Gondolen, Stockholm

Gondolen is the restaurant suspended above Södermalm, with views extending across Mälaren, Stockholm’s inlet, Slussen and the inner city. Its name comes from the passenger gondola carried beneath an airship, a fitting image for a dining room held above the surrounding streets. Gondolen sits about 33 metres above sea level, beneath a footbridge linking Katarinahissen’s upper station with the KF building.

The restaurant opened on 15 October 1935, at the same time as the new lift and KF building, designed by Eskil Sundahl and Olof Thunström. Its food has long centred on classic Swedish and Nordic cooking. In 1994, Erik Lallerstedt took over a badly worn restaurant and reshaped it into the kind of grand city hotel Stockholm lacked. That renewal turned Eriks Gondolen into an immediate success.