I often spend time in the two main 'hipster' neigbourhoods in Copenhagen. To be clear I am not totally against some of the changes to these places but I'd like to see it slow down (but that is a more serious debate for another day, probably on my blog).
I am not a hipster and I alternate between being offended by the stealth cleansing of previously varied and interesting neighbourhoods with a special brand of hipster homogeneity or by simply being amused by playing hipster bingo and mentally checking off the coffee shop and restaurant cliches. Want to head down to your nearest hipster area and play?
By the way this article won't offend anyone as no hipster likes to be defined as one.
Coffee houses that are two things
No self respecting hipster establishment does just one thing. So if you are a coffee shop that's not enough you need to diversify with perhaps a hairdressers, a laundromat, or sell vinyl records or bikes. Or the one above - coffee, bikes and tattoos. Something that makes you 'unique'.
Chipboard and marker pen signs
Hipsters don't bother to get a sign writer to make their A boards (or maybe they do, in a post modern ironic way?). The chosen way to advertising your dual purpose coffee shop (see point 1) is to get hold of a large piece of chipboard, a thick marker pen and go wild!
Furniture made from pallets and other used cr*p
I understand and appreciate the eco ethos of hipsters but I can't get on board with the risk of splinters in my bum after sitting on some reclaimed pallets or the risk of spilling my expensive bottle of Fritz Kola whilst it teeters on the edge of a milk crate.
Beerhall tables and benches
Hipsters are sociable creatures (unless they have their MacBook with them) so outside many of their favourite cafes and restaurants you will find the pavement taken over by very basic beer hall tables and matching benches, full of happy hipsters drinking their ginger lemonades out of jam jars and disturbing the neighbours.
Ah yes, jam jars
The hipster obsession with jam jars (like the kind your dad keeps his nuts and bolts collection in) instead of drinking glasses is still going strong but they have branched out into jam jars with handles. Which are not jam jars at all but tankards shaped like jam jars.
Craft beer and ramen
Not always together but it is not unheard of for ramen and craft beer to be the main selling points of a new restaurant. I worked for years in the beer industry and I am not aware that anyone called small scale beer production craft beer outside of America until millennials got into the beer making scene.
Ironic fast food boxes
This is a new thing I have noticed recently. Ordering a burger meal to eat-in but having it presented to you as a to-go meal in plain unbranded polystyrene or cardboard burger boxes. If I want to eat a MacDonalds I'll do that and save myself a ton of money, if not go I'll somewhere that uses a plate and a knife and fork.
MacBook free areas to encourage conversation
Hipsters are traditionally wedded to their Apple products and without some urging wouldn't be able to switch them off and talk to others, hence the 'laptop free' tables and whole coffee shops devoted to conversation.
Exposed brick work and graffiti
Traditionally the areas now popular with hipsters in cities were a little rough around the edges before they were 'discovered' and 'improved'. But it is still important to stay real and have some exposed brickwork inside and some graffiti outside even if this wasn't here before.
Sadly, the irony of this bingo is I am sitting writing this in a coffee shop with beer hall tables outside, seats made of pallets for relaxing in the sun on, exposed brick work and marker pen menus so I am doing well on the bingo front today!