Restaurants on the Edge (2019–…): Season 2, Episode 3 - Finland - full transcript
[classical music playing]
[Nick] We've been invited by restaurants
on the edge
of the most beautiful views imaginable.
[Karin] Who really need some help
keeping their business from going under.
[Dennis] There's nothing more inspiring
than celebrating a community on the plate.
But far too often, the better the view,
the worse the food.
[Karin] This is about reviving
not only the restaurants...
Everything's at stake for us.
For us, it's... it's life.
...but also the owners' belief
in themselves.
- [woman gasps]
- [man whoops]
This means the world to me.
Oh, my God! [chuckles]
It's like a part of us here.
[Dennis] So together, we're traveling
the world in search of inspiration
to transform these restaurants
into authentic hot spots
that paint a picture
not just of that restaurant,
not just of that chef,
but of that community.
I'm telling you, my brother,
you all changed my life.
[Karin] What isn't there
to love about Finland?
The people are beautiful.
The people are happy and friendly.
There's nature everywhere you look.
It's just a really, really gorgeous place.
[Dennis] Home to the midnight sun
and some of the happiest people on Earth,
Finland is bordered
by Sweden, Norway, and Russia.
Our destination
is the medieval town of Turku,
which is now a vibrant modern city,
considered a capitol of culture.
[Dennis] One of the incredible
things about Turku
is it's surrounded
by the Archipelago islands.
There's 20,000 islands here.
So, you get from island to island by boat.
[Dennis] We're on our way to Maininki,
a restaurant inside
a century-old heritage building
that's also home to a yacht club.
The menu seems okay,
but it's missing that X factor you need
to entice new customers
to make the 15-minute trip from Turku.
[Nick] The restaurant is dealing
with a perception problem.
Locals assume it's
for yacht club members only, but it's not.
New owners, Marina and Turo,
want the people of Turku to understand
that their restaurant is open
to anyone willing to make the trip
by car or boat,
because their business is falling flat.
[Karin] Turo and Marina have left
the interior from the previous owners,
but it feels completely
boring and institutional.
They need help adding a modern touch
to the building's already-amazing history.
We wanna honor the building's heritage,
but we really need
to attract a younger generation.
[Karin] What an interesting, old building.
Lots of beautiful natural light
coming in here.
But it's got a little bit of a...
kind of a museum feel.
[Nick] Walking in Maininki,
it's very quiet, very dull.
The opposite of feeling the way
a restaurant should feel.
What's super cool about this
is the round restaurant
gives you complete access
to this gorgeous view.
It's a beautiful place,
but at the same time...
I need a little bit more something.
Yeah, I don't know what the vibe is.
I don't know, looking at this restaurant,
what they serve for food here.
- Feels kinda sleepy.
- [Dennis] Yeah.
[Karin] It could be fresh. It could
be modern. It could be super cool.
This architecture,
the wood ceilings, these columns,
I mean,
I think this has a ton of potential.
- [Nick] Yeah.
- [Dennis] The bones are here.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Marina.
- Marina, I'm Karin.
- Welcome.
[Karin] Marina and Turo.
What a chic couple.
You can tell that
as soon as you meet them.
They just have a quality and an air
about them that is so sophisticated.
We need more customers,
and I hope you can help us with that.
Of course, we have this spectacular view,
which you cannot make it even better.
- [laughs]
- [Dennis] That's true.
We definitely don't wanna touch the view.
[laughing]
[Turo] Well, we are
in the Island of Ruissalo.
The whole island is a natural park.
I love this place.
It has a soul.
I can't explain.
It just has a soul, somehow.
If we go back 30 years ago in time,
my father used to have
a yacht club restaurant in Helsinki.
So, it feels like I'm coming home.
[Turo] So, I have also kind of, like,
my own attachment to this place.
We used to have a sailing boat
in this yacht club, when I was young.
I used to come here
every single summer, many, many times.
[Marina] I worked here all last summer.
Marina is extremely good at her work.
And I think it's a proper time for her
to have something of her own.
[Marina] My best wish
was that I get this place for myself
and do it the way I want.
This is my dream come true.
We're having, as a starter,
smoked salmon salad.
We smoked the salmon
this morning in our own smoker.
Should be fresh.
[all laughing]
And then we're having flank steak,
roasted potatoes, roasted beetroot,
some carrots and garnish and red wine,
rosemary lemon sauce.
[Dennis] This restaurant is interesting.
The food is pretty good.
The chef knows how to cook.
The challenge is
they don't know what to cook.
It's too fine dining. It's not really fun.
There's nothing on the menu for kids.
And you come in on your boat
for the afternoon with your family,
this is not the food
you're gonna wanna eat.
Turo, what's the average age of people
that are coming to the restaurant
and your clientele?
Well, I have to say
that it's probably over 55,
the average age.
I would love to see more families,
younger people coming over.
Oftentimes,
kids' menu items are secondary.
There's something that you just feed them
so that their bellies are full. Why?
There's no reason why kids can't have
a great experience at the table, too.
And having food that's
fun on the menu and geared to kids
will help promote the younger demographic
Marina and Turo are after.
- Is grilling a big part of the restaurant?
- I think it should be.
And there are no restaurants
that, at least I know,
that have real barbecue in Finland.
And I think that might be something
that might also lure people in
and also widen the demographic base
of the clientele.
From a design perspective,
we're sitting in a beautiful building,
a beautiful heritage building,
but it does feel
like it needs to be updated.
- Yeah.
- [Turo] That is correct.
I hate those white lamps,
because they're straight from the '80s.
That's good, because I hate them, too.
- Good.
- [Turo] I hate them.
[all laughing]
Marina, what is your story
with this place?
I had been working here before.
And the guy who owned this place,
he had two places.
He wanted to focus
on the other one downtown.
When he told me this, I was like,
"Oh, my God, this is my opportunity."
I've been working in a restaurant,
but it's not the same thing,
running the business.
[Turo] Yeah, this is totally new for me.
I've been in financing
all my working life.
I think the most important thing
we have to solve,
we are about seven kilometers
from the city center.
People have to have a reason to come over.
Yeah, it's really about creating
a destination restaurant.
Exactly. So that is the thing.
In today's world,
in the restaurant business,
marketing, branding, and identity
are some of the most important things.
I've looked at your presence online.
You guys aren't promoting.
What's keeping you guys
from doing more online?
Lack of time and resources.
But the fact is
that we've been concentrating
getting this up and running.
- Sure.
- [Turo] Yeah.
Just finishing dinner up, I know
what my goal is for this restaurant.
I need to figure out a way
of driving business.
How am I gonna be able to drive people
from Turku to this restaurant?
It's a new home to you guys
and, clearly, means quite a bit
not only to you guys, but people
that have visited this space in the past.
- Yeah. That's true.
- So, we have to just figure out
a way of reviving that soul
and creating a new home.
- [Marina] Yeah.
- That's gonna feel good for everybody.
And modernizing for the future,
while paying respect
to the heritage of this restaurant.
- Exactly.
- [Karin] Yeah.
And there's so much expertise here now,
we're just like...
- [Karin] Yeah.
- "Go, run, run, run."
- This is really--
- Go, girl.
Yeah.
[all laugh]
- We are out of here.
- [Nick] Go, girl!
[Nick] Go, girl.
[Karin] Marina and Turo,
they're brand new to the business.
They need a launchpad.
This is a heritage building,
so there are some restrictions.
We can't touch the outside.
We can't touch the ceiling.
The biggest problem here
is that it looks dated.
There's wood paneling on the walls,
but that feels dark,
and the wood paneling
isn't in great condition.
The lighting also looks like
it doesn't totally work
with the restaurant.
And then the color is really flat.
It's not white and minimal,
it's white and sterile.
No one wants to eat
in a clinical, sterile restaurant.
It needs to be warm, needs to be fun,
and it needs to have life.
It needs that "oomph"
to really make it special.
Let's really do a fun transformation
that feels very Scandinavian
and feels like it belongs in Finland.
[Nick] So I'm here
at a beautiful sauna here in Finland.
For a population of 5.3 million people,
there's actually two million saunas.
It's a way of life here.
So I'm happy
when I asked you guys to meet me,
you guys picked this location.
And what a better Finnish setting
than a sauna.
Meeting Marina and Turo here at the saunas
is a great way for me to
go over their reviews with them.
Some past issues
that have been going on with Maininki.
The restaurant business,
more than any other business,
puts a lot of strain on a couple.
I'm married. I spend
a lot of time within the restaurant.
How has this business
changed your relationship?
Not that much.
We've been working a lot in the past also.
Because the history is that I hired her,
I fired her, I married her.
- Yeah. [laughs]
- Okay. Explain that...
Explain that all to me in detail.
I was running a finance company
in Helsinki and, uh...
one of my friends said that Marina
might be a good possible employee for you.
And then I hired her.
The one thing is
that I have always a policy
that you cannot date anyone you work with.
So... I have to fire her first to do that.
I felt like I've known him my whole life
when I met him for the first time.
- It didn't change when he fired you?
- No.
I loved him even more, because I knew
that he was going to marry me. [chuckles]
Okay.
Marina, how important is Turo to you?
He's my life. He's my twin soul.
What would it mean for you guys
to lose this business?
It's important that...
Marina and I will have something
to build together to go forward with.
This is a business
that they're going into together.
And it means that much more to them
as a couple
and as ambassadors to Ruissalo and Finland
that they achieve
the highest success possible.
So, I just wanna go over this one review,
from the previous owner.
"The food was badly balanced and cold.
It had the feeling as if it was coming
through a microwave."
Marina, I know you've worked there before
with the previous owners.
Marina actually has time
invested in this business,
as she worked there before as a manager.
