Restaurants | Finland’s oldest Michelin restaurant unexpectedly opens its doors at a new address

Finland the owner of the oldest Michelin restaurant Demo closed its doors on Uudenmaankatu in July Tommi Tuominen along for the last time.

Now, however, Demo’s doors are unexpectedly opening at a completely new location on the top floor of the new We Land office building in Ruoholahti.

Tuominen tells HS that it is about a change that has been pending behind the scenes for two years already.

In the old facilities, “the walls came up against us” and development stopped, says Tuominen.

“My mind has not changed in any way, maybe my message was interpreted a little wrong then. This has been in the plans all along, and closing the doors was never a difficult decision, more a wistful and emotional one, because the restaurant operated in those premises for more than 21 years,” he elaborates.

Tuominen says that he had already contacted the Michelin organization about the change. Despite the temporary closure, Demo got a star in early summer.

“All that remains for us is to achieve it next year at the new address.”

In October in the opening premises, we intend to continue Demo’s previous culinary line, but on a larger scale – both customer places and the number of employees will increase.

“On Uudenmaankatu, we operate in premises of a little over 100 square meters. In the new premises, we have a little more than 350 square meters in use, and that enables us a lot,” says Tuominen.

According to Tuominen, there will be development across the board.

“We can cook with prettier dishes in bigger spaces that can accommodate more people to work. Efficiency can be increased and we are able to do things with better quality.”

The old Demo had 38 customer places and 9 employees. There will be approximately 45 customer places and approximately 18 employees in the new location, Tuominen says.

The new ones the premises are a huge investment from Tuomi, as he is financing the change alone.

At the same time, he realizes that the industry is tight. HS has previously covered companies in the food industry financial difficulties and several restaurants from closing.

“There has been a lot of sad news in the last year and there will certainly be more. We hope that there will be opening news as well and we will try to bring our own contribution to this.”

Still, Tuominen manages to believe that Demo’s new premises will bear fruit.

“The biggest factor is that this house is just wonderful and the space where the restaurant will be located is, in my opinion, exceptionally fine under Finnish conditions.”

The new premises will have, among other things, six-meter-high glass walls, from which the scenery will open in the direction of Lauttasaari.

“The location is also something we rely on quite a lot. There aren’t any places of this type on the corners of Ruoholahti, but there are many companies, and some big ones, that definitely need a representative-level dinner and lunch,” says Tuominen.

Tuominen also believes in good transport connections from, for example, Espoo and Lauttasaari.

Restaurant Demo is originally Tommi Tuominen and Teemu Auran founded in 2003. Tuominen has been running Demo alone since 2011. Demo received a Michelin star for the first time in 2007.