Cozy up with Scandinavian comfort foods at these 5 Chicago restaurants

Scandinavians can teach us how to turn our chilly season into a candlelit celebration of soothing comforts, stress-free socializing, and heartwarming foods and drinks.

Smørrebrød sandwiches, cured salmon, hasselback potatoes, pancakes with lingonberries, saffron buns and warm glögg are just a few Nordic treats that lift spirits when it’s cold and dark out.

Scandinavian cooking uses techniques like smoking, pickling, curing and fermenting, which date back to the days before refrigeration and the need to survive in a harsh climate. These preserved flavors are balanced with fresh dill and aromatic spices like orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

Nordic cuisine with a modern or traditional twist can be experienced in several places around the Chicago area. Here are five to start with.

As a culinary nod to his Danish mother, executive chef David Posey offers smoked eel ($29) with marinated cucumber, spinach and a drizzle of curry oil at his Scandi-inspired restaurant Elske in the West Loop.

“A lot of the Scandinavian flavors we love are also flavors that are traditionally popular in the Midwest: pickled and fermented vegetables, vinegars, preserves, fish, buttermilk, dill, rye, smoked foods, and sour flavors,” says co-owner and pastry chef Anna Posey.

While the menu changes frequently, Elske’s winter offerings always feature a take on risalamande ($14), a rice pudding traditionally served in Denmark as a Christmas breakfast or dessert. Their version, with salted cranberry, tart cherry and rose, is available through January. You could also try Elske’s glögg ($14), a mulled red wine cocktail with winter spices and almonds popular in Scandinavia around this time of year.

“Another thing that David’s mom makes every winter is julesnaps, or ‘Christmas snaps,’” Anna Posey says. “At Elske, we steep clear aquavit or vodka with dark brown sugar, orange, cinnamon, clove and vanilla and let it sit for a few weeks to build flavor. Then we strain it and serve it chilled. It’s such a great winter treat.”

135 W. Randolph St., 312-733-1314, elskerestaurant.com

Still standing since the 1930s, this breakfast and lunch cafe in Andersonville salutes unfussy Swedish cuisine with working-class roots. Svea’s Viking Breakfast options are more of a hearty lunch sampler, coming in different varieties. The Odin ($19) includes thin pancakes with lingonberry jam, eggs, fried potatoes, toasted limpa bread (with rye, molasses, anise and orange zest) and slices of falukorv, a cooked sausage made from smoked pork and beef. The Loki ($22) swaps out the falukorv for smoked salmon and prinskorv, which are petite sausage links with pork and veal.

No Swedish fare is as old-school and down-home as the Pannbiff med lok ($19), ground beef patties served with fried onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, or the Three Crown Special ($19) with meatballs, salt pork and brown beans. Both dishes come with a generous amount of sides, including pickled herring made by owner Scott Martin.

5236 N. Clark St., 773-275-7738

At the restaurant-brewery Ørkenoy in Humboldt Park, you can try a variety of Scandinavian-inspired dishes, including the Finnish juustoleipa cheese ($13) with raw honey and walnut dukkah. Briana Hestad is one of the co-owners; her father is from Norway, and she’s visited Scandinavian countries often over the years.

“A Norwegian dish that is one of my all-time favorites, and that transports me to the main wharf in Bergen, is their fisher’s stew,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, light, yet filling seafood soup that can be made with any assortment of fruits of the sea, and it is reminiscent of a bouillabaisse.”

One of the centerpieces of Ørkenoy’s menu is the Danish smørrebrød, an open-face sandwich with sourdough rye, buttered and topped with an artful assembly of meat or fish cold cuts, cheese, eggs, vegetables, or spreads. Ørkenoy’s creative takes on smørrebrød include Fry Life ($12) with battered white fish, rémoulade, dill, red cabbage and fried capers. You can also buy the to-go Lox Kit ($25) with house-cured pastrami lox, rugbrød (rye bread), dill cream cheese, red onions and capers.

Should you prefer to grab a fika — coffee breaks are truly a way of life in Scandinavia — Ørkenoy’s rotating dessert menu sometimes features an old-time Swedish cafe favorite: the Dammsugare ($2.50), a small cylinder-shaped truffle pastry amped up with Swedish punsch and then covered in chocolate and green marzipan.

1757 N. Kimball Ave., 312-929-4024, orkenoy.com

The seats in the heated patio, built like a classic red Swedish house, might be a tough grab. But step into the front room of Tre Kronor in the North Park neighborhood and you’ll feel like you’ve entered a bohemian grandmother’s summer home, where meatballs, dill-stewed potatoes and a big glass of milk await at the table.

Although this bistro’s name is Swedish (“three crowns”) and it serves meatballs ($17) with lingon, mashed potatoes and pickled cucumbers, its menu also features the Oslo omelet ($15) with Norwegian salmon, and Danish onion soup ($6) with limpa croutons and Jarlsberg cheese. As we approach Fat Tuesday, don’t miss your chance to try the Swedish semla ($5), a cardamom-flavored wheat bun, filled with almond paste and whipped cream.

3258 W. Foster Ave., 773-267-9888, swedishbistro.com

“My favorite pastries of the season are lussebulle, kanelbulle and pepparkakor,” says Lotta Bengtsson, co-owner of Newport Coffee. An epitome of minimalist Scandinavian design, this coffee shop and bakery in Evanston does offer the second, a cinnamon-cardamom roll they’ve renamed as the “Swedish knot” ($5). As Sweden’s lighting of candles culminates between December and January, festive scents of saffron buns, kanelbulle, gingerbread cookies and glögg permeate many a town.

“We drink glögg around that time,” says Bengtsson, a Stockholm native. “It pairs well with gingerbread cookies and blue cheese.”

Newport is gradually becoming more accommodating to patrons with other diets. “We try to do a lot of gluten-free and also vegan baked goods,” Bengtsson said. “However, we do not offer the Swedish knots in the gluten-free version right now, because we are still trying to perfect the recipe.”

622 Davis St., Evanston; 847-563-8322; newport-coffee.com

Nikki O’Neill is a freelance writer.