So that's something you gotta take
some ownership on.
Can you tell me
about how you feel about that review?
It doesn't feel too good.
You have to take ownership
for those bad experiences, unfortunately.
But understand you have an opportunity
- to make it better.
- Yes.
What would you like people to know
of what you're doing now
that the previous business wasn't doing?
Kind of, like, handmade in Maininki.
We tell that the bread
is baked by ourselves.
- It's not from the store.
- [Nick] Mm-hmm.
And we smoke the fish.
And we have to promote that,
because to be honest,
I don't think that's enough.
- No, it's not enough.
- The point is that we have to tell
the story to the whole world,
not just the people
- who are visiting the restaurant.
- Yeah.
My solution to their problems
is to get them out there and understand
how to market their business
and achieve an identity,
a brand in Maininki.
I've got some really great ideas
with this business
and how to grab more attention.
When you have scheduled events
at your restaurant,
that gives people a consistent,
weekly thing to be able to do.
Something new. Because the problem
with Maininki is that it's always old.
- That's how people perceive it.
- Yeah.
So we wanna create a new perception
for everyone
that goes into that restaurant. All right?
- Right.
- Great.
I'm excited. You guys excited?
- Yes, we are.
- For sure.
- [Nick] Great.
- Yeah.
[Dennis] After having dinner
and meeting Turo and Marina,
I know that they need
fun in their restaurant.
They need to give people a reason
to make the trip out to Maininki.
They need an experience,
and they need to set themselves apart
by adding some grilling options.
Turo loves it and wants it to be
a part of the restaurant's menu.
I've traveled today
into the Archipelago islands
to meet Chef Mikko.
He's run successful restaurants,
and he's also a part-time musician.
This guy knows what Finns love
in the summertime.
[Dennis] We're here working
with a restaurant, Maininki,
and there's some new owners.
They just took over about a month ago,
and the owner really wants to implement
more grilled options onto the menu.
Is that kind of part of food culture
here in Finland,
to grill at restaurants, or is that
more something that's done in homes?
Yeah, it's mostly done in home.
Many restaurants
don't have the outside areas for it.
[Mikko] So, we have
a topside of reindeer here.
We're gonna make a reindeer sausage.
We have to cut up
the chanterelle and the onions,
and then we're gonna sauté them.
[Dennis] Nice!
[sizzling]
That's one of my favorite sounds
in the whole world.
Yeah. And then we got this seasoning,
which got some fennel,
some juniper berries, and black pepper.
All right.
- So, sausage casing.
- Yes.
This'll go on the end here.
Sausage mixture is gonna go through this.
- [Mikko] Yeah.
- Bingo, bango.
- It's sausage time.
- Yeah. [laughs]
[machine whirring]
This is like...
the best thing that two guys can do
on their spare time.
- [Dennis] Make sausage?
- Yeah.
[Dennis] That's one way
of thinking about life.
[Mikko] Yeah.
So, now we just, like, grill it up.
So we'll see what happens.
- We grill it fast like that.
- I know what's gonna happen.
- Deliciousness is gonna happen.
- That's for sure.
[Dennis] I like sausages
for this restaurant.
Turo loves grilled food.
They know they want that
to be a part of the restaurant,
because it's part of Finnish summertime.
Grilling in and of itself
is an experience,
so I imagine sitting in the restaurant,
looking at Chef outside,
as I pull in on my boat,
grilling some food.
I can smell it already.
That's an experience.
You got a little sauce action going on.
What's this?
Basically, this is Mornay sauce.
I use this Swedish cheese with it,
Västerbotten cheese.
It's really, really tasty.
- [Dennis] Looks amazing.
- Right.
- I'm stoked, man. Let's eat.
- All right.
[Dennis] Mmm. This sausage is amazing.
I'm leaving here inspired
and way more set up for success
to build this restaurant menu.
First up, kids' food.
We need to create a delicious kids' meal
that's an experience,
and sausage is perfect.
Marina and Turo,
they're a really hip couple.
And we've agreed
that we wanna take this restaurant,
make it way more modern,
fresh, vibrant, and current.
So today, I'm meeting with Saana and Olli.
They are a famous Finnish design duo.
They live in a very unique building.
It's over 100 years old,
and it used to be a schoolhouse.
Wow. What a beautiful place to live.
I think this is the most beautiful place
in Finland I've been to so far.
[Olli and Saana] Thank you.
- [Karin] Yeah.
- [Saana] Thank you so much.
[Karin] Because it's such an old building,
Saana and Olli have taken it,
and they've revived it.
They've renovated the house
and made it more modern.
And I think there's lots of things
about their renovation practices
and this house
that I can bring back to the restaurant.
Wow!
[Karin] Oh, my goodness.
This is room number one. I'm so excited.
This is beautiful.
- [Saana] Welcome to our house.
- [Karin] Oh, my gosh.
And all these panels are the originals,
but we wanted to paint them
in these classic shades, to have
this Nordic style, but just a little.
Yeah. We wanted to have the...
Honor the heritage of this building.
The house is older
than Finland as a nation, so...
[Karin] Well, I love all the textiles.
These must be yours.
[Olli] They are our own collection.
We produce these.
All of textiles are 100% hemp fabric.
[Saana] All the carpets
are also our designs.
- And these are made from recycled cotton.
- [Karin] This is yours. No way!
Wow. Wait. What is this?
[Olli] This is,
uh, original 105-year-old wallpaper.
[Karin] What?
- It's so beautiful.
- All right. Thank you.
Even though it's in rough shape,
we wanted to keep the history exposed
and shown in here.
I love the wallpaper.
I love using wallpaper.
I'm thinking maybe I should use
some wallpaper in the restaurant.
- [Olli] Oh, that sounds good.
- [Karin] Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, cool.
[Karin] Seeing this house, I have a new
appreciation for Scandinavian design.
The colors inspire a sense of calm.
And the use of plants, it feels
so healthy, like you just wanna hang out.
And how could you not be happy
in an environment like this?
Yeah, I really love it.
[Dennis] Right in the center of Turku,
there is an incredible bakery named Fika.
You wanna talk about an experience
at a restaurant
and creating memorable moments
at the table,
there's nothing like dessert.
And I need to bring in
that experience to Maininki,
so that people leave
with a little sweet after they eat,
feeling like they had
a memorable experience.
Cool. So what are we making here?
I can teach you
how to make Archipelago bread.
That's the most Finn thing
that you can make.
- The most Finnish thing?
- The most, yes.
- Yes.
- So what goes in this bread?
Dark syrup, orange juice,
rye flour, dry malt,
wheat flour and barley oats.
- Yeah.
- [Dennis] There's a lot going on in here.
- Yes.
- Super dense, I'm assuming.
It is super dense and moist and sweet.
- But we're done here.
- Good. That's easy.
[Krista] Yeah, it is. It's so easy.
[Dennis] And is this a bread
that people make at home as well?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
It's so easy. Like you just throw
everything in a bowl
and mix it, and you're done.
Right. And then you have it for breakfast,
you have it for lunch.
Even night snack.
- This is Finland, pretty much.
- This is Finland.
That Archipelago bread
kinda blew my mind, honestly.
I've never had bread like this before.
What I love about it
is you can use it in 16,000 ways.
It's great for savory dishes.
It's great for sweet dishes
or just with butter and by itself.
So I wanna learn what the most summertime,
summer fresh dessert is here in Finland.
Let me tell you. Brita cake.
What is in Brita?
So we're gonna build it from dough
and then a meringue on top.
And we're gonna bake it,
and then we're gonna fill it up
with whipped cream and berries.
- Looks beautiful. Smells beautiful.
- It does. I know.
There you go.
That's your Brita.
- You want me to feed it to you?
- Yes.
Is this a service you offer at the bakery?
- Yeah.
- Really?
[laughing]
- It's perfect. It's delicious.
- [Krista] It is. I told you.
- [Dennis] Yeah.
- It's so good.
So I've learned a few things today.
Number one, Archipelagoesblah.
Nope, that's not...
I learned about cakes.
I learned about berries.
I learned about bread that are all native
to this part of Finland.
I think more than that, I learned
that Finnish people are just awesome.
[Karin] Saana and Olli
have done a beautiful job
renovating their century-old house.
They kept the character,
but made it modern
by including their own textile designs.
- [Karin] So, this is your kitchen.
- [Saana] Yes.
- Gorgeous.
- This was the first room we got finished.
It's beautiful. I love the grey,
the white ceiling and the wood floor.
It's very calming and serene.
But there's still a lot of character
in your home.
- Oi.
- Olli and Saana are the cutest. Oi.
Speaking of your fabrics,
I'm excited to take a look at them.
Oi, Saana can show them.
Yes. We can show you.
We have some samples.
So, this is like the natural color
of the hemp
- when it's not colored or dyed.
- Okay.
It's called Ikiaika, which means,
like, the eternal.
And it was inspired by the cave paintings
found in Finland.
There you can see
some other color options,
like the black and white
in the same prints.
We are really interested
in folk and craft history of Finland.
So that has a major influence
in all of our collections.
[Saana] This one is called
"Land of Happiness."
[Karin] I love that this is called
Land of Happiness,
because Finland definitely feels like
the land of happiness.
- [Karin laughs]
- Oi. [chuckles]
It's beautiful, the food is good,
the design is amazing.
People are happy and friendly.
It's definitely the land of happiness.
- [chuckles]
- Oi.
I haven't totally decided
how I'm gonna bring those textiles in yet,
but I just know I love the idea
of bringing the fabric in.
As Finnish designers,
what is Scandinavian design?
What does that mean to you?
I think it's something, like,
inspired by the surroundings
and natural materials and...
- [Olli] And the four seasons.
- Yeah.
