An exclusive decor for a top Swedish restaurant – Villeroy & Boch is the primary outfitter for Bobergs Matsal in the Nordiska Kompaniet luxury department store in Stockholm

Pure exclusive individuality – for customers in the hospitality and gastronomy industries who know the importance of table settings Villeroy & Boch offers a creative design service: The Hotel & Restaurant Division has Special Design to fulfil individual customer needs for decorating crockery, glasses, cutlery and accessories. For example, guests at the Amstel in Amsterdam, on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and at the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem are served from crockery with tailored decors. The exclusive Bobergs Matsal restaurant in Stockholm has recently started serving meals on the Special Design crockery from Villeroy & Boch as well.

Björn Frantzén, who has been awarded with two Michelin Stars at his first restaurant, recently took over Bobergs Matsal, which is located in the famous Nordiska Kompaniet department store, NK in short, in Stockholm's Norrmalm neighbourhood, the so-called Stockholm City. The architect Ferdinand Boberg travelled throughout Europe to gain inspiration from the renowned department stores of his time such as Harrods in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris or KaDeWe in Berlin, which he then used to design this department store that opened in September 1915. The architecture is clearly influenced by the Art Nouveau and the floors extend around an interior courtyard with an impressive glass dome, just like its European role models.

The fourth floor of NK has four restaurants, including the popular Bobergs Matsal, which has been there since the founding of the department store 100 years ago. The new chef, Björn Frantzén offers an Afternoon Tea with freshly baked scones, home-made jelly and a glass of champagne in Bobergs Matsal. He renovated the restaurant rooms with great love of detail and care and rounded off the furnishings with new tableware.

As the primary supplier, Villeroy & Boch provided crockery, glasses, cutlery and accessories. Designer Carlo Scholtes, who is a long-time product developer at Villeroy & Boch at the Hotel & Restaurant Division headquarters in Luxembourg, and Carit Lohse, Regional Sales Manager Hotel & Restaurant Nordic Villeroy & Boch, together with Björn Frantzén used the finest Premium Bone Porcelain and a few select accessories to create an exclusive decor. A fine decoration was created which uses various shades of grey and round plates from the Stella premium crockery collection and selected parts of Anmut, Royal and La Scala to provide an additional fine touch. Historically inspired, geometric patterns and ornaments were playfully interpreted in a modern context for the decor. The finely coordinated decor variations, some of which were combined with delicate relief decors, were applied to various plate sizes so that the crockery would always offer new opportunities to present the culinary creations. The glasses from the Purismo collection and the Kreuzband cutlery stylishly round off the table settings.

"In Bobergs Matsal we offer high-quality business meals at brasserie prices in an elegant ambience and thus help fill a real gap in the market. And the real secret is serving our guests meals on specially designed porcelain from Villeroy & Boch, with fine decor that I designed together with the porcelain manufacturer Villeroy & Boch," says Björn Frantzén.

The other restaurants in NK are also equipped with high-quality Villeroy & Boch tableware: Nordiska Kantinen and Botanique have Marchesi crockery, cutlery from the Oscar series and glasses from the Entree collection; Gaston Vinbar uses Purismo glasses.