Louise Ekberg
The increasing numbers of coffeehouse chains creates a polarization in the long-standing café culture of Gothenburg city. The traditional cafés have a hard time surviving in the city center and are increasingly moving outside the borders. To find the originality of Swedish Fika one needs to move beyond the borders of the pedestrian zones and shopping streets.
Cafés with the Special Recipes
Mehmet Yapisan is one of the owners of Biscotti on Allmänna vägen in Majorna. He took over the business in 2017. Everything they serve is homemade and the recipes are special to their concept. The cafés in the area are known by the locals. They come there because they don’t want everything to be the same, “we have a lot of regulars, but the quality of what we do attracts more people,” he says.
Picture by Louise Ekberg. The home-baked offer at Biscotti.
A guest enters during our interview. Mehmet welcomes her with a big smile. She has lived in Majorna for over ten years and appreciates the community that exists in smaller places. We start talking about the differences to the chains in the city. “I appreciate the community meeting and like to support local cafés,” she says.
Mehmet has noticed that people come to Biscotti also by themselves, unlike the chains where people show up in big groups. “We ask them how their day was and they have the opportunity to talk to the staff here. We know our guests and you get a smile when you come in, everyone has a story to tell,” Mehmet says.
On one of the walls there is a painting of the Italian city Manarola in Cinque Terre. “It’s about being special, not just having what everyone else has,” Mehmet thinks. On the menu you can find Italian pasta varieties that are imported directly from Italy. The raw materials that they use are not available from wholesalers. “We have a blueberry pie with an international touch. You can’t get it anywhere else, it’s our own recipe that we don’t share with anyone,” Mehmet says.
Mehmet thinks this is one of the differences to the coffeehouse chains. “All the big chains have a concept, everything tastes the same in all these places. If you want a cappuccino, it tastes the same everywhere. If you want a sandwich, it tastes the same everywhere,” he says.
Picture by Louise Ekberg. The wall-painting of Manarola in Cinque Terre in Biscotti
The Personal Touch
Sven Hallin is one of the two owners of Kafé Marmelad located on Mariagatan in Majorna. He and Nikolas Gialtrinos took over the business in June this year. Sven believes that the location has a huge impact. He thinks that a place in the city is incredibly expensive to rent and that you need to have a financial strength behind it to succeed there. He believes that you need to have something special to offer in order to get people to travel outside the city to these areas.
Picture by Louise Ekberg. Sven Hallin at the cash register at Kafé Marmelad
At Kafé Marmelad they have a classic concept with a Greek flair. “My partner Nicolas is Greek, so he has added a Greek touch with live music on Fridays. In the summer we have live Greek music on Fridays and Saturdays. The whole outdoor seating area is usually packed then,” Sven says.
Picture by Louise Ekberg. The outdoor seating area at Kafé Marmelad that is packed during the live-music performances in summer.
Sven would never think of opening a café or a restaurant in the city center because of the high rents and customers’ lack of interest in the concept that they offer. They’re not interested in this particular thing,” he says. Mehmet Yapisan shares his view that it is very difficult to find premises in the center of town, in which case you have to join a chain. “If someone is used to owning their own place, it’s not something that appeals,” he says.
Find the Hidden Treasures
To find the hidden treasures like Biscotti and Kafé Marmelad, you need to move beyond the city center of Gothenburg. 15 percent of all the coffeehouses in Gothenburg are coffeehouse chains, and the majority of them are located in the city center. The chains are mostly located in the city center, in neighborhoods such as Vasastaden, Inom Vallgraven and Stampen.
Graph by Louise Ekberg
Data by Livsmedelsverket retrieved from Göteborgs stad. The neighbourhood areas definition according to Göteborgs stad ”primärområden”.
Embed link: https://goteborg.se/wps/portal/start/kommun-och-politik/sa-arbetar-goteborgs-stad-med/digitalisering/oppna-data/sok-oppna-data/oppna-data—datamangd#esc_entry=35&esc_context=6
Ulrika Holmberg is editor of the annual Consumption Report published by the University of Gothenburg. She has a long experience in studying different consumption trends. “Behind the big trends there is polarization,” Ulrika says. She describes that the chains have a strength behind them and that the international flavor affects popularity. “There are ups and downs in the popularity of chains. The dominance of big players means that consumers can have the impression that it is boring, that there is nothing special to discover. This makes the smaller places more special,” Ulrika concludes.
Still, there are many independent cafés in the city center. Anders Rasmusson is one out of four owners of Viktors Kaffe at Geijersgatan. The café is located in Lorensberg, a neighborhood close to Vasastaden that is heavily saturated with coffeehouse chains. “We’ve been in the same place for 12 years now and have our regulars. The regulars we have don’t tend to go to the big chains, they appreciate the originality of smaller places,” he says. He describes that the big chains are mainly in shopping centers and pedestrian areas and can afford to be there, they prioritize high-traffic areas to stay accessible. “Only chains can afford to be in shopping centers and pedestrian zones. Smaller places cannot afford to set up in these areas,” Anders says. He concludes that if they are to expand Viktors Kaffe, they would need to look at cheaper areas, such as Majorna. “The people who are interested in our concepts are also those who live there, those who don’t want to go to the chains.”
Picture by Louise Ekberg. Anders Rasmusson outside Viktors Kaffe in Lorensberg