That cycle has a big influence
in Finnish lifestyle, I think.
Finland is 85% forest, the whole country.
So, that has a major influence
in our design, too.
After seeing this house,
I'm actually inspired
to go more Scandinavian in my designs
all the time. [chuckles]
Not just with this restaurant,
but all the time.
It's really beautiful.
[singing in Finnish]
[Nick] So, I just arrived in the beautiful
seaside town of Naantali,
which is one of the coolest places
I've ever been.
But not only that, we're here
during the best time of the year.
It's the midsummer festival.
It's an ancient holiday that celebrates
the arrival of summer
after a long, dark winter.
In Finland, they kick it off officially
with a long weekend.
And it's an excuse for you to drink,
dance, eat, and just have fun.
It's a perfect time to give Marina
and Turo a crash course
on guerrilla-style marketing.
I have some very exciting news
I wanna share with you guys.
The problem with Maininki
is that no one knows it's there.
So, my solution to that problem
is creating a relaunch party.
I created a flyer for you guys,
and it's for the
official relaunch party of Maininki.
We're gonna hand out these invites,
and get the buzz going.
- There's gonna be a live band.
- That's great.
- I think that--
- There's never been live music there.
- No.
- [Nick] Yeah.
- [Nick] Never been live music?
- Never.
That'll bring us
younger generation to the restaurant,
which is extremely important
for future success.
There's nothing better
than grassroots guerilla marketing.
When you actually put something tangible
in somebody's hand,
and you add a little treat to it,
that's something that people remember.
So let's walk around town.
Let's talk to people.
And let's build up a buzz.
Let's do that.
- [Marina] Let's do that.
- There we go.
[Turo] Let's do it.
This is definitely something I've applied
to my own businesses in the past.
And I don't care how successful you are,
you gotta get your feet out in the street
and you gotta connect with your community.
[Turo] Let's do this.
Hi, guys. How are you?
Hi, I'm Nick. Um, we're, uh...
We're actually promoting a new restaurant
that we're gonna be reopening.
[woman] Okay.
This is the official relaunch.
- We are... I'm at work, actually.
- You're working.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
She's running away.
You're not going anywhere.
Come over here, guys.
Are you guys local?
- [woman] No.
- [Nick] No. Okay.
- [woman] We're from Stockholm.
- [Nick] Okay. You're from Stockholm.
You pay to travel.
We are gladly coming back on Wednesday.
[Nick] Live band, great music.
This is a free drink ticket,
so you definitely wanna bring it.
This is your invitation to come.
- [Turo] You're underage.
- Yeah.
Under 18.
Well, we have a kids' menu.
[Nick] Hey, gentlemen, how are you?
Can I get a quick moment to talk to you?
- No, I don't have time.
- No? Okay.
All right. That's okay. It's okay.
Perfectly fine.
I definitely feel like Turo and Marina
were a little held back
when I was just walking up to strangers,
because that's not something
that's commonly done around here.
[Nick] For companies in Finland,
the use of social media
and digital advertising are on the rise.
But when it comes to guerilla marketing,
it's usually used by big companies,
not small business owners.
I had to get them engaged.
I had to really almost grab Turo's hand
and say, "Talk to this guy."
And, "Marina, talk to her."
- Okay. Let's talk to all these people.
- Yeah.
[Nick] But then as we started going
throughout the night,
I think Marina and Turo
started to loosen up.
Free drinks, live music.
Please join us on Wednesday
at six o'clock.
- [Turo] She's missing the candy.
- [Nick] There you go.
[Turo] You'll see, you'll see...
[speaks Finnish]
[all laughing]
[Nick] I wish I knew what he said.
It sounded fun.
It started a little bumpy,
but then as we started going
throughout the night,
people kind of started getting used
to seeing us walk around town
and really wanted to find out
what we were handing out.
[Karin] Today,
I'm meeting with Brian Keaney.
And he is the artist behind Tonfisk,
one of the most successful
Scandinavian brands here in Finland.
Are you the artist behind all of this?
Not all of it, but I'm founder
of the company, yes.
And also main designer in the company.
- I like your accent.
- Oh, thank you.
[both laugh]
- You're Irish.
- Irish originally, yeah.
Okay. Okay. Cool.
- Adopted Finn now, at this stage.
- Adopted Finn. I can hear it.
- So this is beautiful stuff.
- [Brian] Yeah.
[Karin] As a designer,
my first impression of the product
is they're so simple.
But they're beautiful, and they're simple.
In Finland, in particular,
people are, kind of, very no nonsense.
I think maybe the design philosophy
that carries through that Finnish design,
compared to maybe the other Nordic design,
is even more pared down, even simpler.
Traditionally, it has been,
than the other Nordic designs even.
- So this is a creamer.
- [Brian] Creamer, yeah.
Milk and sugar. So you pour the milk...
- [Karin] This is very clever.
- Yeah.
- Because the sugar just stays in there.
- [Brian] It just stays there.
It revolves around inside.
- So...
- I love that.
- And, of course, we do--
- You must sell a lot of these.
We do, yeah. Yeah.
[both laugh]
[Karin] What I learned today
about Finnish design
is that it's really about
what is essential.
Finding simple solutions to problems.
That's what Finnish design is all about.
Okay, so we're gonna do
the cups and the teapots.
So, these are the molds made from plaster.
So then all we do is
we pour the clay into the molds.
So, they'll stay there now
for about 10, 15 minutes.
I didn't expect that
when he was gonna show me
his process and the production,
that they're handmade.
They look like
they're factory machine-made.
Do you wanna have a go?
Yeah.
[Brian chuckles]
So, grab it on the lower part of it there,
like this.
- [Karin] The lower part.
- Yes.
And then just enough
so it stays in your hand,
and then just lift it up 'cause it's
quite soft still at the moment.
That's it.
- There you go.
- [Karin] Okay.
So on Monday morning, nine o'clock,
I expect to see you here.
- Okay. For work, yeah. [laughs]
- For work, yeah.
Here we are, finishing some pieces.
So, we just need some water or a sponge,
for example, with the cups here.
[Karin] Okay. Whoop!
[Brian laughs]
And so, this is quite normal
for people doing it the first time.
- I feel bad that I broke one.
- No, no, no.
- It's just...
- Okay.
Don't worry. There's thousands more
from where that came from.
[Karin] We've been doing this.
I've been really thinking
about the creamers.
And the creamers have just stuck
in my mind.
I just think it would be perfect
to have those creamers on the tables.
Sure.
Yeah, we can see what we can do, yeah.
- [Karin] Yeah?
- Yeah.
That was very cool. Very, very, very cool.
I'm even more excited about Finnish design
than I was when I got here.
And I'm thinking a lot about that
and how I'm gonna take that philosophy
back to the restaurant with me.
[Nick] I'm getting Marina and Turo
out of their comfort zone
to do some guerilla marketing
to a younger demographic
about the relaunch of their restaurant,
and we also need to get the word out
that Maininki is not just
for yacht club members.
How you doing? I'm Nick. Nice to meet you.
My name is Nick,
and this is Turo and Marina.
This is Turo and Marina.
- [Turo] How're you doing?
- They're restaurant owners.
It's a relaunch to a restaurant
that we're rebranding.
We're having a big party
on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m.
And we're gonna have
live music, cocktails, food.
So, it's very close. 6:00 p.m.
It's gonna be the biggest,
best party in town.
- Whoo!
- [women] Whoo!
- Happy midsummer!
- [man] That's good.
[Nick] These are free drink tickets.
Hey, what's up, girls? How are you?
- [woman] Oh, free booze.
- [Nick] Party. Yes, yes, yes. Free booze.
- [woman] Thank you.
- [Nick] Do you like parties?
- [woman 1] Yeah.
- [woman 2] Of course, we do.
Happy midsummer.
- [woman speaking Finnish]
- [Nick exclaiming]
You guys into it?
[man] I would like to take one of those.
[Nick] This guy wants to party.
- You know it.
- [man] Party animal!
[Nick] That's right. Party animal.
Wednesday night, 6:00 p.m.
- [Turo] Perfect.
- [Nick] Perfect.
- [Turo] You'll be there.
- Yeah.
[man] Thank you.
- [Nick] There we go.
- Thank you.
- [woman cheers]
- Yeah!
We're gonna have
the most epic party of the year.
- [all laugh]
- That's right. Party.
- All right.
- I'm coming.
- You're coming. Check.
- Awesome.
- Alrighty then.
- Alrighty.
- Guys.
- That was cool.
- Whoop!
- We handed out the whole basket.
- I think the reception was really good.
- Yeah.
And I really think
most of the people will come there
on Wednesday and spread the word.
I truly feel that Marina and Turo
had a great time with me
walking around town.
It gave them an opportunity
to get back in touch with their community
and have everyone appreciate Maininki
in a new light.
[upbeat music playing]
[Karin] It's good to see you guys.
I've had such an incredible time
in Finland.
I can only imagine the experience
that you guys have had,
'cause it's pretty amazing here.
Just getting involved
with the Finnish culture.
These were some of the nicest people
I've ever met in the world.
And speaking of nice people, I got
some time to spend with Marina and Turo.
I actually went to a sauna with them
to get them out of the restaurant setting
and get to know them a little bit better.
He's so strong in finance,
and she's such a great person
in the restaurant business.
But the one thing that they're lacking is
they're terrible at marketing.
So, what I decided, I think,
is gonna be great for us,
is actually creating a relaunch party.
And the strategy I used was actually
something that's not used here in Finland.
Just walking around, shaking hands,
talking to people, walking into bars.
What I thought would be great
with you, Dennis, is
I would love for you
to get Turo or Marina,
showing them and inspiring them new ways
to take pictures of food.
