2026.10.13
Adam Albin on redefining fine dining
ADAM ALBIN
ON REDEFINING FINE DINING
ART
Chef duo Adam Dahlberg and Albin Wessman have teamed up with Halleroed for their restaurant Adam Albin in central Stockholm, marking the design studio’s first restaurant project. Together, they offer a new take on fine dining – less about rules, and more about pleasure.
WORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
Jonna Dagliden Hunt
Henrik Lundell
"For us, luxury is not about excess; it is about time, precision and genuine care,” says Adam Dahlberg, one half of chef duo Adam and Albin. ”We want every guest to feel completely looked after and entirely at ease, as if they have stepped into our home.”
Opening this spring in the historic heart of Stockholm, the new restaurant designed by Halleroed design studio, is the chef duo’s most ambitious project do date. Consisting of close friends Adam Dahlberg and Albin Wessman, they also run Solen in the meatpacking district and Misshumasshu in central Stockholm. In 2022 they earned a Michelin star for their fine dining concept Adam/Albin which closed in 2025 to give space for their new ambitious project.
Sweden counts just over 20 Michelin-starred restaurants – modest in number compared to Denmark, yet increasingly influential thanks to its emphasis on seasonality, terroir and sustainable practices. It is also a comparatively young scene, with its first three-star restaurant awarded by Frantzén as recently as 2018.
Wessman and Dahlberg sees a change in the traditional fine dining scene. It marks a shift away from the focus on the chef as a superstar, towards greater attention on the guests. “We have talked a lot about the future of fine dining,” Wessman says. “For a long time the experience has been strictly guided by the restaurant. It was a space dedicated to foodies. We find it boring to only make a restaurant for one type of guest. This restaurant is so much more than the food and the chef. It’s the combination of hospitality, service and setting.”
Dahlgren adds that the guest demands more today from a restaurant. “The typical fine dining was built on perfectionism,” he says. “But you need other values that are unique today. It was built on highly technical food, but does it taste good? For us it’s about going back to old values of a restaurant where the chairs are comfortable, the service is exceptional and the food is all about pleasure.”
The 550 square metre restaurant is housed in a reconstructed three-level space in central Stockholm, overlooking the Royal Palace, the Royal Opera and the Swedish Parliament. It was the first restaurant design for Ruxandra and Christian Halleröd, who normally design stores for fashion brands such as Acne, Toteme and Saman Amel.
"We have talked a lot about the future of fine dining. For a long time the experience has been strictly guided by the restaurant. It was a space dedicated to foodies. This restaurant is so much more than the food and the chef. It’s the combination of hospitality, service and setting."
The overall interior concept reflects the chef duo’s focus on craftsmanship in the kitchen. It is more relaxed than the typical formal French fine dining restaurant, Ruxandra Halleröd points out. Their strategy was to introduce a contrast to the classicist setting – to create a clear break. ”1960s–70s aesthetic came in as a contrast to the more classical 1920s–30s style, which is present in the dining room with its arched windows and more traditional architecture,” she says.
Chairs from Svenskt Tenn is mixed up with Wiener Werkstätte references in the lighting for instance and dark wood panels in the lounge create an intimate setting while a Swedish birch floor creates a light feeling in the dining room. ”It was important not to confine ourselves to any one country or style, but to work more intuitively,” Ruxandra Halleröd says.
The result is something that feels Swedish, though not in an overt or dogmatic way. There is also a clear connection to the craftsmanship in the food – a care for detail that is reflected in the interior as well. Swedish glassblower Simon Klenell has for instance made all the glassware, adding poetry to some of the dishes. And the beautiful steak knives resembling small pieces of art are handmade by Sámi craftsman Jon Tomas Utsi. “It’s eclectic, a mix of materials and expressions – something that also keeps it from feeling rigid,” Christian Halleröd says.
"Each new room you enter feels like a new scene or experience."
Guests move through a sequence of rooms designed to feel welcoming, from conversation and anticipation in the more intimate lounge to a grand dining room with tall ceilings and large windows, creating an atmosphere that feels less like a performance and more like being invited into someone’s home.
”We worked extensively with that sense of movement,” Christian Halleröd says. “Each new room you enter feels like a new scene or experience.”They also felt that this aligned well with Wessman and Dahlgren’s own attitude. ”Even though the food is highly refined and sophisticated, the atmosphere is relaxed,” Ruxandra Halleröd says. ”I’ve visited when they play rock music, and the staff is not stiff – they’re young, friendly, and cool. That contrast – between the very refined and the relaxed – is something we aimed to bring into the interior design.”
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