During last spring’s quarantine when all the restaurants were closed, we started talking with the team at Rougemarin about the future of the catering industry, and about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on people’s habit of going out to restaurants in general.

Prolonged lockdowns have made cooking popular again, and people have started approaching home-cooked meals quite seriously. Why leave professional cooking only to restaurant chefs when with a little help you can become a chef yourself in your own kitchen? We have thus come up with the concept of Rougemarin Doma (Rougemarin at Home), a store that is based on quality ingredients at different stages of meal processing and preparation. From completely raw foods such as fruits and vegetables, through cooked raw foods like marinated and seasoned steaks, pickled vegetables, freshly made butter, to a limited number of freshly pre-made meals. Here the grocery experience becomes an experience of discovering new flavours, ways of preparing food, and inspiration that you can take home with you and make a superb gourmet dinner in the safety of your own home with little effort and basic culinary skills.

With minimal construction work, the former restaurant has been transformed into a classic neighbourhood deli store. By adapting colours and lighting, and adding all the necessary fixtures and fittings to display a variety of products, we have created a welcoming deli store that is appealing to both beginner and experienced cooks. A simple and minimalist design of the display cases and shelves keeps the focus on products, whereas the combination of wooden and copper details creates a feeling of warmth and familiarity.