The Sunday porch: conditori

Copenhagen cafe, OSU on flickr“Outdoor Restaurant,” Copenhagen, ca. 1915, via Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives on flickr. The image is from a collection of lantern slides of the “Visual Instruction Department.”

The accompanying bit of the class lecture observed that “[European] eating places have less of the haste and nervous tension which characterize cafeterias and cafes in American cities. In Copenhagen it is common for tables to be set out under an awning on the broad sidewalk. Here folk can eat leisurely and watch the happenings in the neighborhood.”

In the lettering above the tables, “og Conditori” means “and cake/pastry shop.” There’s another cake shop with nice outdoor seating (in Sweden) here.

I used to mock my father and his chums
for getting up early on Sunday morning
and drinking coffee at a local spot
but now I’m one of those chumps.

Edward Hirsch, from “Early Sunday Morning

2 thoughts on “The Sunday porch: conditori

  1. A friend whose career was in food and restaurants in Madison used to do Conditori on Sunday mornings at a wonderful spot that was destroyed in a famous fire. I’d forgotten all about it until you reminded me.

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