by Samantha Husted 

Husband and wife duo James and Cameron Barker want to change your perception of Nordic cuisine — that is, if you even have one to begin with. 

“I think the misconception about Nordic food — if there’s even a perception of it — is that you’ve got René Redzepi and Noma and that really set menu. It’s $2,000 and it’s all very creative,” James Barker explains. “Then there’s Ikea meatballs and pickled herring. I think that there’s a really limited perception of it.”

The Barkers recently launched Vivienne (named as an homage to their young daughter), a family-owned, culinary-driven pop-up series that aims to bring flavors from “the far North, South.” The concept is a community focused affair powered by the couple’s need to create. 

Vivienne’s menu is a rotating smorgasbord of Nordic street food (there’s always a hotdog option) to high-end dishes like freshly sourced fjord scallops served with horseradish cream, dill oil, Øresund trout roe, and a red currant granita. 

“The seafood that we get all comes directly from wherever I can find it in Scandinavia, overnighted. We get the freshest things we can find,” Barker says. “I like to get all my stuff from Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.”

The menu is an approachable blend of familiar favorites with a Nordic flair. The hotdogs that are ever-present are crafted with custom made sausage and mustard that comes directly from Reykjavik. Other menu items inform the eater of flavors from a region that they may be unfamiliar with, food from countries like Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

“There is a whole breadth of stories and histories, ingredients, flavors that exist,” Barker says. “We just want to tell those stories from around that whole region.”

In the few short months since Vivienne’s launch, it’s made an impact on Charlotte’s evolving pop-up community, piquing the interest of local food enthusiasts and popular wine bars like Substrate and Bar à Vins alike.

It may come as a surprise that Barker, despite creating delightfully detailed menus using difficult to source ingredients, has a background in men’s clothing — not the culinary arts. After getting laid off from his job and moving to Charlotte from Portland, Oregon, he decided to follow his passion (and his palate). 

“I kind of had a coming to Jesus moment,” Barker says. “I got laid off at my job and I was like, ‘I’m going to do something with food.’ I’ve always been really passionate about it.”

The original concept for Vivienne began as a brewery that served Nordic-style beer and cider — food was secondary. But, after the initial brick and mortar location the couple had planned on didn’t pan out, Barker and his wife shifted focus. 

“We were like, ‘You know what, we’ll be patient. The right thing will come.’ I’m going to keep developing and trying stuff,” Barker says.

Barker is half English and half American with some distant Nordic ancestry. What draws him to the cuisine is not so much his cultural roots, but rather the uniqueness of the ingredients. 

“I think the connection really with that food is how special the ingredients are,” Barker says.

Over time, Vivienne evolved from a brewery with a small bar menu to something more food-focused. While it didn’t work out in the space they had envisioned, Barker and his wife were eager to start sharing their food with the Charlotte community.

“We’re going to open a restaurant and we just couldn’t wait to cook and bring our flavors to people,” Barker says.

The first ever Vivienne pop-up was a Midsommar-style, donate-what-you-can dinner with friends in the Barkers’ backyard. It was exceptionally DIY, community-funded, and driven by the couple’s passion to share their food.

“We had just bought a new house in Plaza Midwood and had a really big backyard and thought, ‘You know, let’s just let’s just try to bring some of what we think we would do into the restaurant to our home and share it with friends,’’ Barker says. 

The candlelit dinner featured curated ciders and beers, tasty Nordic-style hotdogs — which, according to Barker, are very popular in Iceland and Denmark — fiskekrave (grilled cod collars) and Danish pancakes. The night was a success. But most importantly, it proved to the Barkers that Vivienne was viable. 

“The barrier to entry to getting into your own restaurant with no big backing requires creative thinking,” Barker says. 

For the second backyard pop-up, Barker posted tickets to Vivienne’s Instagram account. They sold out almost instantly. This time, it wasn’t Barker’s friends buying them, but people in the community  — people Barker didn’t know. 

“We sold them out in like fifteen minutes to a bunch of people we didn’t know, guys from Substrate and different restaurants around town,” Barker says. “That was like this first moment of, ‘Whoa, actually, I think we have something.’”

From there, Vivienne has found a monthly residence at Bar à Vin, where the pop-up has been able to bring fine-dining elements to each menu. 

When it comes to Charlotte’s pop-up community, Barker says it’s been nothing but supportive — receiving encouragement from fellow pop-up owner Michael Le of Hello Uncle.

“It’s so cool to see the pop-up scene in Charlotte doing what it’s doing. Michael from Hello Uncle reached out right away,” Barker said.

What’s most impressive is that Vivienne grew from mostly word of mouth and with a little help from social media. It seems that the Charlotte community is hungry for new flavors.

“I think Charlotte’s kind of begging out for creative things always,” Barker says. “It’s a city that has so much potential. It’s growing so much and I think the food seems to be getting better and better and better.”

You can find Vivienne at  Bar à Vin on the third Wednesday of each month. For Vivienne’s full schedule, visit the pop-ups Instagram @vivienne_clt.