Foynhagen Restaurant (Tønsberg, Norway)
Holy ground. That's the best way to put it, this place on the Tønsberg harbour in the south of the Oslofjord. Norwegians love to come here for a wide range of reasons. For a long time they were eagerly looking forward to the reopening of the restaurant - with its terrace on the Tønsberg pier - that temporarily closed in December 2019 for the renovation of the interior. Foyn was transformed into a warm and contemporary restaurant in the first months of last year, with wood-clad walls inside and out, with the concept displaying a leading role for ochre, copper-gold and warm brown: tints of the sun that baths the harbour all the year round.
The Norwegians like to soak up the sun, and even more greedily last season when their beloved Foyn didn't reopen as planned on 28 March, but weeks later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Happily, much was possible under the Norwegian one-metre-distance rule, and certainly on Foyn's spacious terrace on the harbour with its colourful 18th-century wooden merchant houses. From breakfast, lunch to dinner with shared bites and then the daily conversion to bar plus nightclub with concerts in the Foyn's historic garden: Norwegians enjoyed their pleasure garden on the harbour all summer long.
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It's not just any place. Foyn is named after the whaler Svend who bore the same surname. From the age of eleven, Svend Foyn (1809-1894) sailed to the north, hunting seals and walruses. He had his first ship at the age of 24 and made his name with the grenade harpoon, an effective weapon for catching whales. His discovery was disastrous for whale stocks, but a blessing for the prosperity of Tønsberg. Foyn made himself extra popular by sharing his wealth with seafarers and their families, unusual in those times. He built good houses for them at the harbour, as well as a chapel, library, and even the very first day-care centre in Norway. The name of old man Svend is still heard over the clink of glasses in Foyn's garden. And, fully in the spirit of the modern seafarer, here on the harbour you eat a mix of trusty fresh fish with hip and exotic additions such as kimchi, sashimi and tacos. Sk˚al to good ol' Svend!
