Places To Eat & Drink NO.4 – Michel in Helsinki by Joanna Laajisto

Credit: Joanna Laajisto

Another week and drum rolls…another Places To Eat & Drink post. We must admit this together with Places To Sleep has easily become our favorite type of posts to write and research. The reason for this is probably our fascination and crave to travel together with our interest for food and food culture, which it appears plenty of bloggers out there are feeling as well.

When it actually comes to hospitality design it was never my favourite topic when studying interior design. I prefered the residential interior topics and projects, hence I used to love writing for our Sweet Home column.

With that being said and years later my fascination for cool looking dining experiences are truly on my high list. Back on this weeks travel and restaurant tips is this restaurant called Michel in Helsinki. A place, if you follow any of these blogs, you have already bumped in to. The design is by the lovely Joanna Laajisto who was so kind to share this project and story for this well designed restaurant. Happy Indulging!

Let’s look a bit closer at Michel and what type of food they offer combined with what the concept for the space was. This restaurant was called König from the beginning and located in the heart of Helsinki´s shopping district.

This lovely piece of hospitality design under went a whole new restaurant concept and name by the team of Mehdi Younes and Mikko Paukkonen. They hired Helsinki’s probably most blogged about interior designer, Joanna Laajisto and her team to translate their restaurant concept in to a visual story.

The new restaurant was re-opened recently in April, 2015 and has after that got praise world-wide. The restaurant focuses on a simple approach to food but offers an all round food experience by serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktail daily.

The main focus was to create that urban yet classical feel which suits well in to the food concept and location. Materials such as marble and stainless steel was incorporated in to the space as to emphasize on the juxtaposition between Urban and Classics.

It was very important from the start of the project that in order to achieve a classic feel they had to go for timeless pieces and good quality materials which would last over time in a busy place like this restaurant.

The interesting small detail, which we will for sure look for when visiting Helsinki this autumn, is the green wooden wall paneling – this was inspired by the traditional outdoor kiosks which has been colouring the capital since 1940’s.