A Little Piece of Denmark in the Middle of Canada
My partner, Izzy Fernando, and I left the northeastern United States to make our way to Kitchener, Ontario. After driving for a number of hours, we realized just how hungry we were. We were less than an hour from our final destination but we haven't eaten all day and it was only my partner’s second time in Canada, so I wanted to let her try something particularly Canadian (but also affordable). I searched for the nearest Wendy’s on Apple Maps and we drove through some sparsely occupied backroads in order to share an order of poutine.
While driving through the small and rural forested road, we saw a sign that excited us both. It read “The Danish Place” and “Sunset Villa Danish-Canadian Club”. As a historian (with some Scandinavian ancestry) with a great interest in Danish and Scandinavian history, I had to investigate this place. It also helped that the two of us spent some time in Denmark and it’s been years since we’ve tasted true Scandinavian cuisine. We found the hours of the restaurant online and planned to return in a few days.
On the day we returned, we were surprised to see that the area was not just a restaurant and Danish-Canadian club, but an entire sprawled complex of residential buildings, a camp-ground, trails, a restaurant, gift shop, and cemetery. It somewhat reminded me of organized communes in Denmark, such as Copenhagen’s Freetown Christiania or Ålborg’s Fjordbyen. The community supposedly celebrates and hosts Danish Constitution Day, golf tournaments, bake sales, and Viking festivals. It was unthinkable that a place like this was located in a remote area between Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton, and Toronto.
At the entrance of the urn cemetery (what was called the mindepark, Danish for “memorial park”) was a wood carving of a horned Viking and a small Lutheran Chapel.
A memorial rock sits in the urn cemetery. In Danish it reads:
“Her fandt vi vort virke
her er vor hjem
vi rejser dette minde
miot iblandt dem”
(Translated to English: Here we found our work. Here is our home. We raise this memorial among them”)
In English it reads:
“A memorial to Danes
who came and made
Canada their Home”
The mindepark was full of beautiful monuments, plaques, and customized memorial stones for those of Danish descent who passed away.
Not far from the cemetery, were a few short trails that wrapped around a scenic lake with its very own Viking ship. We walked further to find a playground, a mural, and a plethora of campers going in and out of their RVs and tents.
Before entering the restaurant, we did some research on the community on the official website. In the early 1950s, a number of Danish Canadians raised funds to build a retirement home community for those of Danish descent. They purchased a large amount of land in a small area called Crieff and the Sunset Villa association was founded on Danish Constitution Day.
In 1967, Princess Margrethe herself (now Queen Margrethe II) and Prince Consort of Denmark Henrik visited the community and planted two beech trees in celebration of the community. The cemetery was created in the early 1990s.
The Danish Place was charming. Danish art and trinkets hung on the walls, customers were socializing, and the staff was welcoming. The gift shop includes Danish clothing, souvenirs, magazines and books in the Danish language.
The menu included many dishes that would be difficult to find anywhere outside of Denmark. I ordered frikadeller while Isabel ordered liverpostej smørrebrød. The menu also included herring, salmon, tarteletter, esrom, gravlax, rullepølse, Flæskesteg Med Rødkål, Schnitzel, æblekage, and lagkage. It is one of the rare places where you find Tuborg and Carlsberg on tap.
