black,” so they left it as-is.
Behind the bar is a pale yellow painted backsplash, glass and steel shelves, and a pair of vintage table lamps.
Another sculpture borrowed from the museum sits atop glass bar shelving.
The barstools are Piet Hein for Fritz Hansen that Johansen upholstered with blue velvet.
Apollo is always evolving.
The courtyard leading into Apollo & Bar and Kantine at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.