Swad Bistro & Bar is already the third restaurant concept in Katajanokka Rahapajankatu in two years, but Sunil Singh believes in success.
Thus you only see a spacious kitchen in a few restaurants. The restaurant manager also states that Sunil Singhled by Swad Bistro & Bar, will open in Katajanokka in the near future.
“I have also worked in very small restaurant kitchens. But there is room to do here,” Singh shows the environment dominated by galvanized or stainless steel at the back of the restaurant hall.
We are in Katajanokka Rahapajankatu in Helsinki, in the kitchen of the former restaurant Bellevue. The delicacies of Russian cuisine were cooked here for over a hundred years. But now the winds have changed: soon the kitchen will be preparing the flavors of India.
Swadi's restaurant manager Sunal Singh, who graduated from Perho in 2006, has previously worked for example at Sodexo as a representative waiter and at an Indian restaurant in Haveli in Järvenpää.
“Swad means good taste, or actually even better, delicious,” Singh translates from his mother tongue. Maybe'swadThe simplest translation of the word ' would be 'delicacy'.
Let's come from the kitchen to the hall side. The interior is dominated by strong colors and designs in Indian style, landscape images with typical Indian buildings, nature, and Indian elephants. From the wall of the glass-roofed dining room, perhaps familiar to many from Bellevue, Buddha looks out.
There is no longer a trace of Bellevue's Russianness in the furniture and interior design. Only some cutlery, silver cutlery, perhaps a crystal chandelier and the carpet in the cabinet remind us of its hundred-year history.
Bellevue's hall from the back wall in the direction of Rahapajankatu in 1998. On the right, a bright hall with a skylight opens.
Married couple Sunal Singh and Rishika Gupta in the renovated milieu of the restaurant hall, where there is almost no trace of Bellevue's Russian heritage.
Sunil Singh seems to be well-informed about the history of the commercial apartment, and perhaps even more precisely about 'historicity': “To think that there has been a restaurant here for a hundred years,” he says excitedly.
The enthusiasm is partly explained by the fact that Singh has a theory: it is natural to come to the historic address and surroundings of Rahapajankatu from a wider area in Helsinki than to a downtown street restaurant.
“That's
what we're aiming for, to reach a wide area in Helsinki,” says Singh.
Restaurant Manager Sunil Singh graduated from Perho Business School's hotel and restaurant industry education line in 2006. He has previously worked at Sodexo as a representative waiter, and most recently at Haveli Bistro & Bar in Järvenpää.
The skylight with its crown opening from the restaurant hall to Katajanokka Art Nouveau might be familiar to many customers of the Bellevue era.
Already, food from Järvenpää's Haveli went to the Indian embassy and the embassy's events, which, according to Singh, is proof that the “modern Indian cuisine” he represents is trusted.
Singh also sees Katajanokka's internationality as an advantage: the district has a port for passenger ships, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and tourists go around checking out the district's art nouveau, icebreakers and the Uspensky Cathedral.
“This is also a tourist spot. We offer take awayand we have also designed ready-made baskets consisting of portions.”
How about recent past of the place of business? Doesn't that scare Singh, 42, his wife in charge of food concepts Rishika Gupta30, financiers and owners of the restaurant Anil Singh Negia and Vinod Singh?
Bellevue's background company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The concept of Russian cuisine did not take off after the restaurant's reopening in spring 2023. The same investor's Asian-inspired P'anku restaurant closed after just a few months in the same year.
“It's not scary, why would you be? We are bringing something to Helsinki that people are sure to like,” Sunil Singh answers immediately.
Swad Bistro & Bar's Indian-inspired interior and visuals are getting ready.
According to Sunil Singh, the Swad Bistro & Bar restaurant therefore offers take away and the lunch buffet and à la carte. What about the 'swad' or 'treat'? What does the 'bistro' in the name of the restaurant actually mean to you?
“It means quality. The chef of each bistro prepares his own specialties from the basic ingredients. For example, we prepare the spices from the elements ourselves, and we do not use bagged flour. Finns know turmeric and cardamom as spices, but there are hundreds of different ones.”
Well, let's leave this taste to the restaurant critics.
After Bellevue, Rishika Gupta's kitchen product manager's empire is spacious to work in.
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