Turku, Coffee House

Coffee House in Aurakatu made an impact on me the day they were opened. I happened to be among the first three to step in the new café (adjoined with two restaurants). After I had ordered my caffe latte (half-automatic) and cinnamon roll, I sat down, only to notice my pastry was still raw. When I pointed it out to the staff, they discussed shortly - and threw every cinnamon roll in trash can. What a remarkable feeling, to be the one causing trouble in the opening evening, even with good reason to do so.

Coffee House belongs to the class 'best-before-date', even it is not utterly bad today either. Two things mainly are the reason to my conclusion: removing excellent baguettes from their list, and the place converting to teen-hang-around place. They did place an age limit for the evenings, so you can have your quiet moments later. Opening hours were one of the good reasons to come to Coffee House. When they opened, it was almost the only place (besides fast-food-chains) open after 7 PM that wasn't a bar. So for people who wanted something more relaxed than watching drunk people stumble around, they provided some improvement for nightlife. Although, in the weekends Amarillo upstairs converts to sort of nightclub, so better to enjoy your quiet evening during the weekdays.

Picture of the late paguette, back when the world was more simple place.

I used to go to Coffee House more when I wrote my masters thesis. I could of thanked them in my introduction, but decided not to single out just one place - there were after all other mistresses also. For many hours I analyzed my interviews, sitting there, sipping tea. Since those days I haven't been there that often, especially because of the teens. Let them have the place, I figure. One other thing was the dimming of the lights. For some strange reason almost every café and bar that stays open after 6-8 PM in Turku, have the acute need to dim the lights so low that you can't read there anymore. For academics who work odd hours reading, thinking and meditating in strange places, this is quite frustrating sometimes. Give me light, please! Just little more would be enough. It would be nice to see the other people's faces too, if you are there with company. Or maybe they think Finns are so ugly that you don't want to see their faces. Go figure...