Aamanns-Copenhagen, TriBeCa, NY

Design: If you have a taste for minimalist and/or mid-century modern aesthetics, then you'll likely say "Aaahh" when you enter Aamanns-Copenhagen. The bleached-wood space is white, bright, and airy, outfitted soup to nuts in all things Danish (Arne Jacobsen chairs, Bodum salt & pepper shakers, Anne Black ceramicware). One noteworthy element, however, hails from Japan. A slender black object stands inside the bottle of tap water on the table. We thought it was liquorice (since that's one of the words emblazoned on the exterior), but it's actually Japanese coal that's been boiled to remove its soot, then placed in the water to purify. The bottle even has a coordinating black cap. Low fuss; high impact. 

The exterior.

Tap water with a purifying coal stick.

Arne Jacobsen chair.

The restaurant on a Sunday around lunchtime.

Dish: The main food concept here is updated versions of traditional smørrebrød, open-faced sandwiches on homemade rye bread. They're pretty small (thus the $8-11 price range), but they're really good. I had the green chicken salad with yogurt & crispy parsnip. You're encouraged to get 3 dishes each, whether smørrebrød or a seasonal special; we had 3 between the 2 of us and we were almost totally full. Our other 2 dishes were fiskefrikadeller—(half the fun is trying to pronounce them)—pan-fried fish cakes served with a tasty remoulade and pickled cucumber, and the cheese plate. All of it was super yummy, which was lucky because the service was really disorganized. The 12 or so tables were full, but there were 3 servers—the problem was that they were playing man-to-man defense when they should've been playing zones. The place is relatively new, so hopefully they can iron out the service kinks in time. In addition to the tables, there's a nice long marble bar that has it's own dedicated server. That might be the place to sit. Overall, Aamanns is a great addition to the neighborhood (my neighborhood), especially being next door to TriBeCa cinemas. I'll definitely be back. 

Green chicken salad smørrebrød.

Fiskefrikadeller.

Cheese plate.