Andy’s Bar

Copenhagen, Denmark

Field Note

There’s something romantic about a dive bar that mixes classy visual branding with the kind of interior that feels more like a college bar than a sophisticated location for a cocktail. Andy’s Bar is one such dive bar, a place that was not on any list as a Copenhagen dive bar destination, but screamed for a visit with its martini glass-laden exterior signage. That a 70s-style color palette dominates the bar’s appearance only accentuates its appeal.

Though Copenhagen is the kind of city that doesn’t necessarily have hard boundaries between places where you drink and places where people sleep, Andy’s Bar does exist right on the edge of one of the core commercial parts of the city. As always with a good dive bar, these fringe areas make for the best locations because they mix just the right amount of accessibility with the right amount of real estate affordability.

And at this particular fringe bar, the vibe is young, it’s loud, it’s drunken and it is all wrapped together by the fact that Andy’s exists in a basement about halfway below street level. The handful of steps down flow through a log cabin-looking exterior unlike any other nearby structural decision. Ski gear is mounted to the bar’s exterior and the kind of roof shingles found on a Swiss chalet extend over the bar’s main window. It’s an eclectic appearance and it’s the portal to a little basement drinking.

In keeping with the visual variety outside, the interior boasts its own level of intrigue with the Jägermeister-themed bar the focal point of the discussion. Though the structural reliance on the bottles is suspect, at least optically the bar looks to be constructed out of illuminated Jaeger bottles topped with a short wooden bar in small room off the staircase. A handful of taps and the requisite amount of refrigerator space is complemented by, you guessed it, a row of Jägermeister bottles presumably waiting their turn to prop up the bar.

The remaining space is divided up into a handful of rooms that twist and turn underneath the have-I-mentioned-how-low-it-is ceiling, most featuring light brown wooden paneling to drive the ski chalet motif home. One of the last twists through the floor plan reveals a portal to a room devoid of wood paneling, its walls papered with pictures of celebrities, torsos and celebrity torsos. Unsurprisingly, this was the most popular room at Andy’s Bar upon a recent visit.

With Copenhagen’s relaxed restrictions on when bars open and close, Andy’s Bar takes full advantage, providing a stumble-out-of time of anywhere from 5 to 7 AM depending on the day. It is easy to position Andy’s Bar as the perfect stumble-into, stumble-out-of dive bar. Just on the fringe of more upscale Copenhagen drinking options, the trip down the stairs is worth it not just for the hours of drinking that stretch into the early morning hours…but also to see what kind of structural integrity glass Jaegermeister bottles can masquerade to handle.