Bistro & Cafe Kuukkeli in Saariselkä rose from the ashes

Bistro & Cafe Kuukkeli, opened in Saariselkä's new shopping centre, feeds Lapland tourists from early morning until late evening. Kuukkeli, known for its omelettes and traditional flatbread, “rieska”, was recently reopened after a devastating fire.

The Kuukkeli shopping center in Saariselkä was destroyed by fire a few years ago. Now a new shopping center stands on the same site, serving residents and tourists with a grocery store, Alko and a bistro-café, among other things. The two-and-a-half year wait finally came to an end just before the holiday season last winter.

Bistro & Cafe Kuukkeli is a 120-seat restaurant with an additional 50-seat covered terrace. The design of the restaurant in a completely new building was "for once, well in advance", says Pirkko Valkamo, concept creator and project manager of Bistro & Cafe Kuukeli. Valkamo's team included two well-known names in the kitchen business, Timo Melto and Risto Mikkola, who were responsible for the kitchen design with Metos, among other things. 

Valkamo herself is a very experienced hospitality professional who has been through many hotel and restaurant openings. He has been familiar with working with Metos for decades, since the opening of the Vaakuna in Rovaniemi.

Although the Bistro & Cafe Kuukkeli project went according to plan, external factors stretched the schedule.

– Training time in the kitchen before the opening was very limited. Even though the equipment was on time, the construction project stretched everyone, and it was tough to get everything up and running on time. However, the Metos people handled this situation well and didn't get nervous, even though the schedule was tight, Valkamo recalls the final stages of construction.

To the holiday through Kuukkeli

Bistro & Cafe Kuukkeli is a multi-faceted business: the café sells products both in and out of the café, and the restaurant's menu includes favorites from burgers and salmon soup to pizza. The clientele mainly spends their leisure time in Saariselkä, so pizzas and burgers are the restaurant's absolute main products. The restaurant also serves buffet food from 11am to midnight, as well as breakfasts in the various accommodation facilities in the area.
 

During his previous career as a K-retailer, Kuukkeli Shopping Centre entrepreneur Antero Ylävaara has created hit products that Saariselkä travellers know to look for in Kuukkeli. One of these products is the baked reindeer flatbread, which was developed in the store's home bakery. It and Kuukkeli's own flatbread and famous doughnuts are sold in Kuukkeli's café. The café is open inside the shopping center, so a lot of products are also bought to go. 

– We have a lot of customers who come to Kuukkeli first, buy these products and then go to their accommodations. We bake a minimum of a hundred flatbreads a day and another hundred doughnuts! Pirkko Valkamo talks about the sales.

Up-to-date equipment and guidance

– Our range and repertoire is very wide, so we need to have equipment and ovens for quite a few different occasions, says Valkamo. 
Valkamo praises the fact that thanks to Metos' professional equipment training, it has been easy to learn how to use the equipment, and it has also been easy to pass on the lessons to new employees.
 

A visit to the Metos showroom in Kerava also gave him an up-to-date view of what kind of equipment is on the market and what is needed for a versatile kitchen.

– Together with Timo and Risto, we were given a good introduction to what kind of kitchen equipment is available nowadays and what you can do with it. If we had even more space in our kitchen, I think we would have added a few more appliances based on the demonstrations.