The Bar at Restaurant BA53 - Click Here to Read More

It was a sad day when the cocktail bar Morgenstierne in Oslo closed by the end of May. Despite an amazing concept, the restaurant Tranen and its wonderful installment upstairs did not have enough guests during the week. I was there for the last day, witnessing the final shakes of the head bar maestro Sondre Kasin. He served me a kinder egg with my drink. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Note: This restaurant has closed permanently.

The old location of restaurants like Magma and Egon

Before we left, Sondre told me to keep following the Morgenstierne Instagram account. They would ressurect somewhere at Frogner! Drinks would continue to be deluted, eggs would be cracked and shakers would sound against steeel once more! The bar of the new restaurant BA53 is where the old Morgenstierne team shake their tailfeathers today.

If you look closely you can see Maria waiting for me in the window, and Sondre waving from the bar

This spectacular sculpture in the hallway...! — This spectacular sculpture in the hallway…!

I joined Maria which is community manager of Yelp in Oslo for some drinks and snacks in the bar are. We tried to book the restaurant, but it was full. The place has been quite popoluar since the opening. I will get a table some other day, though, to check it out. We also tried to book the bar, but were told that they took no reservations there. If we dropped by early it should be fine – and so we did.

Sondre Kasin, aka Mr. Dressmann, back in action

The bar menu was a short list of seven snacks and five main courses. Not the most exciting menu I have seen, but certainly some tempting dishes in between. The cocktail list featured nine house drinks, with funny and creative names like they used to have at Morgenstierne. We let Sondre choose for us, while we decided on the food.

Russian blini pancakes with sour cream from Røros, Kalix "løyrom" and dill — Russian blini pancakes with sour cream from Røros, Kalix “løyrom” and dill

Great looking, although the blini was a bit dry

After the first snack, we got a grand tour of the premises by restaurant manager Kari Innerå. She left her position at restaurant Cru in Oslo to open this place of her own. BA53 is a huge restaurant! It has a separate bar area and its very own coffee shop in the corner. The entire place is beautifully designed. I can’t wait to try the full menu in the restaurant. Meanwhile, I will head to Frogner and check the coffee bar today.