Last year I traveled to Sweden to get a taste of the country
my great grandmother emigrated from. Known in family lore for her
delicious recipes from the old country, her cooking was passed down
through two generations, landing routinely on my childhood dinner
table. Thus prepared, I eagerly dined at what I hoped were Stockholm’s
less touristy destinations.
Armed with this quasi-expertise, I was thrilled to check out Broder,
which opened this fall on SE Clinton. The name means “brother” in
Swedish, and the cuisine strikes a nice balance between authentic
Scandinavian fare and Americanized adaptations. Plus, it’s the latest
venture from Peter Bro, who won my heart long ago with the Aalto Lounge
and Broder’s neighbor, Savoy.
Starting out with only brunch, Broder has expanded its menu and
hours to offer dinner, and both are well worth checking out. This place
seems to be growing rapidly popular, however, and the space (tricked
out in the Scandinavian design aesthetic) is on the tiny side, so don’t
act surprised if you have to wait. Another word of caution: If your
brunching style is to roll in late, with a raging hangover and monster
appetite for greasy eggs, skip this line and head to one of the other
trillion brunch destinations that cater precisely to this state of
being.
Breakfast at Broder is a dainty affair, with modest portions and an
emphasis on adorability. A $10 breakfast bord is literally
served on a board, with small, delicious samples of smoked trout, rye
crisps, cheese, yogurt, salami, nutty bread, and fruit. But the
preciousness wears off if you realize you’ve ordered the most expensive
breakfast item on the menu and you’re still hungry. Likewise, the
scrambles, which employ everything from wild mushroom to homemade
ricotta and ham, are tasty, but they won’t fill the emptiness you’ve
created if you’ve consumed nothing but alcohol in the preceding 18
hours.
Lunch items are heartier, and include the flawless Broder Club, a
satisfying stack of gravlax (salmon smoked in-house), bacon,
tomato, avocado, and horseradish on more of Broder’s fabulous bread.
You can also go for the Swedish meatballs, either on their own or in
sandwich form. Curiously, for a restaurant with such a stellar lineup
of bread products, my meatball sandwich arrived on a plain old
sesame-studded hamburger bun.
Broder’s dinner offers you many strategic options: You can order
seafood, mid-course and main dish items à la carte, or in
variations on the smorgasbord. At $28, the three-course smorgasbord is
the way to go, including a seafood item, three mid-courses, and one
main dish. Order the mustard herring if you want to be Swedish about
it, but more pedestrian seafood is readily on hand. The mid-courses
range from a delicious pork liver pâte to a perhaps-too-eggy
cheese tart, dumplings, vegetables, and more. Main dishes are sensible
offerings, like the beef pot roast, or ham with mustard sauce.
Here, Broder’s portions are perfect. You won’t leave hungry, nor
will they have to roll you out, even if you clean your plate. Feel free
to cherry pick indiscriminately from the food selection—nothing
that came to the table approached being bad, though one item in
particular pleasantly caught me off guard: The stuffed cabbage rolls
transported me back to the kitchen table of my youth. A humble peasant
recipe, Broder’s simple cabbage rolls filled a void in my life I’d
nearly forgotten was there.