Coffee & tea

Gruppo is the newest addition to the Punavuori coffee scene, a tiny hole-in-the wall cafe at Pursimiehenkatu. The interior etc. maybe may be not completely ready yet, but the coffee is great! And the WiFi is free, without any annoying passwords.

When Kaffecentralen moved away from the neighbourhood Kalle Tuure, the owner of Gruppo realized there was an opening for a place like this. And as Kalle feels very passionate about good coffee – hey presto – Gruppo was born!

The location is nice, right next door to Kahvila Suomi, a bar with home cooking, known to all the Japanese tourists because of a Japanese film “Kamome shokudô” which was filmed mostly in Kahvila Suomi.

For now it’s just coffee, great coffee, but soon Gruppo will also be selling cold beverages, maybe some small snacks etc.

I’ll keep you posted.

Tiina Kiilavirta’s tiny little shop at Vuorimiehenkatu is just the place to shop if you want to cook Catalonian. She sells olives, spices, like heavenly saffron, sauces, asparagus, grilled paprika, honey, gourmet salt, summer- and winter truffles, liquorice etc. all from Catalonia, Spain. And all organic and without any food additives.

The famous house of E&A Gispert delivers spices, dried fruits, oil, chocolate and other organic foods and Querida Carmen the fantastic gourmet fast food meals in a can, just what you need in the summer, bolete risotto, arroz negro, bouillabaisse, onion soup, paellas, crab soup etc. . Their delicious coffees and teas and herbal drinks come from Cafés el Magnífico.

You can just pop in for a great espresso, sit down on one of the four (4!) chairs and have a lovely discussion with the owner, Tiina Kiilavirta.

Kitch is a retro place where the food is good and reasonably priced! They serve pasta, tapas, salads and burgers. During the weekend they have a great brunch. They cook using fresh ingredients. Why don’t you try beetroot pasta with goat cheese and rucola or how about prawns with wasabi-mayonaise? Delicious! The wines are either organic or fair trade products.

The comfortable chairs & couches, tables and dishes are mostly used and recycled. They used very warm and strong colors when they decorated, so the place is very down to earth, yet quite chic.

This season’s Must-Drink is Glögi a.k.a. mulled wine. There are several different kinds of Glögi: wine based, vodka based and of course a non-alcoholic one. My personal favourite is the one with red wine. Kitch, as well as some other restaurant make their own mix, others use the one you can find in grocery store (Marli).

Carusel “the house by the sea” is a cool café & restaurant in Kaivopuisto. Its round shape and the windows that are all the way from the ceiling to the floor guarantee that you will get a good view from where ever you sit. The place has a chilled out feeling.

In winter I go there for hot chocolate. I sit by the fire place inside and watch the snow falling outside. In summer I sit in one of the wooden couches outside and drink ice tea. The place changes a lot during the season, thanks to the big windows. It is, as the rest of Finland is, the best in summer time though!

There are concerts and other happenings around the year. They serve good breakfast, lunch, café and drinks, but I think the best thing you can eat there is their pizza!

All the really cool, posh city-goers have their breakfast or lunch at Café Succes and no wonder why: the croissants, bread, jam and coffee are delicious! It is actually very famous for its cinnamon rolls (called “korvapuusti”). I know people coming all the way from Espoo (the next city) to buy them. For lunch they serve soups, sandwiches and salads for a reasonable price.

The café is old and definitely Finnish, but it looks like it could be somewhere in Paris. White walls, red leather couches and wooden chairs around small round tables make it cozy yet chic! Most of its customers are just locals having their breakfast and reading their daily paper. Not that many tourists know about, which means you will get a more authentic experience. The service is good and even better if you talk in Swedish.

Thanks to the big windows you can watch stylish people passing by. Personally I think Café Succes is the most romantic café in the city!