Definitely. I feel like social media
is the biggest marketing tool today.
- Mm-hmm. It's free.
- Yeah.
You can highlight
the best of what you have to offer.
So, what have we got going with design?
Oh, my gosh.
I have so much to tell you guys.
I've had such an amazing, life-changing
experience when it comes to design.
When people talk
about Scandinavian design,
now I know what they're talking about.
- Do you want some cream in your coffee?
- [Nick] Sure.
- This is cool, right? Did you notice this?
- [Nick] Very cool.
- Did you not notice what just happened?
- I'm seeing it right now.
[Karin] Tonfisk is the company
that makes this,
and Brian is the artist
and the craftsperson behind the company.
He's always thinking about
coming up with a solution
to a problem for these products.
In the restaurant,
I thought these creamers
would be great for the tables.
- Love it.
- Kind of getting it away
from the dated character that it has.
Now, the other thing that I did is,
I went to meet with this
design power couple, Saana and Olli.
They're best known for textiles.
And they live in the most gorgeous house.
I mean, it is the epitome
of Scandinavian design.
And what I loved about it so much is that
it really reflected this transformation
at the restaurant that we're going to do,
because the restaurant is
in an old building with tons of character.
But we wanna make it more modern and
keeping it true to its Scandinavian roots.
So, it was the perfect house
to go see for inspiration.
So, while Saana and Olli were renovating,
they actually stumbled on some wallpaper
that was original to the building.
And that really inspired me
to incorporate some wallpaper
into the restaurant.
So along with this wallpaper,
I really wanted to use some paint,
because that wood paneling has gotta go.
Marina doesn't like it.
It also feels weathered.
It feels a little heavy. It feels tired.
'Cause that restaurant has huge windows,
lots of natural light spilling in,
we need to bring in some blinds
for when it gets really sunny.
But just layering in some paint,
some fresh wallpaper, some hemp textiles
from Saana and Olli,
and some tabletop items from Tonfisk,
I think this whole place
is gonna feel current, up-to-date,
vibrant, Scandinavian, fresh, and bright.
I just wanna give you some more cream,
'cause I just like pouring this thing.
Well, I'm just drinking milk now.
There's no more coffee.
[both chuckle]
People here have a connection
to where their food comes from,
honestly, unlike most countries
in the world. They really care.
And I got to connect with a baker here.
We made this Archipelago bread.
This is Finland on the plate.
This bread is beautiful.
And it shouldn't be a secondary side note,
kind of, after-thought on the table.
It should be the star of the show.
So I wanna create a sandwich board
with cold and hot smoked fish,
great veggies, some nice pickles on that.
It feels like Scandinavia.
We also made a cake,
a really traditional Finnish cake.
That dessert was incredible that I had,
and I wanna do my spin on the dessert
that I made with Krista, the baker.
Kind of a lemony, fruity-flavored base,
meringue on top.
We're gonna blowtorch the outside
of the meringue
and serve it with these
beautiful tart berries on the side.
I actually got to travel out
to the Archipelago islands
and meet Chef Mikko.
He's a local chef here in Turku,
runs a catering company,
has run successful restaurants.
We cooked right on the edge of the water.
It was beautiful.
Everything smoked,
everything over a grill.
And we made reindeer sausage.
There are endless kinds of sausage
that people make here.
The big thing is, it just comes down to
folks like to grill.
That's the thing that's missing
at the restaurant right now.
And Turo even said that, at that meal.
He said, "I want more grilled food.
I want more accessible food.
And I want more food
that feels like the summertime."
I'm gonna create for the restaurant
a kids' dish,
something that's
really, really fun with sausage,
some fries that are beautiful
from the new potatoes
that people love here.
All of it plated up in an ice cube tray.
It's something
that you're gonna wanna take a photo of,
put on the Internet, tell your friends.
And it will drive people
to the restaurant to wanna have that meal.
You know what I love
about this transformation
is that it feels hyper local.
It's so connected to the community.
The food, the design, throwing a party.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Let's get out of here.
[upbeat music playing]
[Nick] I gave Marina and Turo
a crash course in guerilla marketing
the other day.
And today, I'm here at Auran Aallot,
which is a great radio station
that grabs a lot of listeners,
to get the buzz out about Maininki
and the relaunch party.
[speaking Finnish]
- Nick Liberato, welcome.
- Thank you so much for having me.
Great that you could come here.
And we gonna talk about food, of course,
and Ruissalon Maininki,
that great big relaunch party.
I don't wanna reveal too much
because we wanna keep it a surprise.
In today's world, you have to diversify
how you're gonna reach people.
[Nick] The radio actually reaches
a whole different audience,
people that are in their cars,
people that are sitting at bus stops.
We're gonna do everything we can
to bring a new audience
into the restaurant.
Right now, this is place is completely
being changed over.
So when everyone's going to be coming
on Wednesday night,
which is tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m.,
they're gonna be experiencing a new drink,
you know, new food, new decor.
- [radio host] Live music?
- And live music.
And a revival of this place
like no one's ever seen.
- That's great.
- Yeah.
Nick, thanks for visiting our show.
- Thank you so much for having me.
- Thanks for visiting.
And don't be a stranger.
I think it's great
that we got free marketing
from a local broadcaster
that actually grabs the attention
of a number of listeners every single day.
There are definitely gonna be
some that listened today,
and they're going to be showing up
at tomorrow's party.
[Karin] Walking into the restaurant today,
it's not complete yet,
and already it is
such a huge transformation.
High, high, high impact.
What I've learned in Finland
is that design is all about
freshening up the space,
making it light, airy, bringing in light,
speaking to nature.
I mean, that's very Finn.
My only concern is that I really want
Marina and Turo to love it.
When we first got here, Marina and Turo
were struggling with a perception problem.
People weren't making the trip
out to the restaurant,
because they assumed it was a yacht club
that was exclusive, formal,
and that you wanted to button up
another button in your shirt. [laughs]
This transformation
has set them on a new path,
and their future is about to begin.
- [both laughing]
- Wow!
[both laughing]
[Turo] Wow.
[Turo] Amazing.
- [Turo chuckles]
- [Marina] Whoo.
[Turo] Amazing.
Wow.
Look at these.
This is amazing.
It's so fresh. Look at the lights.
I'm speechless.
- [Turo] What a place we have.
- [Marina] Oh, my God.
[Turo] Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Is it the same place?
[chuckles] It is. It is the same place.
- [crying] No way.
- Yeah.
[laughs]
- [Marina] Yeah.
- [Turo] It's really great.
[Karin] Hello.
- Hi, Karin.
- Hi, there.
Wow.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at you. Oh.
[Marina] Oh.
[Turo] Thank you so much.
- [Marina] Whoa.
- [Karin] How are you feeling?
[sighs]
- [Turo] Speechless?
- Speechless.
Yeah.
- Overwhelmed?
- I'm really overwhelmed.
- [Turo] Yeah. This is so...
- [Marina] Not in my wildest dreams.
Yeah.
- [Marina] You did magic to this place.
- [Karin] Really?
- You did.
- My heart is thumping.
- I'm getting a heart attack.
- You definitely did.
Yeah.
[Marina] All the blue and all the grey
and all the white, it's so Finnish.
- We love it.
- We love it.
- [Turo] It's amazing.
- [Marina] Oh, thank you.
- [Turo] It's amazing.
- Oh, you're so welcome.
[Nick] We handed out these invites,
which were drink tickets,
and everyone can redeem 'em.
And I have a wonderful cocktail
that we put together.
It's called the Midsummer Rumble.
It's made with
one and a half ounces Ketel One vodka,
three quarters lime juice,
three quarters simple syrup,
with some muddled blackberries on top.
[Dennis] What's up, everybody?
- [all] Hey.
- How are we doing?
- [Karin] Great.
- Look at how perfectly that's plated.
That looks beautiful.
[Dennis] I bet you weren't expecting this.
- You guys want families?
- [Turo] Yeah.
- [Marina] Yeah.
- You need to offer food to kids.
And potatoes, reindeer sausage,
some carrots.
Kids wanna have fun when they eat.
'Cause when kids are having fun,
parents are having fun, everybody's happy.
So the thing about making kids' food
is you want it to be interactive.
You want it to be fun.
And you're gonna notice I've said "fun"
a lot, 'cause "fun" is the theme
- for this evening.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- All about making it fun.
And I know we had talked about Instagram
a little bit and social media,
and you guys are just starting
with your social media.
I know a thing or two about social media.
I'd love to help you if I can.
So, here's the thing with food.
You eat with your eyes
and then your nose and then your mouth.
When you look at a photograph,
subconsciously, we look at it
from the top left-hand corner
to the bottom right hand corner, right?
If you know that, you can draw
the viewer's eye through the frame.
And see what I mean,
when you look at that,
how there's things
peeking through the frame?
- So that looks super fun. You know?
- [Karin] Cute.
[Dennis] All right, next up,
ready for more fun?
Okay. What do we have here?
Essentially, this is a charcuterie board,
but it's a sandwich version.
It's fun. I've literally never seen anyone
do this before.
Beautiful salmon that was smoked
on your smoker back there.
Perch, which I know is very, very popular
and also, everywhere in the water
that we're looking at right here.
That is so true.
We've got come quick pickles,
Archipelago bread,
beautiful herbed mayo here,
celebrating dill, tarragon,
all the things they grow out here
that are beautiful.
Entirely customizable.
Can I taste one?
We need to take a picture first,
because once we start eating,
we're not gonna stop.
[Marina laughs]
- [Turo] Shall we put the hands in there?
- [Dennis] Yes. That's very fun.
[Karin] I like you.
You're art directing now.
[Dennis] Yeah.
[Turo] Dennis, I'm speechless.
