Catch the fever
ALEXANDRA TANGEN • owner • KABIN
WORK • Tuesday Routine
ALEXANDRA TANGEN • owner • KABIN
Neighborhood you work in: Hudson Square
Neighborhood you live in: West Village
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Mornings at KABIN are special. We originally opened as a cocktail bar nearly two years ago, but have since evolved into an all-day concept. During the day, we’re a Nordic café serving specialty coffee, matcha, waffles, and lunch, and by night we transition into a cocktail bar with a full food and cocktail program.
Right now, the bar is draped in Norwegian flags. We originally put them up for Norway’s National Day on May 17, but decided to leave them up since Norway has qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998, and we’re showing all of the matches. I love having them around. They bring a sense of pride, nostalgia, and excitement to the space.
The weather has finally warmed up, so our front windows and doors are open, letting a breeze roll in from the Hudson River. The espresso machine is running, regulars are stopping in for coffee, laptops are out, and there’s a steady hum of conversation throughout the room. It’s one of my favorite times of day.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, the focus is entirely on the World Cup. We’re launching a series of Norway and Sweden watch parties, special food collaborations, large-format cocktails, and some very Scandinavian traditions for New Yorkers to experience. Norway’s World Cup debut for this year’s tournament is tonight against Iraq, 6p kickoff — come join us!
One thing I’m particularly excited about is our partnership with the Norwegian Seafood Council. We’ve developed a Norwegian salmon and chips dish featuring Norwegian salmon, Icelandic pale ale batter, skyr, dill, and seaweed. And if that wasn’t enough, I’m also getting married in Oslo in three weeks. So at the moment my life consists of bouncing between running a café, running a cocktail bar, planning World Cup events, and planning a 200-person wedding in Norway.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
When I venture out, I have a few favorites. Kiko, right across the street from KABIN, is one of my go-to spots in Hudson Square. The food is fantastic, the team is great, and we have a really nice relationship with them. Their staff comes over for coffee at KABIN, our staff heads there after work, and everyone knows each other. If you go, get the chicken wings.
For a special meal, I love Cosme for upscale Mexican food. And in the West Village, I have to give a shoutout to Sushi 456, which I think is one of the most underrated sushi spots in the entire city. It’s unassuming, consistently excellent, and somehow still feels like a hidden gem. For something a little more relaxed, I love sitting outside at Dante West Village with my fiancé and our dog, Nala, on a warm summer day or evening.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
I’m not naturally a sports-driven person. That said, the Knicks playoff run has been one of the coolest things I’ve experienced in New York in a long time. It feels like the entire city rallied around something together. I think the World Cup is going to create that same feeling on an even bigger scale. And also, I try to carve out an hour most days for exercise, usually a Solidcore class.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
Our wedding. We’re incorporating a lot of very Norwegian elements throughout the weekend, including floating saunas on the Oslofjord, boat rides, and long summer evenings by the water. In many ways, it’s everything I’ve always wanted to bring to New York through KABIN, just on a much larger scale.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
I know this isn’t exactly a groundbreaking recommendation, but I’ve recently fallen in love with the Citi Bike. It’s cheaper than an Uber, faster than sitting in traffic, and somehow always manages to make me feel like I have my life together, even when I absolutely do not.
My second recommendation is a little less conventional, and perhaps a bit random: the 10- to 15-minute massages you can get at many nail salons across the city. Sometimes I don’t need a full spa day, I just need someone to spend 15 minutes convincing my shoulders to relax. It’s one of the most underrated services in New York and a luxury that somehow still feels affordable.