Casamadre Restaurant

“In Italy, you always have your local trattoria,” explains Marta Meme Fagiuoli, co-owner of Casamadre Restaurant. “It’s the type of place where the family is always at the cashier and where you go for any occasion.” Together with her partner, Riccardo Giraldo, they have created exactly that, only this time, not in Italy, but in the heart of Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighborhood.

“There are nice Italian restaurants in Copenhagen, but we felt there wasn’t a real Italian ristorante experience,” Meme describes. Whether it is to celebrate your mother’s birthday, to have dinner before a friends’ night out, or to have lunch with your kids, the couple wanted to create a place that felt familiar, authentic, and simple. “We felt there was something missing, a kind of food and atmosphere we longed for and wanted to bring to the neighborhood,” Meme reflects.

Meme, a fashion designer and creative director, and Riccardo, a musician turned chef, had been living in Copenhagen when they began planning a move back to Italy before the arrival of their first child. However, Covid struck, and those plans changed: “We realized it was not the right time to move, but we decided that if we stayed in Denmark, we had to start our own company,” they point out. 

Within a couple of weeks, they found a space in Nørrebro and decided to bite the bullet: “It’s the best area, and the people who owned the local are lovely people, so we felt it was the right spot,” they state, “I think in total it took us less than two months.” Starting a new hospitality space while raising a newborn in the midst of Covid restrictions was anything but conventional, but they wouldn’t take a single thing back: “We really needed to create a place with good energy, so I think that’s why it happened,” details Meme.

Just like that, Casamadre Restaurant was born at the end of 2021. Since then, it has bloomed into a beautiful and thoughtful place where Italian cuisine comes to life every day, guided by a seasonal, sustainable approach and a deep sense of care that touches everything. “When we thought about opening a restaurant, our focus was on building something sustainable, not just in terms of food but also in how we treat our staff, which is something many restaurants tend to overlook,” expresses Riccardo.

At Casamadre, sustainability is honored through the use of local, organic, and biodynamic ingredients; close relationships with small suppliers; and a commitment to creating a welcoming and intentional space. That’s exactly what makes it so special. Self-described as a neighborhood restaurant, it stands out not only for its amazing food but also for the genuine interest in people that has built a community around it.

Under the name of Casamadre, the space constitutes an extension of the pair’s dining room: “Every time we are out with our friends, we end up having food at our place, and casa means home in Italian,” they explain, “and madre is very Italian, matriarchal.” A feeling that is very close to both: “Riccardo spent a lot of time cooking in the kitchen with his grandmother growing up, and my mom is an incredible hostess,” says Meme. With the kitchen being such an important part of the house and of their lives, they brought that tradition and that history by uniting “casa” and “madre”.

With Riccardo’s unmistakable gift in the kitchen and Meme’s effortless grace as a hostess, Casamadre has become more than a restaurant. Within its walls, couples have fallen in love, argued, and grown families. It has celebrated 80th birthdays and 30th birthdays alike; it has met parents and colleagues, old friends and new faces. What unites them all is a shared spirit, a community rooted in sustainability and openness, diversity and nearness. Oh, and of course, an inherently Italian soul.