This is really good.
It's like a small buffet,
but this is a modern, fresh way to do it.
So, I have one more thing.
There's nothing to complete a meal
like a little sweet after you eat.
[Karin] Dennis, I think this is the most
beautiful thing you've ever made.
[Dennis] Absolutely.
You know,
and I fell head first into Brita.
- I hope I'm pronouncing that properly.
- Yeah.
The beautiful cake
that you guys know, I'm sure, and love.
So this is kind of my version of that,
a deconstructed Brita cake.
[Marina] This is absolutely gorgeous.
All the flavors together.
You really nailed it.
And you brought the food up
to a new level completely.
We sit in this beautiful...
restaurant, which had a really,
really huge change if we compare.
It will make a huge difference
to the customer experience.
I can guarantee you that.
- Let's celebrate you guys tonight.
- [Marina] Yes, celebrate.
- [Turo] Yes, let's do it.
- It is time to party.
[Karin] This new design reflects them,
who they are as people and as a couple.
And it's Finnish.
Everything in this room is from Finland.
That's what people in Finland like.
[Nick] I truly believe that Marina
and Turo have been set up for success.
They have all the positivity,
initiative, and creativity
to make this place
the best restaurant around here.
[Dennis] Maininki now has a new direction.
This restaurant has its soul back.
It's an experience.
People wanna Instagram it.
And it is what's gonna drive
people to the restaurant from Turku.
They have their new vision.
They have a new direction.
[upbeat music playing]
[theme music playing]
[Nick] We've been invited by restaurants
on the edge
of the most beautiful views imaginable.
[Karin] Who really need some help
keeping their business from going under.
[Dennis] There's nothing more inspiring
than celebrating a community on the plate.
But far too often, the better the view,
the worse the food.
[Karin] This is about reviving
not only the restaurants...
Everything's at stake for us.
For us, it's... it's life.
...but also the owners' belief
in themselves.
- [woman gasps]
- [man whoops]
This means the world to me.
Oh, my God! [chuckles]
It's like a part of us here.
[Dennis] So together, we're traveling
the world in search of inspiration
to transform these restaurants
into authentic hot spots
that paint a picture
not just of that restaurant,
not just of that chef,
but of that community.
I'm telling you, my brother,
you all changed my life.
[Karin] What isn't there
to love about Finland?
The people are beautiful.
The people are happy and friendly.
There's nature everywhere you look.
It's just a really, really gorgeous place.
[Dennis] Home to the midnight sun
and some of the happiest people on Earth,
Finland is bordered
by Sweden, Norway, and Russia.
Our destination
is the medieval town of Turku,
which is now a vibrant modern city,
considered a capitol of culture.
[Dennis] One of the incredible
things about Turku
is it's surrounded
by the Archipelago islands.
There's 20,000 islands here.
So, you get from island to island by boat.
[Dennis] We're on our way to Maininki,
a restaurant inside
a century-old heritage building
that's also home to a yacht club.
The menu seems okay,
but it's missing that X factor you need
to entice new customers
to make the 15-minute trip from Turku.
[Nick] The restaurant is dealing
with a perception problem.
Locals assume it's
for yacht club members only, but it's not.
New owners, Marina and Turo,
want the people of Turku to understand
that their restaurant is open
to anyone willing to make the trip
by car or boat,
because their business is falling flat.
[Karin] Turo and Marina have left
the interior from the previous owners,
but it feels completely
boring and institutional.
They need help adding a modern touch
to the building's already-amazing history.
We wanna honor the building's heritage,
but we really need
to attract a younger generation.
[Karin] What an interesting, old building.
Lots of beautiful natural light
coming in here.
But it's got a little bit of a...
kind of a museum feel.
[Nick] Walking in Maininki,
it's very quiet, very dull.
The opposite of feeling the way
a restaurant should feel.
What's super cool about this
is the round restaurant
gives you complete access
to this gorgeous view.
It's a beautiful place,
but at the same time...
I need a little bit more something.
Yeah, I don't know what the vibe is.
I don't know, looking at this restaurant,
what they serve for food here.
- Feels kinda sleepy.
- [Dennis] Yeah.
[Karin] It could be fresh. It could
be modern. It could be super cool.
This architecture,
the wood ceilings, these columns,
I mean,
I think this has a ton of potential.
- [Nick] Yeah.
- [Dennis] The bones are here.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Marina.
- Marina, I'm Karin.
- Welcome.
[Karin] Marina and Turo.
What a chic couple.
You can tell that
as soon as you meet them.
They just have a quality and an air
about them that is so sophisticated.
We need more customers,
and I hope you can help us with that.
Of course, we have this spectacular view,
which you cannot make it even better.
- [laughs]
- [Dennis] That's true.
We definitely don't wanna touch the view.
[laughing]
[Turo] Well, we are
in the Island of Ruissalo.
The whole island is a natural park.
I love this place.
It has a soul.
I can't explain.
It just has a soul, somehow.
If we go back 30 years ago in time,
my father used to have
a yacht club restaurant in Helsinki.
So, it feels like I'm coming home.
[Turo] So, I have also kind of, like,
my own attachment to this place.
We used to have a sailing boat
in this yacht club, when I was young.
I used to come here
every single summer, many, many times.
[Marina] I worked here all last summer.
Marina is extremely good at her work.
And I think it's a proper time for her
to have something of her own.
[Marina] My best wish
was that I get this place for myself
and do it the way I want.
This is my dream come true.
We're having, as a starter,
smoked salmon salad.
We smoked the salmon
this morning in our own smoker.
Should be fresh.
[all laughing]
And then we're having flank steak,
roasted potatoes, roasted beetroot,
some carrots and garnish and red wine,
rosemary lemon sauce.
[Dennis] This restaurant is interesting.
The food is pretty good.
The chef knows how to cook.
The challenge is
they don't know what to cook.
It's too fine dining. It's not really fun.
There's nothing on the menu for kids.
And you come in on your boat
for the afternoon with your family,
this is not the food
you're gonna wanna eat.
Turo, what's the average age of people
that are coming to the restaurant
and your clientele?
Well, I have to say
that it's probably over 55,
the average age.
I would love to see more families,
younger people coming over.
Oftentimes,
kids' menu items are secondary.
There's something that you just feed them
so that their bellies are full. Why?
There's no reason why kids can't have
a great experience at the table, too.
And having food that's
fun on the menu and geared to kids
will help promote the younger demographic
Marina and Turo are after.
- Is grilling a big part of the restaurant?
- I think it should be.
And there are no restaurants
that, at least I know,
that have real barbecue in Finland.
And I think that might be something
that might also lure people in
and also widen the demographic base
of the clientele.
From a design perspective,
we're sitting in a beautiful building,
a beautiful heritage building,
but it does feel
like it needs to be updated.
- Yeah.
- [Turo] That is correct.
I hate those white lamps,
because they're straight from the '80s.
That's good, because I hate them, too.
- Good.
- [Turo] I hate them.
[all laughing]
Marina, what is your story
with this place?
I had been working here before.
And the guy who owned this place,
he had two places.
He wanted to focus
on the other one downtown.
When he told me this, I was like,
"Oh, my God, this is my opportunity."
I've been working in a restaurant,
but it's not the same thing,
running the business.
[Turo] Yeah, this is totally new for me.
I've been in financing
all my working life.
I think the most important thing
we have to solve,
we are about seven kilometers
from the city center.
People have to have a reason to come over.
Yeah, it's really about creating
a destination restaurant.
Exactly. So that is the thing.
In today's world,
in the restaurant business,
marketing, branding, and identity
are some of the most important things.
I've looked at your presence online.
You guys aren't promoting.
What's keeping you guys
from doing more online?
Lack of time and resources.
But the fact is
that we've been concentrating
getting this up and running.
- Sure.
- [Turo] Yeah.
Just finishing dinner up, I know
what my goal is for this restaurant.
I need to figure out a way
of driving business.
How am I gonna be able to drive people
from Turku to this restaurant?
It's a new home to you guys
and, clearly, means quite a bit
not only to you guys, but people
that have visited this space in the past.
- Yeah. That's true.
- So, we have to just figure out
a way of reviving that soul
and creating a new home.
- [Marina] Yeah.
- That's gonna feel good for everybody.
And modernizing for the future,
while paying respect
to the heritage of this restaurant.
- Exactly.
- [Karin] Yeah.
And there's so much expertise here now,
we're just like...
- [Karin] Yeah.
- "Go, run, run, run."
- This is really--
- Go, girl.
Yeah.
[all laugh]
- We are out of here.
- [Nick] Go, girl!
[Nick] Go, girl.
[Karin] Marina and Turo,
they're brand new to the business.
They need a launchpad.
This is a heritage building,
so there are some restrictions.
We can't touch the outside.
We can't touch the ceiling.
The biggest problem here
is that it looks dated.
There's wood paneling on the walls,
but that feels dark,
and the wood paneling
isn't in great condition.
The lighting also looks like
it doesn't totally work
with the restaurant.
And then the color is really flat.
It's not white and minimal,
it's white and sterile.
No one wants to eat
in a clinical, sterile restaurant.
It needs to be warm, needs to be fun,
and it needs to have life.
It needs that "oomph"
to really make it special.
Let's really do a fun transformation
that feels very Scandinavian
and feels like it belongs in Finland.
[Nick] So I'm here
at a beautiful sauna here in Finland.
For a population of 5.3 million people,
there's actually two million saunas.
It's a way of life here.
So I'm happy
when I asked you guys to meet me,
you guys picked this location.
And what a better Finnish setting
than a sauna.
Meeting Marina and Turo here at the saunas
is a great way for me to
go over their reviews with them.
