42 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: THE WINSTON / SOLVANGUSA.COM Ebelskivers are usually sold in restaurants, not bakeries, but the Danish Mill Bakery, founded in 1960 by a baker for King Christian X, serves them with lingonberry sauce. This bakery is one of five in Solvang certified by the Danish Baking Guild. At the oldest and biggest, Birkholm’s Bakery & Café founded in 1951, a staffer explained how 27 layers of pastry dough make treats like kringles—pretzel-shaped pastries—so fluffy and moist. I’m told the four favorite flavors are almond, cinnamon, custard and raspberry. At Ingeborg’s Danish Chocolates, founded in 1961, I saw over 70 types of chocolates, many filled with marzipan, some with nuts, plum or cognac. My favorite: flodeboller, an enchanting Mallomar-like sweet, only taller and with more chocolate. What I didn’t expect to find was a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant like Peasants FEAST in Solvang. My spicy softshell crab sandwich, doused in Calabrian chili oil with pickled red onions, was fantastic, like a crustacean version of Nashville Hot Chicken. {due west} (the birthplace of fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen) and Helsingor, home of the castle that inspired Hamlet. Surrounded by murals from The Ugly Duckling and other Andersen tales, I sat in a booth where a plaque noted a scene from the movie Sideways, which was filmed here in 2003. At The Gathering Table, known for innovative Asian-French fusion, my hamachi was “new style” (a hot soy-yuzu vinaigrette lent the sushi a slight sear) and my duck breast had a hoisin-calamansi glaze and a gingerscallion sauce. As befits a town with a starring role in Sideways (filmed here and in nearby Buellton), the movie that skyrocketed Pinot Noir sales nationwide, Solvang has many wine tasting rooms. Venture outside of city limits to Roblar Winery, a 10-minute drive, for the scenic patio with couches next to its lovely garden. Its farmhouse is a fivebedroom vacation rental with an infinity pool and hot tub. V Lounge, at Vinland Hotel & Lounge, offers creative cocktails like a Key Lime Pie martini concocted with coconut cream, lime juice, pineapple juice, rum, vodka and a graham cracker crust rim. It also boasts a latenight happy hour. The Vinland, a boutique hotel with a half-timbered façade, outdoor pool and hot tub, has five suites sponsored by local wineries like Alma Rosa, which provide the bottles and tasting vouchers found inside.
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