Sitting on the top of Copenhagen. Drinking a cup of coffee to the
stunning view across the rooftops of our humble little city, I am spending my
afternoon doing my homework for Monday's school day. “Illum’s café” on 4th floor is
where I’m at.
“An evocative café experience worth
exploring” a persuading
sign outside of Illum read, which enticed me upstairs towards something new,
instead of going the good old second rate cafés as usual. From the reviews and
other recommendations I have received on this café, I finally decide to try it
out. So here I am, packed with positive expectations, waiting to get blown away
by this evocativeness. But evocative wasn’t exactly the first word entering my
mind, when stepping inside the room of Illum’s highly reputed rooftop
café.
A clinical, overly-modernized decor with an intense red colour dominating
the view of the room interferes with my brain and catches all my attention. The
room reminds me of an art gallery, where you aren’t aloud to touch anything,
and barely dare to breathe. The waiter escorts me to a little table by the
window and creates a formal atmosphere by his following “What can I help you
with, madam?” and “yes you may certainly have a double latte, madam”. His face
is expressionless. His questioning feels impersonal. It all just seems like a
part of an over-practiced routine, his boss told him to do.
15 minutes past my ordering, the coffee is served. A tiny cup is placed
in front of me, containing of what looks like 5 sips of coffee, for which I
paid 60 kr. for. I sip the coffee and this is where the strong feeling of
disappointment really takes off. The hideous decor, the robot waiter, and the
waiting time, I can deal with. But when my 60 kr. coffee is served tepid and
mild, when ordered hot and strong, that’s where the shit hits the fan. Even
though I’m a fairly open-minded person, one shouldn’t be messing with the
quality of my coffee. That is a very sensitive spot of mine. A cup of coffee
that expensive should be bringing a café experience of exquisite excellence,
with sublime service and a coffee so well tasting that it deserves a space in
my diary. With coffee that expensive, I certainly expect an “evocative café experience worth exploring”.
And yet I still sit here, receiving
the quite opposite. Fuck this.