Some past issues
that have been going on with Maininki.
The restaurant business,
more than any other business,
puts a lot of strain on a couple.
I'm married. I spend
a lot of time within the restaurant.
How has this business
changed your relationship?
Not that much.
We've been working a lot in the past also.
Because the history is that I hired her,
I fired her, I married her.
- Yeah. [laughs]
- Okay. Explain that...
Explain that all to me in detail.
I was running a finance company
in Helsinki and, uh...
one of my friends said that Marina
might be a good possible employee for you.
And then I hired her.
The one thing is
that I have always a policy
that you cannot date anyone you work with.
So... I have to fire her first to do that.
I felt like I've known him my whole life
when I met him for the first time.
- It didn't change when he fired you?
- No.
I loved him even more, because I knew
that he was going to marry me. [chuckles]
Okay.
Marina, how important is Turo to you?
He's my life. He's my twin soul.
What would it mean for you guys
to lose this business?
It's important that...
Marina and I will have something
to build together to go forward with.
This is a business
that they're going into together.
And it means that much more to them
as a couple
and as ambassadors to Ruissalo and Finland
that they achieve
the highest success possible.
So, I just wanna go over this one review,
from the previous owner.
"The food was badly balanced and cold.
It had the feeling as if it was coming
through a microwave."
Marina, I know you've worked there before
with the previous owners.
Marina actually has time
invested in this business,
as she worked there before as a manager.
So that's something you gotta take
some ownership on.
Can you tell me
about how you feel about that review?
It doesn't feel too good.
You have to take ownership
for those bad experiences, unfortunately.
But understand you have an opportunity
- to make it better.
- Yes.
What would you like people to know
of what you're doing now
that the previous business wasn't doing?
Kind of, like, handmade in Maininki.
We tell that the bread
is baked by ourselves.
- It's not from the store.
- [Nick] Mm-hmm.
And we smoke the fish.
And we have to promote that,
because to be honest,
I don't think that's enough.
- No, it's not enough.
- The point is that we have to tell
the story to the whole world,
not just the people
- who are visiting the restaurant.
- Yeah.
My solution to their problems
is to get them out there and understand
how to market their business
and achieve an identity,
a brand in Maininki.
I've got some really great ideas
with this business
and how to grab more attention.
When you have scheduled events
at your restaurant,
that gives people a consistent,
weekly thing to be able to do.
Something new. Because the problem
with Maininki is that it's always old.
- That's how people perceive it.
- Yeah.
So we wanna create a new perception
for everyone
that goes into that restaurant. All right?
- Right.
- Great.
I'm excited. You guys excited?
- Yes, we are.
- For sure.
- [Nick] Great.
- Yeah.
[Dennis] After having dinner
and meeting Turo and Marina,
I know that they need
fun in their restaurant.
They need to give people a reason
to make the trip out to Maininki.
They need an experience,
and they need to set themselves apart
by adding some grilling options.
Turo loves it and wants it to be
a part of the restaurant's menu.
I've traveled today
into the Archipelago islands
to meet Chef Mikko.
He's run successful restaurants,
and he's also a part-time musician.
This guy knows what Finns love
in the summertime.
[Dennis] We're here working
with a restaurant, Maininki,
and there's some new owners.
They just took over about a month ago,
and the owner really wants to implement
more grilled options onto the menu.
Is that kind of part of food culture
here in Finland,
to grill at restaurants, or is that
more something that's done in homes?
Yeah, it's mostly done in home.
Many restaurants
don't have the outside areas for it.
[Mikko] So, we have
a topside of reindeer here.
We're gonna make a reindeer sausage.
We have to cut up
the chanterelle and the onions,
and then we're gonna sauté them.
[Dennis] Nice!
[sizzling]
That's one of my favorite sounds
in the whole world.
Yeah. And then we got this seasoning,
which got some fennel,
some juniper berries, and black pepper.
All right.
- So, sausage casing.
- Yes.
This'll go on the end here.
Sausage mixture is gonna go through this.
- [Mikko] Yeah.
- Bingo, bango.
- It's sausage time.
- Yeah. [laughs]
[machine whirring]
This is like...
the best thing that two guys can do
on their spare time.
- [Dennis] Make sausage?
- Yeah.
[Dennis] That's one way
of thinking about life.
[Mikko] Yeah.
So, now we just, like, grill it up.
So we'll see what happens.
- We grill it fast like that.
- I know what's gonna happen.
- Deliciousness is gonna happen.
- That's for sure.
[Dennis] I like sausages
for this restaurant.
Turo loves grilled food.
They know they want that
to be a part of the restaurant,
because it's part of Finnish summertime.
Grilling in and of itself
is an experience,
so I imagine sitting in the restaurant,
looking at Chef outside,
as I pull in on my boat,
grilling some food.
I can smell it already.
That's an experience.
You got a little sauce action going on.
What's this?
Basically, this is Mornay sauce.
I use this Swedish cheese with it,
Västerbotten cheese.
It's really, really tasty.
- [Dennis] Looks amazing.
- Right.
- I'm stoked, man. Let's eat.
- All right.
[Dennis] Mmm. This sausage is amazing.
I'm leaving here inspired
and way more set up for success
to build this restaurant menu.
First up, kids' food.
We need to create a delicious kids' meal
that's an experience,
and sausage is perfect.
Marina and Turo,
they're a really hip couple.
And we've agreed
that we wanna take this restaurant,
make it way more modern,
fresh, vibrant, and current.
So today, I'm meeting with Saana and Olli.
They are a famous Finnish design duo.
They live in a very unique building.
It's over 100 years old,
and it used to be a schoolhouse.
Wow. What a beautiful place to live.
I think this is the most beautiful place
in Finland I've been to so far.
[Olli and Saana] Thank you.
- [Karin] Yeah.
- [Saana] Thank you so much.
[Karin] Because it's such an old building,
Saana and Olli have taken it,
and they've revived it.
They've renovated the house
and made it more modern.
And I think there's lots of things
about their renovation practices
and this house
that I can bring back to the restaurant.
Wow!
[Karin] Oh, my goodness.
This is room number one. I'm so excited.
This is beautiful.
- [Saana] Welcome to our house.
- [Karin] Oh, my gosh.
And all these panels are the originals,
but we wanted to paint them
in these classic shades, to have
this Nordic style, but just a little.
Yeah. We wanted to have the...
Honor the heritage of this building.
The house is older
than Finland as a nation, so...
[Karin] Well, I love all the textiles.
These must be yours.
[Olli] They are our own collection.
We produce these.
All of textiles are 100% hemp fabric.
[Saana] All the carpets
are also our designs.
- And these are made from recycled cotton.
- [Karin] This is yours. No way!
Wow. Wait. What is this?
[Olli] This is,
uh, original 105-year-old wallpaper.
[Karin] What?
- It's so beautiful.
- All right. Thank you.
Even though it's in rough shape,
we wanted to keep the history exposed
and shown in here.
I love the wallpaper.
I love using wallpaper.
I'm thinking maybe I should use
some wallpaper in the restaurant.
- [Olli] Oh, that sounds good.
- [Karin] Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, cool.
[Karin] Seeing this house, I have a new
appreciation for Scandinavian design.
The colors inspire a sense of calm.
And the use of plants, it feels
so healthy, like you just wanna hang out.
And how could you not be happy
in an environment like this?
Yeah, I really love it.
[Dennis] Right in the center of Turku,
there is an incredible bakery named Fika.
You wanna talk about an experience
at a restaurant
and creating memorable moments
at the table,
there's nothing like dessert.
And I need to bring in
that experience to Maininki,
so that people leave
with a little sweet after they eat,
feeling like they had
a memorable experience.
Cool. So what are we making here?
I can teach you
how to make Archipelago bread.
That's the most Finn thing
that you can make.
- The most Finnish thing?
- The most, yes.
- Yes.
- So what goes in this bread?
Dark syrup, orange juice,
rye flour, dry malt,
wheat flour and barley oats.
- Yeah.
- [Dennis] There's a lot going on in here.
- Yes.
- Super dense, I'm assuming.
It is super dense and moist and sweet.
- But we're done here.
- Good. That's easy.
[Krista] Yeah, it is. It's so easy.
[Dennis] And is this a bread
that people make at home as well?
- Yeah.
- Yeah?
It's so easy. Like you just throw
everything in a bowl
and mix it, and you're done.
Right. And then you have it for breakfast,
you have it for lunch.
Even night snack.
- This is Finland, pretty much.
- This is Finland.
That Archipelago bread
kinda blew my mind, honestly.
I've never had bread like this before.
What I love about it
is you can use it in 16,000 ways.
It's great for savory dishes.
It's great for sweet dishes
or just with butter and by itself.
So I wanna learn what the most summertime,
summer fresh dessert is here in Finland.
Let me tell you. Brita cake.
What is in Brita?
So we're gonna build it from dough
and then a meringue on top.
And we're gonna bake it,
and then we're gonna fill it up
with whipped cream and berries.
- Looks beautiful. Smells beautiful.
- It does. I know.
There you go.
That's your Brita.
- You want me to feed it to you?
- Yes.
Is this a service you offer at the bakery?
- Yeah.
- Really?
[laughing]
- It's perfect. It's delicious.
- [Krista] It is. I told you.
- [Dennis] Yeah.
- It's so good.
So I've learned a few things today.
Number one, Archipelagoesblah.
Nope, that's not...
I learned about cakes.
I learned about berries.
I learned about bread that are all native
to this part of Finland.
I think more than that, I learned
that Finnish people are just awesome.
[Karin] Saana and Olli
have done a beautiful job
renovating their century-old house.
They kept the character,
but made it modern
by including their own textile designs.
- [Karin] So, this is your kitchen.
