Berns Salonger

Berns Salonger sits on Berzelii Park in central Stockholm's Norrmalm, in a building that has held the same purpose since 1863. The pastry chef Heinrich Robert Berns put it up as a grand café and concert hall, and the architect Johan Fredrik Åbom gave it the gilded main hall that still does the heavy lifting today. Visit Stockholm calls it a well-preserved 1860s entertainment temple, and the phrase fits: this is one address where a cocktail bar, a restaurant, a stage, a hotel, and several nightclubs sit under one roof.

The draw is the building as much as the drink. Anyone who wants a small, intimate neighbourhood bar will find Berns too grand and too busy. Anyone who wants to drink inside a piece of Stockholm history, with the option of dinner and a club night attached, is in the right room. For a quieter sit-down, our guide to Stockholm cocktail bars has tighter rooms.

The centrepiece is the high, chandelier-hung main salon, built 1862 to 1863 and extended in 1886. Off it sits the Röda Rummet, the Red Room that gave August Strindberg's novel its title. In its heyday the stage drew Josephine Baker, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, and Louis Armstrong, and the venue still trades on that scale rather than hiding it.

The building opened on August 1, 1863, with an inaugural performance from a 30-piece orchestra, and the architect Johan Fredrik Åbom's design has been kept well preserved through every era since. It is worth arriving with time to look up before you order, because the room is the headline act and the drink is the support.

Berns runs on what is programmed. Early evening pulls a dinner and pre-show crowd into the restaurant and main hall. Later, the nightclubs take over and the energy shifts toward a going-out crowd rather than a quiet-drink one. Because it bundles bar, stage, and club in one address, the room you want depends entirely on the night, so check what is on before you go.

Carry on with cocktails at Tjoget in Stockholm, step into the apothecary setting of Pharmarium in Stockholm, or book the tweed-clad room at Tweed Cocktail Bar in Stockholm. The full picture is in our guide to Stockholm cocktail bars and the wider Stockholm bar guide.