In Sweden’s Roslagen archipelago, Marholmen has long been a place for rest, meetings and sea air. Now the island resort is sharpening its culinary ambitions. At the centre is Hermans Veranda, Matsal & Bar, recently reopened with a new kitchen and an expanded dining room.
For Executive Chef Johan Klaréus, the reopening changes what the kitchen can deliver day to day, both in scale and in range. “With the new Hermans, we can work at a completely different scale and offer a much broader dining experience,” he says. “We can now welcome individual guests and larger groups with different expectations in different parts of the restaurant, whether they want something casual or a full evening. For everyone working here, it’s also incredibly inspiring to have new spaces and new equipment.”
Marholmen occupies an unusual position in Swedish hospitality. The island has spent more than a century as a place for rest, meetings and recreation, historically tied to the Swedish labour movement. The modernised version of Marholmen is aiming to become a year-round archipelago retreat with food placed more firmly at the centre of the guest experience.
Creating a restaurant “worth the detour” Klaréus interprets as permission to be creatively free. The current à la carte menu moves between coastal ingredients and familiar Swedish restaurant markers, from cold-smoked salmon mousse with pickled apple, sorrel and trout roe, to seared pike-perch with browned butter emulsion, broad beans, and hazelnuts. Dishes such as cauliflower croquettes with smoked venison and wild garlic showcase a more robust, countryside approach. Desserts lean Nordic and seasonal, with rhubarb, redcurrant, elderflower, gooseberry and lemon verbena. “With an investment of this scale, there’s a sense of starting with a blank page”, Klaréus says. “We can craft more dining experiences that draw on our surroundings, while also trying out different formats, from brunches and tasting menus to collaborations and tastings with local producers.”
The challenge, of course, is that ‘local’ can quickly become shorthand for predictable Nordic nostalgia. Roslagen, the coastal region surrounding Marholmen, comes with its own strong culinary associations: herring, rye bread, crayfish, dill, aquavit. Klaréus seems conscious of that risk. “Guests expect us to be rooted in this place and to care about both Roslagen and the archipelago,” he says. “So, in everything we do, we look at what feels typical of the region and ask how we can make it our own.”
Around the island, new growing areas are being established for herbs, vegetables and berries, supported by a composting system that turns kitchen waste into soil reused in the cultivation programme. The first harvests will mainly appear on the à la carte menu at Hermans Veranda and in the resort’s bakery programme, but Klaréus is already thinking in longer seasonal cycles. “We won’t be self-sufficient in the first year, but we want guests to see the produce clearly reflected in the menus,” he says. “We also want to preserve what we don’t use straight away, so we have ingredients to work with during the winter.”
This year, parts of the island are being prepared with sunflower cultivation before larger herb and vegetable plantings begin next spring. “Having the growing areas on the island means we can harvest several times a week and use ingredients directly,” Klaréus says. “Not only for the food, but for the bar as well.”
The kitchen has been designed to operate far beyond the main building. Production now supports event spaces elsewhere on the island, outdoor cooking activities and a movable food truck, while an additional kitchen in the historic Grosshandlargården mansion will anchor a separate summer restaurant. “We have plans for the barbecue areas around Marholmen and for more outdoor cooking activities. Only creativity and imagination set the limits,” Klaréus says.
He repeatedly returns to the importance of ambience.
“I want guests to leave with that warm feeling you get from good food, relaxed service and a great atmosphere,” he says. “I hope they think, ‘Damn, that was good. We’ll be back.’”
