.jpg)
Nordvest Stories: Martin’s Café, Where Football Meets Family and Community
- nordvestandmore
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
In a small corner of Nordvest, right by the football fields of B.K. Union, there’s a café that doesn’t quite feel like any other. Throughout the week, you can smell the aroma of coffee and the warmth of a local dish from the kitchen, hear the sound of kids shouting outside, and spot Martin, the do-it-all man behind the place. He moves constantly between the stove, the counter, and the crowd. He’s not a chef in the traditional sense, nor a manager behind a laptop. He’s something else entirely — a quiet force of transformation in his community.
I’ve been talking with Martin on and off for a few months now. We first connected online — he would thank me for sharing BK Union’s football events, and I became curious about the man behind them.
The Past
Martin has lived in Nordvest for sixteen years, sometimes in an apartment overlooking the football field, but always close to B.K. Union. From there, he’s watched the neighborhood change — and noticed what was missing.
“When I had small children, I would have loved that you could just play here, watch some football, and grab a cup of coffee. Because we didn’t have it like this,” he says. “We didn’t have a café nearby. You’d have to walk 10–15 minutes. With a stroller and a dog, it’s a lot.”
He’d already been around the club for years, first as a supporter and later as an assistant coach for his son’s team. So when he began asking if he could open a small café on site, he wasn’t an outsider with a business plan — he was a parent trying to fill a gap. “At first the club said no — ‘we cannot do this’ — but I kept asking.” There was no money, no equipment, and no plan. But there was community. When the team’s management changed, so did the possibilities — opening up the old ice rink space where the café now stands.
Martin started walking around the neighborhood, asking for help. “I walked around Nordvest — Tekno Eatery, Flere Fugle, all of them — asking, ‘Do you have a chair? A table you don’t use? A fridge I can borrow?’”
In the beginning, he baked everything himself. “I was making 150 buns in a little oven every weekend, while working my normal job and taking care of my kids,” he says, shaking his head with a small smile. “It was getting too much because we sold 150 buns in a couple of hours.”
It was improvised, built on favors and borrowed fridges — and on a stubborn belief that Nordvest deserved something simple and good. It took time, but Martin eventually left his main job to focus fully on the club and its new café.
The Present
Today, the café has become part of the rhythm of the football club — and of the neighborhood. It’s not just about food; it’s about creating a place that feels like home. “People think we’re open every day serving food all the time,” Martin laughs. For now, they’re open a few days a week and on Saturdays — but the ambition is there.
Martin’s work touches everything that happens in the building. “I’m the one doing the merch, the supplier deals, washing the floor, doing the dishes, buying a new grill if we need one… and I’m still the one cooking.” He gestures around, smiling a little at the chaos. “We have 12 toilets and bathrooms across two buildings, and there’s just one person — for 13 hours a week — to clean the whole thing,” he says. “There are 1,600 members. Things look different from the inside than outside.”
There’s no elaborate menu, no long list of options — just one warm, healthy meal. “On training days there’s only one dish,” he says. “It’s always vegetarian, with add-ons like cheese or milk if people want. It doesn’t matter which religion or background — we can all eat together.”
Martin also sees food as education. He wants the kids “to learn what ‘organic’ is, what sourdough is. Many have never tasted it.” And through a new collaboration with Fiskerikajen, he’s bringing in more seafood — perch crudo, crab bisque, oysters — to share during home matches, often for free. “It’s about teaching kids about gifts from the sea,” he says. His food happens to align with trends of the time, but as he puts it, “I’m not trying to create something trendy. I’m trying to do things right.“
“So much here is built from help from the local society,” Martin says. “People donate, volunteer… I was on vacation with my children in a summer house from one of the locals that I don’t know.” People help each other without being asked because they see someone doing something good for the community and want to be part of it. A small Nordvest virtuous cycle.
That spirit of generosity shows up all around the café. Bausager & Bouquet, a flower and garden studio, whose co-founder lives in the area, stopped by and offered to add more greenery to the area even before the idea came up. They’ve since been taking care of securing funding from Københavns Kommune to make Genforeningspladsen greener — helping the place grow both literally and figuratively. 🌿
That cycle also extends beyond the café itself. Every Tuesday, Martin runs a project that serves a warm meal to people in socially vulnerable situations — many from the Nordvest area. “It’s important for me that we take care of everyone who comes here,” he says.
Still, with everything he has started, Martin admits it isn’t always easy to slow down and see the impact of what he’s built. “Sometimes I struggle to take in the positive feedback,” he says quietly. “I hear it, then I throw it out the window and keep running.”
The Future
Ask Martin about the future, and he doesn’t talk about growth or expansion. He talks about responsibility.
“I want this to be the first club in Copenhagen doing things as they should be done,” he says. He wants BK Union to keep getting better on the field — so kids can dream big right here, without having to leave their own club. He wants them to be able to “just go down, play, and go home.”
Part of that vision is food — not trendy dishes, but honest ones. Soon, they’ll open more days during the week, with a real menu. But Martin’s not planning hipster small plates. He wants to serve dishes from his roots — “meals you haven’t been served for the last forty years in any restaurant in Copenhagen. We’re not trying to make something new and unseen. We’re doing the complete opposite.”
And his vision extends far beyond football and food. “I want to create a place that becomes a kind of community house for the neighborhood — and I want to run it completely old school. A place where people naturally greet each other again, across football, diversity, and the local community. Where we can be proud of who we are and where we come from.”
He also wants to strengthen ties with local businesses, expand the garden, renovate the kitchen, and build an even closer connection between the senior and youth teams — so kids have someone to look up to. “We need to bring back that feeling of supporting your local team, no matter which division they play in,” he says.
In 2026, some of those ideas will begin to take shape: a new football pitch at Genforeningspladsen, a renovated kitchen, longer opening hours, and shared spaces where people can meet, work, and gather. Beyond that, Martin hopes to grow what the café has already become — a true community house for Nordvest, rooted in food, football, and belonging.
He’s determined to keep things grounded in the values that started it all: community, access, and inclusion. “I need people from outside to know we’re here — funds keep the café going, support youth trips, pay small stipends to volunteers,” he says. “I don’t want 100% gentrification,” he continues. “Nordvest needs a mix — people with money and people with lower funds. Otherwise, it’s not Nordvest.” The mix that welcomes newcomers but also embraces and cherishes those who’ve been here for decades and generations.
If you visit on a Saturday, you’ll find Martin in the middle of it all — stirring, serving, greeting familiar faces. Around him, kids run from the field, parents linger with coffee, and the café hums with the kind of life that can’t be bought or branded. It’s the quiet work of Martin and the volunteers, who don’t just feed their community — they build it.
Useful Links:
Comments