A hotel bar in Trondheim is proving that even in a lesser-known city, cocktail culture can thrive and achieve recognition when it’s well executed. Oli Dodd reports
Øyvind Lindgjerdet’s bartending journey feels like one from a previous era. Modern bartending demands the collection of international talent in its hub, but Lindgjerdet has never given in to that temptation. A native Trondheimer, he instead has chosen to build something to rival anything you might find in one of cocktail culture’s major hubs in the remote city where he was born. Now, with Britannia Bar, in Trondheim’s historic Britannia Hotel, Lindgjerdet is beginning to put his city on the map.
“I didn’t move to London or Singapore; I stayed in Trondheim and made my name over many years of being a bar manager,” he tells Drinks International. “I am such a stereotypical Trondheimer. I have the broadest Trondheim dialect, and I know so many people here that I grew up with. Trondheim is me. It’s my culture, and it’s my heritage. All my family are from rural areas around Trondheim; my parents grew up in Trondheim itself, so did I and my siblings. I’m proud to share this place.”
Unsurprisingly, building a reputation in a smaller Norwegian city that receives only four-and-a-half hours of sunlight in the depths of winter isn’t exactly a fast track to the top.
“I’m 36, it’s 20 years since I was in culinary school, and I’ve been doing this ever since,” says Lindgjerdet.
“Over time, with consistency, you get noticed. I was never a competition bartender; I didn’t try out for Bacardi Legacy or World Class. My success is relatively recent. I didn’t start to make a name for myself until I was in my thirties. So this journey might have taken a little longer, but I think that it also gives some authenticity to the relationship we have with this city.”
The persistence is beginning to pay off – first nationally and now Trondheim is being introduced to a wider stage. Lindgjerdet and Britannia Bar have become consistent winners at the Bartenders’ Choice Awards, which celebrate Nordic cocktail culture.
Since 2025, he’s been named Norway’s Best Bartender while the bar has collected the People’s Choice Award, Best Bar in Norway and twice picked up the award for the country’s Best Cocktail Menu.
“We’ve had some success, but these trophies get dusty over time. Even if we win something every year, it’s great that we are staying relevant, but we still have a lot of work to do. We are realistic. It’s a small city in central Norway, so there’s a ceiling to what we can do, but we’re not finished; we want to see how far we can take it. The acclaim has been nice, but we have to be our own critics. I refuse to do something that isn’t better than the last thing I did.”
At the core of both Lindgjerdet and his bar’s ethos is a desire to represent Trondheim and the Trøndelag region it belongs to.
“I believe in storytelling and representing your culture,” he says. “I guess it would be really cool to come to the Britannia Bar and we’re making the world’s best Piña Colada, but that’s not who we are.”
Aquavit connection
The menu instead features aquavit, and lots of it. The bar has Norway’s largest collection of rare and fine aquavits, which may give it a claim to the largest collection of rare aquavits in the world.
“The aquavit story began here. The word aquavit was first documented in Trøndelag in 1531. Linie Aquavit was invented here in Trondheim 200 years ago. It’s our cultural heritage, so of course that’s central to a lot of what we do. It’s interesting to mix worlds, take some influence from Japan or France or wherever, but there always needs to be local produce and regional storytelling. We always have a bit of Trondheim in our cocktails.”
And those cocktails themselves are a showcase of the region’s pantry. Pine needles, rowanberry and seaweed are married with distillates of angelica, sea buckthorn and local plum.
“Norwegian people have always had to be creative; we’re not a tomato country, we don’t have an abundance of exotic produce. The winters are long and hard, and we’ve spent a lot of time during wartime, when exports wouldn’t be coming in. We’re a people that have had to find out what different seaweed and algae taste like. Pickling and preserving ingredients from our local forests and shoreline is a huge part of our history. It’s fun to bring those humble techniques into something modern and refined.”
Lindgjerdet’s career is a love letter to his city. Trondheim will never rival the volume of visitors of Oslo, Copenhagen or Stockholm, but one of its sons has created a bar that can rival anything in those destinations.
“It’s a mutual love and respect,” he says. “I love this city, and the city seems to love what we’re doing here. When we travel to do guest shifts, we talk about our local farmers and producers and showcase their products; we’re proud to show off our region. I want people from outside of the Nordics to know Norway for more than only Oslo.
“When I was younger, I was a bit embarrassed about my dialect. We are kind of like the hillbillies of Norway. But now I’m so proud. What we have here is so special; there’s not a lot of us, and that’s the beauty of it. I love this place, and I want to represent that.”
