At a walking distance from the immediate city center of Helsinki, and next to the green Kaisaniemi park, in Kruununhaka, lies café Espresso Edge that has charmed by-passers already for eight years. Belonging to the same café family, there is also 2-year-old Café Summer Edge which is located on the historical center of Helsinki. The café keepers are Helsinkian third and fourth generation entrepreneurs. A fresh breeze of summer air is the nostalgic “Come to Finland” ad poster exhibition that delights both cafés this summer from June to August.

Picture: Jorma Suhonen / Come to Finland

The exhibition consists of vintage tourism and travel posters that show how the country image of Finland was created back in the 30’s and 50’s. In these posters Helsinki stands for the same as still today: glamour and untouched nature. The posters were mainly targeted for the Nordic countries, Europe and USA, but are fascinating to all thanks to their retro spirit!

Come to Finland

Come to Finland’s story began in 2007 when the coffee table book “Come to Finland – posters and travel tales 1851 – 1965” was published. The book introduced over 200 posters that had been collected from museums and poster collectors around the world. The book had five language editions. The enormous success of the book was noticeable in numerous domestic TV interviews and international media coverage.

Picture: Alatalo / Come to Finland

Thanks to the impressive demand the Come to Finland project continues to offer posters, postcards, wall calendars and trays with nostalgic ads for Finland. In this way, the country image of Finland continues to conquest the world!

Espresso Edge

Café Espresso Edge is located in Kruununhaka on Liisankatu street, where there are even other sights for Helsinki visitors: e.g. the legendary Finnish restaurant Kolme Kruunua and the Finnish chocolate shop Chjoko which chocolate brunches have become widely popular (the chocolate brunch is on summer break in July-August).

Photo: Helsinki Ortodox Parish

The café is set in the same building as Helsinki’s Ortodox parish so the building can be recognized by the golden cupola that decorates the roof top. One of the café’s fun features is therefore that there one can run into representatives of the Ortodox church which is quite unique in Helsinki.

Photo: Espresso Edge

Espresso Edge is a colorful and relaxed café with an international feel to it. The café stresses openness and ethicalness with e.g. fair trade products and customer-centered thinking so it’s no wonder that the clientele is so comprehensive: students, urban wanderers, artists, groups of friends and international guests enjoy staying at Espresso Edge. The art café that fits 32 customers is personal and an essential part of the café supply in Helsinki. Besides having customer seats inside, the café also  has a charming terrace with12 customer seats.

Photo: Espresso Edge

Espresso Edge’s most popular meal is the ample half-a-liter vegetarian soup with a small sandwich in true American fashion that you get for €9. In addition to this meal, homemade organic pastries have been very popular. The visitor friendly menu is found in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English.

Café Summer Edge

About one kilometer away from Espresso Edge, in the historical center, one finds Café Summer Edge on the courtyard of the Bock house, between the Senate Square and the Market Square. The open air café is located in a visitor welcoming surrounding since the Bock house offers Finnish handcraft stores in a historical Empire style setting.

Photo: Café Summer Edge

The house was built in 1763 by merchant Gustav Johan Bock and it has during its history functioned as the residence of the Finnish governor-general and the city’s town hall. The Bock house is nowadays a part of the Tori quarters and hosts some meeting and reception rooms for the city as well as some banquet facilities. As mentioned, there are even some handcraft shops on the premises.

Photo: Café Summer Edge

Café Summer Edge is a sheltered café, a so called summer hideout oasis, where the courtyard’s sky functions as the roof. The basis of the café consists of natural stone. The café is children friendly since it’s located on a courtyard where there is no fear for traffic. Even this café focuses on organic food and uses domestic ingredients, served on Finnish design dishes of course.

Did you get your vintage poster of Helsinki yet?
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Opening hours

Espresso Edge :
Mon-Thu: 8am-7pm, Fri: 8am-5pm and Sat: 11am-5pm
(23rd of June-12th of August: Mon–Thu 8am-6pm, Fri: 8am-5pm)

Summer Edge:
Mon-Fri: 10am-6pm and Sat: 10am-4pm (weather conditions permitting)