Sweden’s Athletes Will Get A Taste Of Home

by Theresa Carter

My last post was about Chicago’s Swedish community. One of their most popular restaurants is Tre Kronor. Check out these items and you can understand why: salmon, cream cheese and fresh dill omelet served with new potatoes; eggs benedict placed on crab cakes instead of muffins; orange vanilla french toast with cinnamon and orange zest.

Now that’s a breakfast that’ll have you packing your bags and hopping on the next plane to Sweden. Fortunately, all you have to do is head to the north side of Chicago.

Larry and Patty Anderson (Swedish & Norwegian, respectively) opened Tre Kronor a couple of miles west of Andersonville back in 1992. Since then it’s become a favorite not just in the North Park neighborhood, but also as a dining destination. It’s easy to understand why. Besides the delectable items mentioned above, you get to order food like lingonberries and limpa toast while looking at trolls.

This family owned restaurant has a quaint feel, with wooden floors and happy dancing trolls painted on the wall. The servers wear t-shirts with Swedish sayings like “kotbulle” (meatball) and “fint sons snus” (I have no idea). Tre Kronor means Three Crowns and there’s a castle in Stockholm that dates from the 13th century with the same name.

If you go on the weekends there will be a wait. There’s no room in the restaurant itself, so they send you across the street to the Swedish Shop where they call the shopkeeper when your table’s ready. It’s kind of like a disconnected Cracker Barrel arrangement.

Dining at Tre Kronor is a treat. The food is wonderful, and the atmosphere makes you feel like you’ve been transported to another place. When the 2016 Swedish Olympic and Paralympic Athletes get a little homesick during the games, they can just head on up to Foster and Kedzie. It’s a bit of a hike, but much closer (and cheaper!) than flying to Sweden.