Weekend sunshine with RISØ´s CEO Arne Risø Nilsen. Arne is co-founder and co-owner RISØ, a café and coffee bar that serves some of Tromsø´s best coffee brews.
Text Photo & Video © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2020

As the weekend rolls around, morning coffee and breakfast at a local café in Tromsø is something to look forward to. It´s pretty much autumn here in the Arctic, where you can typically get a string of grey and rainy days. Depending on personality, I think rainy autumn days are perfect to grab that mug of hot chocolate, cozy under your blanket with your favourite book and read. As it happened, it was a weekend of brilliant weather with sunshine and clear skies. Which meant, a café breakfast morning.

Having lived and worked in Tromsø since the summer of 2018, a favourite hangout for me is still RISØ, a tiny café with a brilliant coffee bar and good food. Founded in 2013 by the Risø brothers Jon Risø Madsen, Øyvind Risø Madsen and Arne Risø Nilsen, what continues to draw crowds to this place are its authentic foods and food services.

At RISØ, you can feel right at home sitting at the corner table reading the daily news. Coffee is slow brewed at the counter, and from where you sit, you can likely see your food being prepared and cooked at the small open kitchen in the café. An hour into the café´s opening, and their dish washer is on its second round of wash. I sit and watch the steam waft from the dish washer when its door is opened. It is not unusual that plates brought to the table with food are still warm.

And it´s alright too if you´re no coffee connoisseur. There are always interesting coffee selections from which to choose and explore, or else, go with the daily recommendations. Often times, the recommended accompanying coffee is just perfect to the gorgeously prepared food.

RISØ is located in the heart of Tromsø city, along Strandgata, Tromsø, Norway.

A weekend morning scene at RISØ.

I absolutely love the coffee art by Arne Risø Nilsen at RISØ. Arne has twice won the Norwegian national championship of barista art in the category of “Latte Art”.

Chèvre filled omelette served with a side of lettuce and home baked bread.

Interior wall decoration at RISØ.