The Meatpacking District at Night: What It Is and What It Has Stopped Being

The Kødbyen — the old Meatpacking District in Vesterbro — has been the centre of Copenhagen nightlife for about fifteen years. I have a complicated relationship with this because I work there during the day and because I remember when the bars arrived and because I have watched the neighbourhood transform around them.

What it is now: a cluster of bars, restaurants and clubs in the white concrete buildings of what was the city’s meat processing and wholesale district until the 1970s. The White Meathall (Den Hvide Kødby) is the section most visitors know — Jolene, Bakken, the various restaurants. The Grey Meathall (Den Grå Kødby) is still partly working industrial, which gives the whole area a quality that distinguishes it from purpose-built nightlife districts.

Jolene (Flæsketorvet 81, Vesterbro) is the bar that most people find first and it earns the reputation — large, unpretentious, terrace on the square, good on a warm evening. Bakken (Flæsketorvet 19, Vesterbro) for the more club-oriented version.

What it has stopped being: the slightly transgressive alternative space it was when the artists and bars first moved in around 2008–10. It is now a destination. The prices reflect that. The crowd reflects that. The place is still worth going to. It is just not a secret anymore and it knows it.