About Birch & Surkaj
We opened because we missed eating like this at home on Læsø.
Mille grew up on a farm in Byrum. Steffen came from restaurant kitchens in Copenhagen. In 2019 we moved back with two children, a bag of dreams, and the old Læsø Dairy.
[ Familieportræt · Mille og Steffen foran det gamle mejeri ]
Chapter One
History
The dairy had stood empty for 41 years when we bought it. We spent two and a half years preparing it to receive guests — and served our first evening meal on 9 April 2019.
The kitchen
Mille has worked in the kitchens of Henne Kirkeby Kro and Frederikshøj. She cooks without modern tricks: fire, salt, acidity, time. We have a small team of four in the kitchen and two in the dining room.
The ingredients
We have standing arrangements with five of the island’s farmers and three fishermen, and we gather seaweed ourselves from the belt between Læsø and Hirsholmene. Our salt comes from the Saltsyderi and is used as seasoning, as cure, and — rarely — as decoration.
A short timeline
2017 — Mille and Steffen meet at a wedding. Both are working in Copenhagen kitchens.
2019 — They move to Læsø and open Birch & Surkaj in the old Læsø Dairy.
2022 — Listed in White Guide Nordic. A new herb garden is built behind the house.
2025 — Reviewed 5/6 hearts in Politiken. The season is extended with a winter menu in February.
2026 — The season opens on 4 April. A new wine pairing with 70% natural wines from Scandinavia.
Chapter Two
The Property
Byrum Hovedgade 85 has housed Læsø Cooperative Dairy since 1887. The building is listed and has scarcely changed shape in 140 years — we have simply moved in.
[ Detalje · åbent ildsted med sejldug over ]
[ Detalje · urtehaven i den brolagte gård ]
[ Detalje · de syv små mejerivinduer i salen ]
1887 – 1972
Læsø Cooperative Dairy was built as one of the first industrial buildings on the island, supplying Læsø’s roughly 2,800 inhabitants with milk, butter, and cheese for 85 years. The dairy operation closed in 1972, when production moved to Hjørring.
1972 – 2017
After the dairy closed, the building was used as a storage space for Læsø Auctions and, for a time, as a studio for the architect Knud Friis. It stood empty and partly derelict for 8 years before we bought it.
The restoration
We have kept the original whitewashed walls, the tiles in the old cheese cellar, and the seven small dairy windows in the dining room. The ceiling has been opened to the ridge, and we have hung an old sailcloth from a Læsø ship above the open hearth.
The dining room today
42 seats spread across the former cheese hall, plus 14 summer seats in the cobbled courtyard behind the house. The furniture is auction finds from across the island — no two chairs alike.
Chapter Three
Læsø Art and Culture
Læsø is a small island with an unusual abundance of art. The seaweed-thatched houses, the salt-boiling huts, the fishing hamlets, and the Lutheran church have made the island a meeting place for artists, craftspeople, and musicians for more than a hundred years. We try to be part of that environment.
The seaweed roofs
Læsø is the only place in the world where houses are still thatched with eelgrass. About 25 original seaweed-thatched houses remain — we are happy to point you on to Museumsgården and Tangtagets Venner if you wish to visit them.
Læsø Crafts
The association of the island’s ceramicists, weavers, and smiths holds a shared open workshop every first Saturday of the season. We serve them breakfast and use their plates in the dining room — look for Maria Klüver’s and Asger Eriksen’s signatures on the underside.
Concerts & readings
Eight Mondays a year — on our day off — we lend the dining room to chamber concerts, readings, and conversations arranged by Læsø Kulturhus. The programme for the 2026 season is published in March.
Læsø for children
We support Byrum School’s sea project, in which the fourth-form class each year learns to peel shrimp, smoke herring, and bake rye bread in our kitchen. It is the best Monday of the year.