HS in Loviisa | The playoff game for restaurants is accelerating: This is how almost all the restaurants in the idyllic small town died

For rent business premises, the sign says. It is the north end of a yellow and white low building, about 40 square meters.

The central part of the building is also available for rent. According to the sign, it is a cafe with 120+20 seats.

You can see inside from the large windows. Before, there was a lunch restaurant and cafe Safcafe. Now the lights are off and there is no one inside.

On a cool September Thursday morning, there are few people on the move. It quickly becomes clear that the place is not bad for an entrepreneur. Car after car curves in front of the neighboring Hardomi bread.

A person from Helsinki sits behind the wheel of the car that drove into the park Uuve Grundström. He walks briskly to the bakery and places an order without hesitation: oat-carrot rolls and a couple of doughnuts.

Grundström says that he stops by the bakery every time he is on his way to his vacation home in Loviisa.

“This is the best bakery in town and the location is good,” says Grundström.

The asphalted yard is easy to visit both when coming from Porvoo from Valtatie 18 and from the direction of the center of Loviisa. Neste is in the same courtyard area and Tokmanni is on the other side of the highway.

“You have to be grateful that the store is open when you watch other companies close next door. This autumn has been a crossroads for many”, says the entrepreneur of Hardomi bread Maija Laitikas.

He opened Hardomi bread at the current location in 2018.

in Loviisa many restaurants stopped operating after the summer housing fair. Local Östnyland told about the loss of the restaurant in September.

One of the ones that stopped is the restaurant Locale. It was located a couple of kilometers away, near the Loviisa church and market. Now the restaurant that served Italian food in a beautiful pink stone building has closed its doors.

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“Every closed restaurant is a loss for Loviisa.”

At the end of September, there are still tapes on the windows. You can see empty Coca-Cola cans in the sink of the bar counter and wine glasses on the table. The liquor shelf at the bar counter is still full of different bottles.

Entrepreneur Pia Olanterä published an update on the restaurant’s Facebook page at the end of September, in which he attracted a successor to the restaurant.

“There have been more than 40 years of restaurant operations in the same space. The place is natural for a restaurant,” he says now.

Olanterä says that his life is in Helsinki and in order to continue his activities, he would have liked to be more present in Locale. He hopes that a local successor will be found. Nothing has been found yet.

“Every a closed restaurant is a loss for Loviisa”, says the taxi entrepreneur Joni Laitinen.

Laitinen drives Lähitaksi. He has stopped to fill up at the Shell located next to the bus station. Even in the summer, the cafe Selli was located near the station.

“You could get hot drinks, coffee and buns from there.”

Now there is a lonely chair in front of the cafe. Inside, the lights have been turned off, but there are still miscellaneous items in the corners, such as shelves and a tub of ice cream.

Laitinen is upset about the collapse of small businesses. In addition to cafes and restaurants, for example, the market’s fishmonger has stopped and there are also more than half the number of taxi drivers than a few years ago.

It’s not about the popularity of service platform-based Uber or Yangon, but simply that there aren’t enough customers. With the increase in gasoline prices, driving a taxi is no longer as profitable.

“If you take a customer from here to Helsinki and come back empty-handed, you will be at a loss.”

Laitinen knows what he is talking about. He has been driving a taxi for 37 years. In his opinion, the solution to the situation would be the development of Loviisa.

“We have a port, a railway, whatever,” he reflects.

But now the ten-minute break is over and Laitinen starts driving towards Porvoo.

We’re walking with the photographer through the old town of Loviisa along the cobblestones. After the colorful blocks of wooden houses, we arrive at the restaurant Saltbodan, located near Loviisanlahti.

There are still several chairs in the yard of the red and white building, as a memory of the summer that has passed. Located in an old customs warehouse, Saltbodan is a family restaurant opened in 1986.

There are no customers yet, because lunch time has not started. There are already workers inside. Entrepreneur Timothy Kuehn. He invites us in.

Some of the local restaurateurs have quit because they can’t cope, Kühn says.

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“Many older people have stayed at home.”

Kühn has considered the impact of the pandemic on people also from the point of view that many people seem to prefer to spend time at home even today. Although when asked, the locals wish there were restaurants, there are no longer customers like before.

“Even though the pandemic ended, many older people have stayed at home. It’s easy to stay at home when you’re used to it.”

The number of visitors is also boosted by the fact that there are few 25-35-year-olds living in Loviisa, who would be potential consumers of the services.

A day lunch is one of the last of the summer season. Kühn closes the restaurant for the winter.

“This is a summer town. When school starts, everything quiets down,” he says.

Kühn says that he seriously thought about continuing the restaurant business. At least for the winter, we have to come up with something else.

“I ordered the salmon soup, because it’s always good,” he says Jussi Paakkola-Seger. Marie-Sofie Seger and Isabella Fält chose schnitzels from the list.

Loviisa’s restaurant ceiling is sad.

“When Saltbodan closes for the winter, there won’t really be any other places to eat here other than Nepali and a pizza place. There are no such nice places to sit,” says Fält from Loviisa.

“It’s boring, because new residents have just moved here thanks to the housing fair.”

Paakkola-Seger and Seger live in Porvoo, but regularly visit relatives in Loviisa. The difference to Porvoo’s restaurant offering is big.

“Usually when we come here, we start by seeing what places are still open,” says Seger.

Locale, located in the city center, was the permanent residence of the trio. Seger hopes that some entrepreneur will decide to stay there.