On Stortingsgata, between Nationaltheatret and the Storting, one room has now been three bars. Red Rabbit Pub opened there in late April 2026, and its owners describe it without ceremony. “Red Rabbit is basically the third version of the same room,” says general manager and co-owner Fredrik Holmberg.
One Room, Three Bars
The first was Barfly, which Holmberg calls “a proper brown pub where everyone was a regular and if you walked in you became one.” Barfly served classic cocktails, but the drinks were never the whole point. People came for the place, the staff and the company.
Then came ISM, which went the other way: polished, ambitious, with a designed interior, a serious cocktail program and a speakeasy in the basement. Its ceiling ran LEDs behind dimmed plexiglass and a gold-coloured metal plate cut with icons, and mirrors with lines running through them hung above the booths and the bar.
Red Rabbit takes from both. The team kept much of the ISM structure and set out, in Holmberg’s words, to “remove anything that screamed speakeasy cocktail bar and pub the room down a bit.” Tiffany-style lamps, more wood and darker colours came in, and the LEDs that once ran through every colour now glow warm yellow. The booths were rebuilt in the old style but opened up, so it is easier to move around when the bar fills. “There are still quite a few recognisable elements from ISM, but the feeling of the room is very different now.”
What they wanted back was the feeling of Barfly. “Less distance, less formality, more people actually talking to each other,” Holmberg says. “We call it a public house because that is probably the easiest way to explain what we want it to be.”
Three Swedes and a Back Room Problem
The owners are three Swedes who have worked in Oslo nightlife for years. Holmberg runs operations and the bar day to day, Fredrik Sandin handles the administrative side, and Robbin Sandin, who runs Kiosken Bar just down the street, helps out at Red Rabbit when needed. “We all develop the concept together,” Holmberg says.
The bar began with a shared frustration. “All of us got to a point where we missed actually spending time with guests,” Holmberg says. “In cocktail bars you can very easily end up spending an insane amount of time in the back room to get ready for service and always be on your back foot.”
So Red Rabbit was planned from the back of house forward. Preparation is kept as efficient as the team can make it, and the hours saved go to the floor. It is an unusual design brief for a bar, and the one most guests notice without knowing why.
A Menu Anyone Can Read
The best-known drink on the list is Lennart, an old Scandinavian favourite that Holmberg admits “is almost a meme at this point.” It is a simple highball, made exactly the way it used to be made in pubs and bars around Scandinavia, and “one of those drinks that people over 45 seem to go out looking for and almost never find anymore.”
The Hotshot, another drink that has all but disappeared over the last ten years, is on the menu too. “What is important for us is that it tastes good and that the guest is happy,” Holmberg says. “Old trends are sometimes fun trends, and not everything needs to be reinvented.”
The newer drinks follow the same idea: familiar flavours, playful without being complicated, and easy to understand before you order. Paloma Rossa (165 NOK) mixes Disaronno, Carpano Rosso, lemon juice and pink grapefruit soda. Irish Brownie (165 NOK) brings together Tullamore D.E.W., brownie syrup, coffee and sweet cream. “We are not trying to make the most complicated cocktail menu in Oslo,” he says. “The important thing for us is that almost anyone should be able to look at the menu and find something they want.”
The simplicity is a choice, not a limit. Holmberg reached the METAXA global final in 2025 and competed in Buffalo Trace’s Perfectly Untamed the same year. “We still care a lot about making drinks properly,” he says. “We just do not want the drink to be more important than the night.”
Darts Downstairs
Red Rabbit has four Dartsee smart dart boards. One upstairs is always kept free for drop-ins, and three in the basement, where ISM once hid its speakeasy, can be booked in advance. They suit groups, but Holmberg values them for another reason: they give a night a second act. “You can sit at the bar for a while, go downstairs and play, and then come back upstairs afterwards instead of feeling like you need to move on somewhere else,” he says. “The darts are part of the house, but they are not the concept.” The basement can also be booked for private parties of up to 40.
Five Months In
The response has been quick. In early October 2026, by the bar’s own count, Red Rabbit was ranked first among bars and pubs in Oslo on Tripadvisor and held a 5.0 average across more than 340 Google reviews. What pleases Holmberg most is what the reviews talk about: the atmosphere, the staff and how comfortable the place feels, which is exactly what the three set out to build.
“At the end of the day we want Red Rabbit to be a bar where the atmosphere, the staff and the people in the room matter as much as what is in the glass,” he says. “Ideally you come in for one drink and end up staying much longer than you planned.”
The owners are not in a hurry. “Since the start the philosophy has been that we are building for 10 years, not a two-month hype.”
Details
Red Rabbit Pub, Stortingsgata 12, 0161 Oslo, Norway. Open Tuesday to Thursday 15:30 to 01:30, Friday 15:30 to 02:00, Saturday 14:00 to 02:00, Sunday 14:00 to 01:00, closed Monday. Four Dartsee boards: one upstairs for drop-ins, three downstairs to book. Darts cost 100 NOK per person per hour, up to 400 NOK per board. Tables and darts: redrabbit.no. Instagram: @redrabbitpub.
All photos: Red Rabbit Pub.
