New In Town: Hafnar🟨, Garg Bookstore, Lángos Vagninn, Lóla

If you missed our recent print issues, here are some new spots in town you might not know about.

Lángos Vagninn

Tryggvagata 19 (harbour-side entrance), 101 Reykjavík

Opening hours: Saturdays & Sundays, 11:00-17:00

Nestled on the sea-facing front of Kolaportið, a singular food truck stands steady. This is Lángos Vagninn, offering delicious Hungarian street food to all passersby. Most traditionally, a lángos consists of fried dough topped with garlicky sour cream and cheese. But co-founder and accomplished chef Bernadett has used the lángos palette to present new flavours — from barbecue to a strawberries-and-Nutella dessert lángos, plus they even offer a vegan option! Alongside partner Zsófia, the two are bringing the tastes of Hungary to Iceland. ISH

hafnar🟨 (hafnar.showcase)

Tryggvagata 17, 101 Reykjavík

Opening hours: if you’re there, it’s open!

Lurking inside Tryggvagata 17 is a vibrant world of art – in Hafnarhús, the City Art Museum, and hafnar.haus, the collective art hub. With over 250 artists creating inside hafnar.haus, curator Leeni Laasfeld tells us this new window gallery emerged from thinking “if only the people on the street could see what’s happening behind these walls.” Now, we have a window in! Literally! hafnar🟨 is a new gallery space, a window on the outer wall of the building, with the hallmark hafnar.haus yellow catching your eye and inviting you to stare.

Garg bookstore

Hofsvallagata 16, 101 Reykjavík

Opening hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 13:00 to 16:00.

Nestled to the right of the Hofsvallagata 16 corner is Garg bookstore’s new space. Twins Helga Dögg Ólafsdóttir and Alma Mjöll Ólafsdóttir run the small shop teeming with feminist, queer, self-published and secondhand books. Helga Dögg noticed a sparsity of neighbourhood shops and decided to create one. Curated from personal collections, gifts from Helga Dögg’s teachers in Estonia, donations, and through outreach to Icelandic artists, Garg is a space where you can get books not sold anywhere else.  ISH

Lóla

Tryggvagata 11, 101 Reykjavík

Opening hours: Tuesday to Thursday, 17:30-23:00; Friday & Saturday, 17:30-23:45

Rising out of the old spot of Anna Jóna is a new lady: Lóla. Led by chef Sigurður Laufdal, this new restaurant is mainly influenced by Italian cuisine. Siggi Lauf is known for his award-winning OTO on Hverfisgata, but in this new spot he’s coupling traditional Italian with his own experiments and imagination. This corner spot has grand windows and extravagant lamps — and, did we mention there’s a cinema located inside? ISH

Reykjavík changes pretty fast. If you don’t stop to read our New In Town once in a while, you could miss it.