Focaccina bet on doing simple things well, and people are loving it
Focaccina is a focaccia and wine bar on Eerikinkatu in Helsinki, and the bread is baked in-house every day. From the start, the idea was to keep it affordable, make it well and do it a little better than the place down the street.
Location
Eerikinkatu 4, 00100 Helsinki
Website
Known for
Daily-baked focaccia, ox tartare and northern Italian wine
A few months in, and the word is spreading
Focaccina opened in June, and word got around fast. A few press write-ups sent people through the door, and catering followed right behind. Hundreds of bread orders have gone out so far. Keeping up has kept the team on their toes, but nobody's complaining.
What's actually on the table
The menu is built around the same focaccina bread, baked daily and filled to order. The ox tartare is what people keep ordering, and plenty of meals end with tiramisu.
Focaccina imports its own wine. Roughly 80% of the list comes from northern Italy, and it keeps changing as new bottles arrive. The food follows the seasons too. In autumn that means mushrooms, chanterelles first and then funnel chanterelles.
Even the liqueurs are made in-house. The pistachio one goes into a pistachio espresso martini with house-made pistachio gelato and espresso.
Live on Fiest since day one
Focaccina opened with Fiest already running, so there was no old system to leave behind, just a new one to learn. It took some getting used to. The Fiest team was there almost every day of the opening, and when a question came up over the phone, the answer was usually that someone would come by and look at it in person.
That hasn't changed. When Focaccina needs something, Fiest talks it through with the team and gets to work on it instead of leaving it in a queue. New hires have picked up the system even faster than the original team did.
They've really been there for us. When we call with something, the answer is always, we'll just come and take a look.
- Live on Fiest from opening day, with no old system to switch from
- Requests go straight to Fiest and move fast
- New staff learn the system faster than the original crew did
Fiest built Focaccina's website too. Want one for your restaurant? Learn more about websites by Fiest.
At Focaccina
A closer look at the room, counter, and details behind the story.
More from the shift
Want to see what this could look like for you? Walk us through a normal shift with your menu, order types and payment methods, and we'll show you how Fiest would handle it before you switch.