Restaurant Aquavit

The story

Aquavit was a pioneer in New York for something now taken for granted: two entirely distinct dining rooms under one roof — a casual café and a cutting-edge modern room — when Håkan Swahn opened it in 1987. The concept came from Stockholm's Operakällaren, whose owner, Tore Wretman, was an original partner. Marcus Samuelsson's arrival in 1995 brought the restaurant its greatest recognition, including a New York Times three-star rating that held, with a gap, from 1995 through 2015 onward. It remains a quiet argument that Scandinavian cooking belongs at the center of the conversation.