- [Saana] Yes.
- Gorgeous.
- This was the first room we got finished.
It's beautiful. I love the grey,
the white ceiling and the wood floor.
It's very calming and serene.
But there's still a lot of character
in your home.
- Oi.
- Olli and Saana are the cutest. Oi.
Speaking of your fabrics,
I'm excited to take a look at them.
Oi, Saana can show them.
Yes. We can show you.
We have some samples.
So, this is like the natural color
of the hemp
- when it's not colored or dyed.
- Okay.
It's called Ikiaika, which means,
like, the eternal.
And it was inspired by the cave paintings
found in Finland.
There you can see
some other color options,
like the black and white
in the same prints.
We are really interested
in folk and craft history of Finland.
So that has a major influence
in all of our collections.
[Saana] This one is called
"Land of Happiness."
[Karin] I love that this is called
Land of Happiness,
because Finland definitely feels like
the land of happiness.
- [Karin laughs]
- Oi. [chuckles]
It's beautiful, the food is good,
the design is amazing.
People are happy and friendly.
It's definitely the land of happiness.
- [chuckles]
- Oi.
I haven't totally decided
how I'm gonna bring those textiles in yet,
but I just know I love the idea
of bringing the fabric in.
As Finnish designers,
what is Scandinavian design?
What does that mean to you?
I think it's something, like,
inspired by the surroundings
and natural materials and...
- [Olli] And the four seasons.
- Yeah.
That cycle has a big influence
in Finnish lifestyle, I think.
Finland is 85% forest, the whole country.
So, that has a major influence
in our design, too.
After seeing this house,
I'm actually inspired
to go more Scandinavian in my designs
all the time. [chuckles]
Not just with this restaurant,
but all the time.
It's really beautiful.
[singing in Finnish]
[Nick] So, I just arrived in the beautiful
seaside town of Naantali,
which is one of the coolest places
I've ever been.
But not only that, we're here
during the best time of the year.
It's the midsummer festival.
It's an ancient holiday that celebrates
the arrival of summer
after a long, dark winter.
In Finland, they kick it off officially
with a long weekend.
And it's an excuse for you to drink,
dance, eat, and just have fun.
It's a perfect time to give Marina
and Turo a crash course
on guerrilla-style marketing.
I have some very exciting news
I wanna share with you guys.
The problem with Maininki
is that no one knows it's there.
So, my solution to that problem
is creating a relaunch party.
I created a flyer for you guys,
and it's for the
official relaunch party of Maininki.
We're gonna hand out these invites,
and get the buzz going.
- There's gonna be a live band.
- That's great.
- I think that--
- There's never been live music there.
- No.
- [Nick] Yeah.
- [Nick] Never been live music?
- Never.
That'll bring us
younger generation to the restaurant,
which is extremely important
for future success.
There's nothing better
than grassroots guerilla marketing.
When you actually put something tangible
in somebody's hand,
and you add a little treat to it,
that's something that people remember.
So let's walk around town.
Let's talk to people.
And let's build up a buzz.
Let's do that.
- [Marina] Let's do that.
- There we go.
[Turo] Let's do it.
This is definitely something I've applied
to my own businesses in the past.
And I don't care how successful you are,
you gotta get your feet out in the street
and you gotta connect with your community.
[Turo] Let's do this.
Hi, guys. How are you?
Hi, I'm Nick. Um, we're, uh...
We're actually promoting a new restaurant
that we're gonna be reopening.
[woman] Okay.
This is the official relaunch.
- We are... I'm at work, actually.
- You're working.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
She's running away.
You're not going anywhere.
Come over here, guys.
Are you guys local?
- [woman] No.
- [Nick] No. Okay.
- [woman] We're from Stockholm.
- [Nick] Okay. You're from Stockholm.
You pay to travel.
We are gladly coming back on Wednesday.
[Nick] Live band, great music.
This is a free drink ticket,
so you definitely wanna bring it.
This is your invitation to come.
- [Turo] You're underage.
- Yeah.
Under 18.
Well, we have a kids' menu.
[Nick] Hey, gentlemen, how are you?
Can I get a quick moment to talk to you?
- No, I don't have time.
- No? Okay.
All right. That's okay. It's okay.
Perfectly fine.
I definitely feel like Turo and Marina
were a little held back
when I was just walking up to strangers,
because that's not something
that's commonly done around here.
[Nick] For companies in Finland,
the use of social media
and digital advertising are on the rise.
But when it comes to guerilla marketing,
it's usually used by big companies,
not small business owners.
I had to get them engaged.
I had to really almost grab Turo's hand
and say, "Talk to this guy."
And, "Marina, talk to her."
- Okay. Let's talk to all these people.
- Yeah.
[Nick] But then as we started going
throughout the night,
I think Marina and Turo
started to loosen up.
Free drinks, live music.
Please join us on Wednesday
at six o'clock.
- [Turo] She's missing the candy.
- [Nick] There you go.
[Turo] You'll see, you'll see...
[speaks Finnish]
[all laughing]
[Nick] I wish I knew what he said.
It sounded fun.
It started a little bumpy,
but then as we started going
throughout the night,
people kind of started getting used
to seeing us walk around town
and really wanted to find out
what we were handing out.
[Karin] Today,
I'm meeting with Brian Keaney.
And he is the artist behind Tonfisk,
one of the most successful
Scandinavian brands here in Finland.
Are you the artist behind all of this?
Not all of it, but I'm founder
of the company, yes.
And also main designer in the company.
- I like your accent.
- Oh, thank you.
[both laugh]
- You're Irish.
- Irish originally, yeah.
Okay. Okay. Cool.
- Adopted Finn now, at this stage.
- Adopted Finn. I can hear it.
- So this is beautiful stuff.
- [Brian] Yeah.
[Karin] As a designer,
my first impression of the product
is they're so simple.
But they're beautiful, and they're simple.
In Finland, in particular,
people are, kind of, very no nonsense.
I think maybe the design philosophy
that carries through that Finnish design,
compared to maybe the other Nordic design,
is even more pared down, even simpler.
Traditionally, it has been,
than the other Nordic designs even.
- So this is a creamer.
- [Brian] Creamer, yeah.
Milk and sugar. So you pour the milk...
- [Karin] This is very clever.
- Yeah.
- Because the sugar just stays in there.
- [Brian] It just stays there.
It revolves around inside.
- So...
- I love that.
- And, of course, we do--
- You must sell a lot of these.
We do, yeah. Yeah.
[both laugh]
[Karin] What I learned today
about Finnish design
is that it's really about
what is essential.
Finding simple solutions to problems.
That's what Finnish design is all about.
Okay, so we're gonna do
the cups and the teapots.
So, these are the molds made from plaster.
So then all we do is
we pour the clay into the molds.
So, they'll stay there now
for about 10, 15 minutes.
I didn't expect that
when he was gonna show me
his process and the production,
that they're handmade.
They look like
they're factory machine-made.
Do you wanna have a go?
Yeah.
[Brian chuckles]
So, grab it on the lower part of it there,
like this.
- [Karin] The lower part.
- Yes.
And then just enough
so it stays in your hand,
and then just lift it up 'cause it's
quite soft still at the moment.
That's it.
- There you go.
- [Karin] Okay.
So on Monday morning, nine o'clock,
I expect to see you here.
- Okay. For work, yeah. [laughs]
- For work, yeah.
Here we are, finishing some pieces.
So, we just need some water or a sponge,
for example, with the cups here.
[Karin] Okay. Whoop!
[Brian laughs]
And so, this is quite normal
for people doing it the first time.
- I feel bad that I broke one.
- No, no, no.
- It's just...
- Okay.
Don't worry. There's thousands more
from where that came from.
[Karin] We've been doing this.
I've been really thinking
about the creamers.
And the creamers have just stuck
in my mind.
I just think it would be perfect
to have those creamers on the tables.
Sure.
Yeah, we can see what we can do, yeah.
- [Karin] Yeah?
- Yeah.
That was very cool. Very, very, very cool.
I'm even more excited about Finnish design
than I was when I got here.
And I'm thinking a lot about that
and how I'm gonna take that philosophy
back to the restaurant with me.
[Nick] I'm getting Marina and Turo
out of their comfort zone
to do some guerilla marketing
to a younger demographic
about the relaunch of their restaurant,
and we also need to get the word out
that Maininki is not just
for yacht club members.
How you doing? I'm Nick. Nice to meet you.
My name is Nick,
and this is Turo and Marina.
This is Turo and Marina.
- [Turo] How're you doing?
- They're restaurant owners.
It's a relaunch to a restaurant
that we're rebranding.
We're having a big party
on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m.
And we're gonna have
live music, cocktails, food.
So, it's very close. 6:00 p.m.
It's gonna be the biggest,
best party in town.
- Whoo!
- [women] Whoo!
- Happy midsummer!
- [man] That's good.
[Nick] These are free drink tickets.
Hey, what's up, girls? How are you?
- [woman] Oh, free booze.
- [Nick] Party. Yes, yes, yes. Free booze.
- [woman] Thank you.
- [Nick] Do you like parties?
- [woman 1] Yeah.
- [woman 2] Of course, we do.
Happy midsummer.
- [woman speaking Finnish]
- [Nick exclaiming]
You guys into it?
[man] I would like to take one of those.
[Nick] This guy wants to party.
- You know it.
- [man] Party animal!
[Nick] That's right. Party animal.
Wednesday night, 6:00 p.m.
- [Turo] Perfect.
- [Nick] Perfect.
- [Turo] You'll be there.
- Yeah.
[man] Thank you.
- [Nick] There we go.
- Thank you.
- [woman cheers]
- Yeah!
We're gonna have
the most epic party of the year.
