Barbara Ekenberg

Elsa Barbro "Barbara" Ekenberg (1717–25 May 1799), was the owner and manager of a coffeehouse in Stockholm in 1772–99. She was a figure in the work of Carl Michael Bellman, who dedicated to her a verse of Fredmans epistel 9 titled Till Gumman på Thermopolium Boreale och hennes jungfrur ('To the Old woman of the Thermopolium Boreale and her maidens').

Barbara Ekenberg managed a coffeehouse after the death of her spouse, Carl Ekenberg, and made it to a very popular and wellfrequented establishment in Gustavian era Stockholm. Her house was known for the innovation of banned smoking, which was a problem in the rest of the coffeehouses, where the smoke was often so thick as to cause breathing problems.[1] Bellman describe her as squinting and fat but her "maidens" as beautiful, and her house widely known for its music and merry atmosphere.

See also

References
  1. Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013

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