Café Makia - no ifs ands or buts

This is "my" corner, photo by Tripadvisor.

Sunday afternoon was turning into evening, and the options for this lonely woman to have coffee somewhere in Oulu were limited, since almost everything is closed by 18:00. Of the three available choices, I took Café Makia, since I had only been there two more times during the summer. I wanted to see if it would feel any different in a snow storm.

Café Makia is relative new, built in one of our city´s most central parks, the Otto Karhi puisto, named after a prominent politician and entrepreneur of previous centuries. It replaced a typical Finnish "kioski", one of these canteens that serve men and women who come out of the bars in the middle of the night with sausages and other such food. Café Makia is not such a place. It belongs to one of the great commercial chains, and it describes its self as cosy with a modern twist. It is indeed modern looking, with all the corners and the strange shapes modern buildings seem to have these days, almost all its surfaces made of wood, which makes it warm and very Finnish.  

 The name "Makia" means sweet in the local Oulu dialect, and the window display was indeed mostly full of sweet cakes. Besides the typical berry and chocolate ones were other ones, such as I had not seen before. Savoury choices were almost all made out of shrimps and there were some typical croissants as well. But they had a soup and salad buffet until 18:00, which is a very nice thing if you are young and without obligations for big Sunday family meals.

The best thing about Makia on Sunday though was the service upon arrival. Two young ladies who wasted no time acknowledging you and serving you in a very friendly manner. They have the normal caffeine free HAG filter coffee, which is served in a press with a big cup.  Nice warm, but the coffee quality is really not good. Tea would have had much better taste. I also got a smoothie, a nice one with bilberries and banana and nice thick yogurt.

The environment is indeed cosy, there were mainly older ladies among the clients, but also few young people working or reading in the soft light. Not so much noise in the main hall, but there was also a smaller space, a corner with four small tables where I found refuge next to two non Finnish looking young persons. In all it was nice and quiet, low lights hanging from the ceiling, soft brown and grey colors and the whole front wall glass, so I could spy on the hasty people in the snow. It is probably brilliant on a sunny snowy day. 

The good service mentioned earlier was witnessed a bit more, when one of the girls cheerfully discussed with a client who was a bit special. But then their efficiency was a bit too much for me. Once I drank the last drop of my coffee, the cup disappeared in no time, leaving me with an empty table. This for me means that it is either time to go or to get something more to eat or drink, something I would not do gladly, since the prices were on the expensive side.

In all a warm, nice place to spend your afternoon and early evening, with some good choice of food and drink - but not the decaffeinated coffee -  as long as you can keep your self from eating up too fast. This is something my fellow citizens are doing in this country, coffee is drank in five minutes and in half an hour you are ready to go. So for them I guess Makia is the right place to be.