A new beginning - Robert's Coffee
Well, here I am. A lonely woman who likes going out for coffee on Sunday evenings, and who lives in Oulu. A lovely place, but with few cafés, not really a café culture here, like all Finland I guess.
I started few weeks ago visiting the various cafés of our city, tasting coffee and pastry, and I thought someone else might benefit from my experience, hence this blog. I might even have a secret hope that someone of you reading this will want to join me in drinking coffee one day.
Few words for my tastes. I love coffee, but I cannot drink it after 15:00, I will not be able to sleep. So I go around most of the time tasting decaffeinated coffee. I like pastry, my favourites are always sweets, but my weight doesn't allow me much, so I normally end up eating something savoury. And since I love fruits, I might take also some smoothie or such. About these tastes, I can tell you first hand. But I intend to comment on how everything looks.
Today, 27th of January 2019, I visited Robert's Coffee in Oulu, Finland. The title of the blog, "A New Beginning" refers to starting my blog, but also to the fact that Robert's Coffee has opened up at a new place in our city. We used to have a big department store and the café was in the same block. But the decision makers of the department store thought we are not wealthy enough to keep them going, so they left and since the whole block is renewed, Robert's Coffee moved to its current place. For me, it is not better. The previous place was situated on an indoors balcony, it felt spacious and it had lovely sofas to relax in. The whole look was "old villa" like. The current look is normal, somehow boring. A lot of brown, some soft seats, a lot like a 70s place. So Robert moved forward to a more recent decade. One nice addition to the new place, a tree like plant in the middle of a round wooden table. If it wasn't for the high seats that are not so good for lower backs of older adults, I would have sat there. But I found a small round table, big enough for me and my tray, with traditional hard chairs.
The service was a bit slow, but normal, typical. Three young girls and a young boy, normally taking the coffee to the tables. The food window included sweet (the typical berry cake, chocolate cake and something more) and savoury (quiche with reindeer, feta and spinach and ham, as well as a sandwich with rye bread). Not a great variety, but Finnish people are a bit difficult with novelty and wide choice. Decaffeinated coffee, yes, in espresso form. When I asked lots of milk, I was offered a latte. There was a choice of XS, S, M, L, so I got the M. And I got the last strawberry-and-lime smoothie and the feta-spinach quiche.
The smoothie and the quiche were very normal, nothing special about them, but the coffee was really good. Normally people who drink decaffeinated coffee get instant in Finland, if even this. But this one was smooth and coffee-tasty, despite the amount of milk. A thick cream on top of the cup with a nice leaf shape. And they had honey to go with it. But it was not very hot, so the slow Greek drinker in me got to drink somewhat colder coffee in the end.
I read my book and stayed there for almost two hours, almost until closing time (18:00). It was quite busy, mostly adults and few youngsters with computers, so I guess there was a wireless somewhere. Yet again no families. I often wonder if families ever go out with the children on Sundays, like we used to do. I was the only one reading a book there, even though there seemed to be a shelf with something readable. I do miss a café where people read. It is a good place for reading, because there was not much noise, people were quiet.
Should I also give some grade to these cafés... I do not wish so, because everyone of us is different. What is good for me might not be important for you. I will let whoever reads this give the grades. To me.
I started few weeks ago visiting the various cafés of our city, tasting coffee and pastry, and I thought someone else might benefit from my experience, hence this blog. I might even have a secret hope that someone of you reading this will want to join me in drinking coffee one day.
Few words for my tastes. I love coffee, but I cannot drink it after 15:00, I will not be able to sleep. So I go around most of the time tasting decaffeinated coffee. I like pastry, my favourites are always sweets, but my weight doesn't allow me much, so I normally end up eating something savoury. And since I love fruits, I might take also some smoothie or such. About these tastes, I can tell you first hand. But I intend to comment on how everything looks.
Today, 27th of January 2019, I visited Robert's Coffee in Oulu, Finland. The title of the blog, "A New Beginning" refers to starting my blog, but also to the fact that Robert's Coffee has opened up at a new place in our city. We used to have a big department store and the café was in the same block. But the decision makers of the department store thought we are not wealthy enough to keep them going, so they left and since the whole block is renewed, Robert's Coffee moved to its current place. For me, it is not better. The previous place was situated on an indoors balcony, it felt spacious and it had lovely sofas to relax in. The whole look was "old villa" like. The current look is normal, somehow boring. A lot of brown, some soft seats, a lot like a 70s place. So Robert moved forward to a more recent decade. One nice addition to the new place, a tree like plant in the middle of a round wooden table. If it wasn't for the high seats that are not so good for lower backs of older adults, I would have sat there. But I found a small round table, big enough for me and my tray, with traditional hard chairs.
The service was a bit slow, but normal, typical. Three young girls and a young boy, normally taking the coffee to the tables. The food window included sweet (the typical berry cake, chocolate cake and something more) and savoury (quiche with reindeer, feta and spinach and ham, as well as a sandwich with rye bread). Not a great variety, but Finnish people are a bit difficult with novelty and wide choice. Decaffeinated coffee, yes, in espresso form. When I asked lots of milk, I was offered a latte. There was a choice of XS, S, M, L, so I got the M. And I got the last strawberry-and-lime smoothie and the feta-spinach quiche.
The smoothie and the quiche were very normal, nothing special about them, but the coffee was really good. Normally people who drink decaffeinated coffee get instant in Finland, if even this. But this one was smooth and coffee-tasty, despite the amount of milk. A thick cream on top of the cup with a nice leaf shape. And they had honey to go with it. But it was not very hot, so the slow Greek drinker in me got to drink somewhat colder coffee in the end.
I read my book and stayed there for almost two hours, almost until closing time (18:00). It was quite busy, mostly adults and few youngsters with computers, so I guess there was a wireless somewhere. Yet again no families. I often wonder if families ever go out with the children on Sundays, like we used to do. I was the only one reading a book there, even though there seemed to be a shelf with something readable. I do miss a café where people read. It is a good place for reading, because there was not much noise, people were quiet.
Should I also give some grade to these cafés... I do not wish so, because everyone of us is different. What is good for me might not be important for you. I will let whoever reads this give the grades. To me.
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