APOTEK 57
The intersection between food and design
Chiara Barla is business partner and chef at Apotek 57, a bakery and café located in a pharmacy dating back to the 19th century. In the span of less than three years, her project has taken off from being a solo venture to a team of 10 people. The recipe for success? A willingness to reevaluate the concept, and an emphasis on visuals and aesthetics.
It might be just a few blocks from Amalienborg Palace, one of the city’s main tourist spots, but Apotek 57 still feels hidden. It’s tucked away in a quiet, mainly residential corner of central Copenhagen, across from the historic yellow Nyboder row houses. Here, owner and founder Chiara Barla serves up delicious pastry and seasonal savory dishes from a tiny kitchen that’s almost a part of the guest area.
It’s located in a 19th century pharmacy and is directly connected to FRAMA, a well-established design store and studio.
As far as businesses go, Apotek 57 has followed an unusual path: Where most entrepreneurs usually build everything from scratch, Chiara Barla built Apotek 57 on top of another business. The idea came around the end of the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, when she was working at Mirabelle.
“It may sound like an unusual time to think about starting your own business, but I had this idea to build something flexible and light in terms of staff and production. From then I went out knocking on doors of different places to hear if they were interested in partnering up,” she says.
She had come across FRAMA a few years earlier at a pop-up event and had an instant connection with the owner. He had a clear vision of creating an eatery as part of the shop, so it was a case of “right place, right time” when they reconnected.
“Even if it’s part of Frama, it needs its own identity, and it should feel connected to the legacy of the building.”
Integral to the concept is Chiara Barla’s flair for aesthetically pleasing visuals. She sees a clear connection between the design aspect, the food, and the overall concept. She has a background as digital marketing manager at Sephora and runs Apotek 57’s Instagram, taking part of the photos herself and collaborating with the team at FRAMA on editorial planning.
Apotek 57 is also a kind of “living showroom” for FRAMA’s tableware, furniture, and other designs, as the items are put into practical use right next to the shop.
A living showroom
Three years later, Apotek 57 has gone from a one-man band to a team of 10 people. From the onset, Chiara Barla had a clear vision for the place and decided early on to create an identity that stood out on its own.
“It started in my head as ‘Frama Café’, but it didn’t feel right, and I feared it would become too generic and too much like many of the museum cafés and shop cafés. Even if it’s part of Frama, it needs its own identity, and it should feel connected to the legacy of the building. So I settled on Apotek 57,” she explains.
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Apotek 57 sits neatly in the intersection of two of Copenhagen’s strongest points: gastronomy and design. With its unique connection to Frama Design Studio, Apotek 57 is more than just a café – it’s a living, breathing showroom of quality design and aesthetic details. We’re also intrigued by Chiara Barla’s approach to entrepreneurship, where collaboration with others takes precedent over building everything on your own from the bottom-up.
Rethinking the concept
FRAMA is well-known internationally for its selection of furniture and design objects. Therefore, it usually draws in a fair number of foreign customers who are likely to become walk-ins to the café. Since Apotek 57 was established in the middle of the pandemic, however, those visitors were all but gone, forcing Chiara Barla to think on her feet.
When the second lockdown came towards the end of 2020, she shut down temporarily to reevaluate the concept.
“At this time, I decided to go from ‘eatery’ to ‘bakery’. That meant insourcing the whole baking production and earning enough money to buy a new mixer to support it long-term,” she says. “Right around this time the infamous “fastelavnsbolle” craze was starting up in Copenhagen, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon, and offered them made-to-order. I sold over 300 of them, all made by hand, and used the profits to buy the mixer, which is the foundation of everything you see today.”
This particular period in time also taught her valuable lessons about changing things on the fly and adapting quickly instead of getting stuck in your lane.
The value of community
Chiara Barla made a career change in her early thirties, which would eventually lead her to Copenhagen.
“Even though I had a successful career, there was just something about working in an office that didn’t resonate with me. I grew up in a small city in Liguria, surrounded by olive trees and citrus fruits, so I always had that connection with nature and with raw produce.”
She decided to quit her job and got an internship at a restaurant in Milan. During her time there, she visited Copenhagen for an extended weekend, which made her decide to move here permanently. Before Apotek 57, she has worked in places such as 108, Andersen & Maillard and more recently Mirabelle.
”One of the things that immediately struck me when I moved to Copenhagen was the community among the chefs and restaurateurs here. Where the scene in Milan is very competitive, people in Copenhagen collaborate and share knowledge much more freely. That was when I knew I had found my place,” she says.
Chiara Barla’s tips
We asked all interviewees for their best advice based on their own experiences in the industry. Here are Chiara Barla’s tips for you, if you’re a restaurateur, chef or entrepreneur within the restaurant business:
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Being able to change things on the go is the main reason that Apotek 57 is where it’s at today. Even if you have a strong concept and idea, you should never get too locked into a certain frame of mind or way of doing things.
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… but remember to think about the best-case scenario.
