Gothenburg Files: Meeting legends at Kometen

“I remember Kiki,” Ingalill leaned in to tell me in Swedish, her blue eyes glimmering in the warmly lit dining room. She leaned over to my own table where I was sharing delicious flaky panko-crusted cod with Anica from Goteborg.com. “Kiki used to be in the circus,” she went on. “He was this short,” she demonstrated with hands older than her spirit, held about table level. “I remember he used to work at the coat check back then.”

Back then when she was around 17 years old. She was celebrating her 86th birthday next to our table. She pointed to the coat rack in the distance. She didn’t have to tell me that she loved this place. I could read it all over her demeanor. That timelessness that Kometen (“The Comet”) has which always invokes nostalgia.

Over 75 years old with original chandeliers and paintings from decades past, it seems referring to this old-fashioned restaurant as an institution isn’t enough. For locals who’ve dined here for decades, Kometen feels like going over to grandma’s on a lazy Sunday for pot roast. Only in this case, it’s cod, halibut, flounder, and all manner of seafood.

Celebrities – Bruce Springsteen, Bono, similar – shed their personas once they come through its doors to dine on soul food, Swedish style. Now owned and run by legendary chef Leif Mannerström along with brothers Chris & Ulf Johansson, the restaurant has stayed true to its roots. I sensed a bit of Ingalill’s nostalgia in my dining partner Anica. A child of Gothenburg herself, she’d been visiting Kometen since her teenage years as well.

Ingalill went on to share more stories as her friend, grinning with her chin resting on her knuckles, nodded along in support. This was clearly a place they felt at home. Her stories made my meal tastier. Once they got up to leave, her friend divulged her mini birthday celebration. Far from having a “been there, done that” attitude, Kometen kept exciting Ingalill over and over again.

She reinforced something I always knew but often forget. About taking in the familiar with new eyes all over again. Finding something worth celebrating in the everyday mundane.

After my meal, I walked around the restaurant taking in its aged wooden furniture; it’s old school feel.  I rounded the corner towards the bar and there was the legend himself, Leif, casually reading a newspaper.

Full disclosure – I’m currently in Gothenburg updating a guidebook and my lunch was covered by Goteborg.com. I’m grateful they chose Kometen, otherwise I never would have met Ingalill who organically gave me more insight into Kometen than any I could glean myself.