MANGIA

When the vibe is everything: A look inside the “ambience restaurant” and what it means

When it comes to running restaurants, Philip Skovgaard is uncompromising about two things: Staying true to the Italian kitchen, and the pursuit of the so-called “ambience restaurant”, where food, wine, staff, guests, décor, and overall vibe become something more than their individual parts.

It’s an approach he has taken to its logical conclusion at Vesterbro’s Mangia, one of four restaurants he runs with his wife Lea Parkins: It’s a restaurant modeled on the Italian rural kitchen, where tradition, uncomplicated food and making people feel welcome are the key virtues. 

Mangia, as well as Philip Skovgaard’s other places, are founded on what he calls “the dream of the restaurant”. While it may sound overly romantic or cliche to some, it becomes clear that he really means it: 

“I truly believe the fact that restaurants can even exist as a viable form of business in our society is remarkable. It’s a privilege, and it’s something I think a lot about,” he says, pointing to his background studying philosophy as a likely reason for that.

“I am a restaurateur. That means I’m pursuing “the dream of the restaurant”, and not “the perfect plate”. What’s on the plate is important, but for me, it’s about the sum of all the different parts: the people, the décor, the lighting, the room itself.” 

“The fact that restaurants can even exist as a viable form of business in our society is remarkable”

Understatement as a virtue

Despite his philosophizing, he has not overcomplicated matters at Mangia. Here, they have dispensed with fluff, such as superfluous garnish on dishes. Instead, the focus is on precision, taste, and unflinching loyalty towards the Italian kitchen. 

The décor, handled by Skovgaard’s wife Lea Parkins, is strikingly minimal: In true Italian fashion, there are no paintings or artwork on the walls, the only decoration being a simple white and dark blue color block throughout the restaurant. 

  • Places like Mangia are part of the reason why Copenhagen’s restaurant scene is far more than “just” Nordic. It’s increasingly becoming a great city to dine out across many different kitchens and cooking traditions, and it’s becoming easier to tell that story convincingly.

    We love Mangia for their respect, curiosity, and passion towards the Italian kitchen. We think they do a great job of telling this story both off- and online, by showcasing the uncomplicated aesthetic of their food, and by emphasizing old-school virtues.

The underlying rationale, according to Philip Skovgaard, is to set a very simple frame where guests create the ambience themselves in unison with the staff, without being subject to a grand vision or concept.

The waiters are not there to be the star of the evening, but in many cases have years if not decades of experience working the floor. They will easily remember faces, spot returning visitors, and tailor their approach to a specific table or group. 

“It’s also why you’ll find fewer of the somewhat stereotypical tattooed young guys here than many other places,” Philip Skovgaard explains. “Although we do take in our share of young people as well to support new talent entering the industry. But some of the people on the floor are my age, which is quite unusual, and quite wonderful honestly.” 

These are most likely among the reasons why Mangia often pops up when other chefs are asked to name their favorite restaurants in Copenhagen. To gather inspiration, Philip Skovgaard spends a great deal of his spare time visiting other restaurants, mainly to observe:

“Though I love food, I am far more interested in the atmosphere, the interactions and little spontaneities that happen over the course of an evening in a restaurant,” he says. 

His love of food does shine through, however: Midway through the interview, he receives a sample of Galician beef, and inspects it with the same zeal as a jeweler would inspect a nugget of gold.

“It has to be insanely Italian”

Philip Skovgaard has had a life-long love affair with Italian food. He spent part of his childhood in Tuscany, speaks Italian, and has since taken his passion to Copenhagen. 

“It’s my mantra that the food on the plate has to be insanely Italian: It should be cooked and taste like it does in Italy, only slightly more precise and aesthetic. ‘Molto creativo’ is probably the worst thing an Italian can say about a traditional dish from his homeland if he doesn’t just trash it completely. We stick to the classics for that reason.”

“‘Molto creativo’ is probably the worst thing an Italian can say about a traditional dish from his homeland”

He insists that not just knowing Italian food, but knowing and speaking the language as well, is a prerequisite for doing what he does. 

“For me, it would be very difficult to run an authentic, traditional Italian restaurant without knowing the language and culture,” he says. “Not only would the mood and vibe be different, but the taste as well.” 

He works extensively with Italian staff and suppliers, and recruits many of his chefs directly from Italy – often because it’s easier than finding them here in Copenhagen. In Italy, he has contact persons and connections to various culinary institutes, and he also keeps company profiles up-to-date on various platforms.

Deliberately old-fashioned

Philip Skovgaard has come to terms with his restaurants being traditional – or deliberately old-fashioned, as he says. Even if it can sometimes be tricky to find the right people.

“Most young Italian cooks fresh out of school mainly associate Copenhagen with Noma,” he says.

“They want to go here to ferment, emulsify, and get weird. In many ways, we’re the antithesis to that. We stay in our lane, practice, and we get really, really good at the classics. So, we try to recruit people who may already have some years of experience, and who are looking for better working conditions such as three days-off a week, better pay, no yelling.”

He also insists on what he calls “the old virtues”: Handmade pasta, white tablecloths, and avoiding trend-chasing – even the trends he and his team helped create. For instance, they’ve stopped serving Aperol, even though his first restaurant, Bevi Bevi, outsold everyone but the major Danish supermarket chains when the Aperol Spritz wave hit Denmark in the summer of 2015.

“It might mean we miss out on earning some money, or even a lot of money,” he concedes. “But it was a conscious decision to move on from it, as it had become a scourge by that point, and we want to stand for something more timeless.”

Philip Skovgaard’s tips

We asked all interviewees for their best advice based on their own experiences in the industry. Here are Philip Skovgaard’s tips for you, if you’re a restaurateur, chef or entrepreneur within the restaurant business:

  • Don’t just get creative for creativity’s sake. There might be a good reason to tweak or adjust a classic dish, but the classics are classics for a reason.

  • This one is mostly a reminder to my younger self, but it’s a universal message. We should have believed way more in ourselves from the beginning.