David Armstrong
Ten minutes on foot from Gamla Stan is the Royal Dramatic Theatre, where Ingmar Bergman was a director until his death last year.
Just past the stately theater, where city-dwellers troop on the outside steps to chat and snack, is Nybbrosatan, a popular walking street with cafes and shops. Designtorget is a reliable source of contemporary Swedish design. Just up the street is Ostermalms Saluhall, a 19th century covered food market; it was there that I had an ABBA sighting. Not all of ABBA -- just one former member, Benny Andersson, who went on to co-produce Mamma Mia, the hit musical that showcases bouncy renditions of Dancing Queen and other ABBA confections. My superb guide for the day, Elisabeth Daude, spotted him. Benny toted a string bag and shopped for deli food at the J.E. Olsen & Soner stall while fellow noshers pretended not to notice him. The restaurant Lisa Elmquist is a good place for a seafood lunch in the skylit redbrick Ostermalms market, which dates from 1888. Edgier fare in food, fashion and entertainment can be found in Sodermain, the large island due south of Gamla Stan, where the first roads were blasted through solid rock with a new invention by a local man called Alfred Nobel -- dynamite. Just south of Folkungagatan street, in a district inevitably dubbed "SoFo,'' are one-of-a-kind clothing shops, cool corner cafes, locals pedaling by on fleets of bicycles and still more places to have coffee; Folkungagatan Café is a good spot for caffeine in the 'hood. For sheer density of diversions, though, Gamla Stan is hard to beat. The district has a wonderful comic book store aptly named Comic Heaven, a knick-knack-stuffed bar called Stampen with performances by local jazz and rock musicians and a bar/restaurant that specializes in Swedish microbrews, single malt scotch and caraway-flavored aquavit. The bar, Glenfiddich Warehouse -- with dishes like pickled Baltic herring and reindeer sausage -- is not edgy or surprising, but it is a savory place to wind up a visit.
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