Were Willy Wonka Norwegian, and a hotelier with all the hottest contacts in design, dining, wellness and entertainment, he might have dreamed up Sommerro, a quiet riot of refined exuberance in Oslo’s smartest neighbourhood.
That Norway’s capital, Oslo, is a deeply civilised city is not hard to see. In its central neighbourhoods, gracious, manicured parks studded with mansions and sculptures and spotless boulevards lined with smart neoclassical apartment buildings set the tone. That it’s also fiercely progressive is also glaringly apparent, not least from the visionarily designed public space around the buzzing Bjørvika waterfront, with its thrilling, ultra-modern opera house and MUNCH museum. The city’s warm, beating heart, however, can be harder to discover.
That’s until you step through the doors of the extraordinary Sommerro hotel. Set in a hulking, quietly handsome 1930s red-brick building in the old-money Frogner neighbourhood, Sommerro, opened in 2022, offers you two top-notch streetside restaurants – the metro-rustic Barramon pintxos and wine bar, and Plah and Ahaan, where the city’s best Thai fine-dining chef Terje Ommundsen combines authentic Asian recipes with the finest seasonal Norwegian produce – before you’ve even entered the lobby.
Step inside, and a dazzling design story begins to unfold. Monumental in scale, the building was first constructed as the HQ of the country’s first electrical company, Oslo Lysverker, and a bold statement of Norway’s evolution into a modern, cosmopolitan nation, fusing muscular Modernist functionalism with striking Art Deco features and a subtly rich colour palette. A cool white lobby – featuring dining option number three, the cute takeaway spot Kafé Lucy – leads into the heart of the building, the huge, double-height Ekspedisjonshallen, Sommerro’s all-day brasserie.
Originally Oslo Lysverker’s public cashier hall, the space is presided over at one end by a striking, 12 m (39 ft)-high original wall fresco by Per Krohg depicting the wonders electricity was about to bring Norway, and hung with retro-industrial deco chandeliers that evoke Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. It’s one of seven diverse dining destinations in the hotel, of which the most coveted is TAK Oslo, the city’s only rooftop restaurant, whose exquisite Nordic-Japanese dishes are the creations of Swedish celebrity chef Frida Ronge (don’t miss the indescribably good Grilled arctic char with fennel, dill oil, wakame and umeboshi cream sauce).
Even at 3pm on a weekday, Ekspedisjonshallen – whose lavish breakfast buffet deserves a special mention, not least for by far the biggest and best vegan offer we’ve seen in any hotel – was buzzing with diners as we sat down for lunch with Dominic Brunnfors-Gorham, the charisma-oozing Guest Relations Manager at Sommerro. More often than not, he’s to be found hooking guests up with the best tables in town, insider music venue tips or recommendations for the best fishing spots around the city at his desk in the lobby.
“This building was falling into dereliction when we bought it”, Dominic told us. “And it’s so heavily protected by heritage authorities here that the job was to first restore and protect the building, then build a hotel within it. If you notice, there are no screens, no signs, we weren’t allowed to put so much as a nail in a wall. That’s why we have a big, friendly host team always on hand to orient guests and visitors personally.”
All the public spaces’ original 1930s wooden doors, geometric deco light fittings, wrought-iron bannisters and even paint colours have been conserved, Dominic continued, and untold funds spent on innovative incorporation of the further furnishings, facilities and décor needed to create a sumptuous, full-service modern five-star. To their credit, the restoration architects also succeeded in making every area of the vast hotel accessible, bar the open-air rooftop pool (there’s another in the basement).
Beyond dapper on the day we met in a sharply tailored three-piece suit, with silvering, almost waist-length dreadlocks, London-born Dominic is the hotel’s ‘vibes man’, brought in as a key member of the launch team to instil the expertise in next-level service and elevating guest experience he honed running the doors of many of Paris’ most VIP bars and nightclubs. Sommerro is the 26th hotel, restaurant or bar he has helped open, and the sharp-dressed service style, which masterfully melds attentiveness and affable charm, is of his moulding, and another standout asset.
