The summer cafe is located in the beautiful old Käpylä neighborhood in Helsinki.  I would recommend a bike ride from the city as it is such a pretty way going here. The great thing about getting around in Helsinki is that you can rent bikes at lot’s of different locations. Siili is owned by Jyri Engeström that normally lives in Silicon Valley with his family. He co-founded the mobile social network Jaiku that was sold to google for example. As his mother lives beside the cafe, and the neighborhood used to be full of families, shops and food places in the old days. Jyri wanted to recreate a place where the community could meet in the neighborhood just like in the old days. And as he see it, what we do with food and living is really fundamental. He got the idea about the cafe from America when there was a bad heatwave where people died because of it. But in the neighborhoods where there were a cafe people noticed when someone didn’t show up. He thinks that it will be even more important in the future that we take care of each other and the society. So what delicious food can you get at Siili? They serve fantastic coffee. And as both the Swedes and Finns drinks lot’s of coffee I really appreciated that they had good coffee! There is also several kinds of sandwiches, bowls and other vegetarian food. If you go here, I recommend to try some of the vegan cakes! One word, amazing!Siili means hedgehog in Finnish, and as the cafe is only open in the summer the name is perfect as the hedgehog goes into hibernation a big part of the year. But the name comes from that there is a hedgehog in the neighborhood.

Cafe Siili, Ilmattarentie 8 C, 00610 Helsinki, Finland

By Malin Nordblom

Fab Foodie Swede

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