“From the start, we wanted to create more than a hotel; we wanted to bring Oslo a vibrant social and cultural hub, to give locals a wealth of reasons to come and enjoy the place, make it theirs. So we have a cinema, with cool, curated programming. We have regular live jazz bands in Ekspedisjonshallen. We have a branch of Oslo’s hippest barbershop, PelsPels. We have a seriously high-end fashion boutique called The Rebirth of the Princess. We have stand-up nights in our cabaret club Lysverker Scene…”
Another unique draw for both guests and locals is the exceptional, 1,400 sqm (15,000 sqft) Vestkantbadet wellness and beauty centre in the basement of Sommerro. The space was originally designed as a luxurious public bath in the days when home bathrooms were a rarity, and its unique original features, which include another striking Per Krohg artwork, this time a mosaic mural depicting bathers frolicking with seals alongside the swimming pool, have been meticulously restored. Run concurrently as an exclusive members’ health club for the community, it stirs mod cons such as an infrared sauna and cold plunge, 16 treatment rooms and a 400 sqm (4,300 sqft) gym combining state-of-the-art equipment and vintage boxing-club vibes into the mix. Oh, and in the gym, a Julian Opie mural animation of purposefully striding stick figures for added motivation. An impressive selection of spa treatments meanwhile ranges from the traditional to specialist cosmetic therapies, including laser treatments and a sleep clinic.
Guest rooms, which range from cute, compact loft spaces with twin sleeping alcoves based on traditional Norwegian designs to three opulent Heritage Suites, dial the hallmark grown-up maximalist aesthetic of Sommerro up a notch. The work, like all the hotel’s interiors, of white-hot London- and New York-based design studio GrecoDeco (whose credits include those cities’ The Ned and former Veronika respectively), continues to mainline Jazz-Age swagger, while stirring in accents of folksy old-Norway charm, for example in rugs richly patterned with idyllic fjordland nature motifs (elsewhere in the hotel’s public spaces, famous folkloric works by the beloved Norwegian Arts and Crafts painter Gerhard Munthe and classic fairy tales have inspired specially commissioned fabrics and crockery designs). Bold colour schemes are audacious but harmonious, furnishings are heavy and handsome, and amenities imaginative and achingly stylish. Our 45 sqm (485 sqft) Junior Suite came with a king-size oak four-poster, ornate Murano glass chandelier and large, deco-esque bathroom tiled in pale salmon-pink Estremoz and black marble.
Exploring Sommerro’s seemingly countless spaces, we found ourselves constantly captivated by yet another gorgeous design detail, museum-worthy original feature or next-level facility. Never in decades of travel have we felt less inclined to desert our temporary home to explore the wider destination, for fear of missing some new in-house treat. Even the conference and event spaces are glorious, one-off time capsules of vintage interior design – we recommend you ask Dominic nicely if you can take a peek.
But perhaps the greatest marker of the hotel’s triumphant success is the constant stream of nattily dressed, visibly hyped locals pouring through the stately glass and steel front doors – for champagne-fuelled afternoon tea in the kitsch-chic To Søstre conservatory, to catch one of the regular Marilyn Monroe-themed movie screenings, for cocktails and a weekend DJ set at the seventh-floor Izakaya bar and rooftop terrace, to pick out a couture gown for a special event…
Just beyond these doors, an original bas-relief panel set into the hotel’s brick façade bears Oslo Lysverker’s founding motto, whose words could hardly ring truer today. ‘Lys, Kraft, Warme’ – light, power, warmth.
Photography by Francisco Nogueira and courtesy of Sommerro
Perfect for
The Sophisticate
Fly into
OSL
Right on time
GMT +1
While you’re OutThere
To be fair, manifestations of Oslo getting its groove on aren’t so hard to find – if you know where to look. Our tip is to start your evening, or a sunny summer afternoon, at Bla, a hip and warmly inclusive bar and music venue with a cute riverside terrace in the groovy, post-industrial Grunerlokka neighbourhood, currently in mid-Brooklyn-esque regeneration. Here, among the bright street-art murals and trees strung with fairy lights, you’ll find the city’s coolest creatives whipping up a relaxed party vibe, and weekend gigs spanning indie, jazz and electronica.