- [all laugh]
- That's right. Party.
- All right.
- I'm coming.
- You're coming. Check.
- Awesome.
- Alrighty then.
- Alrighty.
- Guys.
- That was cool.
- Whoop!
- We handed out the whole basket.
- I think the reception was really good.
- Yeah.
And I really think
most of the people will come there
on Wednesday and spread the word.
I truly feel that Marina and Turo
had a great time with me
walking around town.
It gave them an opportunity
to get back in touch with their community
and have everyone appreciate Maininki
in a new light.
[upbeat music playing]
[Karin] It's good to see you guys.
I've had such an incredible time
in Finland.
I can only imagine the experience
that you guys have had,
'cause it's pretty amazing here.
Just getting involved
with the Finnish culture.
These were some of the nicest people
I've ever met in the world.
And speaking of nice people, I got
some time to spend with Marina and Turo.
I actually went to a sauna with them
to get them out of the restaurant setting
and get to know them a little bit better.
He's so strong in finance,
and she's such a great person
in the restaurant business.
But the one thing that they're lacking is
they're terrible at marketing.
So, what I decided, I think,
is gonna be great for us,
is actually creating a relaunch party.
And the strategy I used was actually
something that's not used here in Finland.
Just walking around, shaking hands,
talking to people, walking into bars.
What I thought would be great
with you, Dennis, is
I would love for you
to get Turo or Marina,
showing them and inspiring them new ways
to take pictures of food.
Definitely. I feel like social media
is the biggest marketing tool today.
- Mm-hmm. It's free.
- Yeah.
You can highlight
the best of what you have to offer.
So, what have we got going with design?
Oh, my gosh.
I have so much to tell you guys.
I've had such an amazing, life-changing
experience when it comes to design.
When people talk
about Scandinavian design,
now I know what they're talking about.
- Do you want some cream in your coffee?
- [Nick] Sure.
- This is cool, right? Did you notice this?
- [Nick] Very cool.
- Did you not notice what just happened?
- I'm seeing it right now.
[Karin] Tonfisk is the company
that makes this,
and Brian is the artist
and the craftsperson behind the company.
He's always thinking about
coming up with a solution
to a problem for these products.
In the restaurant,
I thought these creamers
would be great for the tables.
- Love it.
- Kind of getting it away
from the dated character that it has.
Now, the other thing that I did is,
I went to meet with this
design power couple, Saana and Olli.
They're best known for textiles.
And they live in the most gorgeous house.
I mean, it is the epitome
of Scandinavian design.
And what I loved about it so much is that
it really reflected this transformation
at the restaurant that we're going to do,
because the restaurant is
in an old building with tons of character.
But we wanna make it more modern and
keeping it true to its Scandinavian roots.
So, it was the perfect house
to go see for inspiration.
So, while Saana and Olli were renovating,
they actually stumbled on some wallpaper
that was original to the building.
And that really inspired me
to incorporate some wallpaper
into the restaurant.
So along with this wallpaper,
I really wanted to use some paint,
because that wood paneling has gotta go.
Marina doesn't like it.
It also feels weathered.
It feels a little heavy. It feels tired.
'Cause that restaurant has huge windows,
lots of natural light spilling in,
we need to bring in some blinds
for when it gets really sunny.
But just layering in some paint,
some fresh wallpaper, some hemp textiles
from Saana and Olli,
and some tabletop items from Tonfisk,
I think this whole place
is gonna feel current, up-to-date,
vibrant, Scandinavian, fresh, and bright.
I just wanna give you some more cream,
'cause I just like pouring this thing.
Well, I'm just drinking milk now.
There's no more coffee.
[both chuckle]
People here have a connection
to where their food comes from,
honestly, unlike most countries
in the world. They really care.
And I got to connect with a baker here.
We made this Archipelago bread.
This is Finland on the plate.
This bread is beautiful.
And it shouldn't be a secondary side note,
kind of, after-thought on the table.
It should be the star of the show.
So I wanna create a sandwich board
with cold and hot smoked fish,
great veggies, some nice pickles on that.
It feels like Scandinavia.
We also made a cake,
a really traditional Finnish cake.
That dessert was incredible that I had,
and I wanna do my spin on the dessert
that I made with Krista, the baker.
Kind of a lemony, fruity-flavored base,
meringue on top.
We're gonna blowtorch the outside
of the meringue
and serve it with these
beautiful tart berries on the side.
I actually got to travel out
to the Archipelago islands
and meet Chef Mikko.
He's a local chef here in Turku,
runs a catering company,
has run successful restaurants.
We cooked right on the edge of the water.
It was beautiful.
Everything smoked,
everything over a grill.
And we made reindeer sausage.
There are endless kinds of sausage
that people make here.
The big thing is, it just comes down to
folks like to grill.
That's the thing that's missing
at the restaurant right now.
And Turo even said that, at that meal.
He said, "I want more grilled food.
I want more accessible food.
And I want more food
that feels like the summertime."
I'm gonna create for the restaurant
a kids' dish,
something that's
really, really fun with sausage,
some fries that are beautiful
from the new potatoes
that people love here.
All of it plated up in an ice cube tray.
It's something
that you're gonna wanna take a photo of,
put on the Internet, tell your friends.
And it will drive people
to the restaurant to wanna have that meal.
You know what I love
about this transformation
is that it feels hyper local.
It's so connected to the community.
The food, the design, throwing a party.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Let's get out of here.
[upbeat music playing]
[Nick] I gave Marina and Turo
a crash course in guerilla marketing
the other day.
And today, I'm here at Auran Aallot,
which is a great radio station
that grabs a lot of listeners,
to get the buzz out about Maininki
and the relaunch party.
[speaking Finnish]
- Nick Liberato, welcome.
- Thank you so much for having me.
Great that you could come here.
And we gonna talk about food, of course,
and Ruissalon Maininki,
that great big relaunch party.
I don't wanna reveal too much
because we wanna keep it a surprise.
In today's world, you have to diversify
how you're gonna reach people.
[Nick] The radio actually reaches
a whole different audience,
people that are in their cars,
people that are sitting at bus stops.
We're gonna do everything we can
to bring a new audience
into the restaurant.
Right now, this is place is completely
being changed over.
So when everyone's going to be coming
on Wednesday night,
which is tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m.,
they're gonna be experiencing a new drink,
you know, new food, new decor.
- [radio host] Live music?
- And live music.
And a revival of this place
like no one's ever seen.
- That's great.
- Yeah.
Nick, thanks for visiting our show.
- Thank you so much for having me.
- Thanks for visiting.
And don't be a stranger.
I think it's great
that we got free marketing
from a local broadcaster
that actually grabs the attention
of a number of listeners every single day.
There are definitely gonna be
some that listened today,
and they're going to be showing up
at tomorrow's party.
[Karin] Walking into the restaurant today,
it's not complete yet,
and already it is
such a huge transformation.
High, high, high impact.
What I've learned in Finland
is that design is all about
freshening up the space,
making it light, airy, bringing in light,
speaking to nature.
I mean, that's very Finn.
My only concern is that I really want
Marina and Turo to love it.
When we first got here, Marina and Turo
were struggling with a perception problem.
People weren't making the trip
out to the restaurant,
because they assumed it was a yacht club
that was exclusive, formal,
and that you wanted to button up
another button in your shirt. [laughs]
This transformation
has set them on a new path,
and their future is about to begin.
- [both laughing]
- Wow!
[both laughing]
[Turo] Wow.
[Turo] Amazing.
- [Turo chuckles]
- [Marina] Whoo.
[Turo] Amazing.
Wow.
Look at these.
This is amazing.
It's so fresh. Look at the lights.
I'm speechless.
- [Turo] What a place we have.
- [Marina] Oh, my God.
[Turo] Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Is it the same place?
[chuckles] It is. It is the same place.
- [crying] No way.
- Yeah.
[laughs]
- [Marina] Yeah.
- [Turo] It's really great.
[Karin] Hello.
- Hi, Karin.
- Hi, there.
Wow.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at you. Oh.
[Marina] Oh.
[Turo] Thank you so much.
- [Marina] Whoa.
- [Karin] How are you feeling?
[sighs]
- [Turo] Speechless?
- Speechless.
Yeah.
- Overwhelmed?
- I'm really overwhelmed.
- [Turo] Yeah. This is so...
- [Marina] Not in my wildest dreams.
Yeah.
- [Marina] You did magic to this place.
- [Karin] Really?
- You did.
- My heart is thumping.
- I'm getting a heart attack.
- You definitely did.
Yeah.
[Marina] All the blue and all the grey
and all the white, it's so Finnish.
- We love it.
- We love it.
- [Turo] It's amazing.
- [Marina] Oh, thank you.
- [Turo] It's amazing.
- Oh, you're so welcome.
[Nick] We handed out these invites,
which were drink tickets,
and everyone can redeem 'em.
And I have a wonderful cocktail
that we put together.
It's called the Midsummer Rumble.
It's made with
one and a half ounces Ketel One vodka,
three quarters lime juice,
three quarters simple syrup,
with some muddled blackberries on top.
[Dennis] What's up, everybody?
- [all] Hey.
- How are we doing?
- [Karin] Great.
- Look at how perfectly that's plated.
That looks beautiful.
[Dennis] I bet you weren't expecting this.
- You guys want families?
- [Turo] Yeah.
- [Marina] Yeah.
- You need to offer food to kids.
And potatoes, reindeer sausage,
some carrots.
Kids wanna have fun when they eat.
'Cause when kids are having fun,
parents are having fun, everybody's happy.
So the thing about making kids' food
is you want it to be interactive.
You want it to be fun.
And you're gonna notice I've said "fun"
a lot, 'cause "fun" is the theme
- for this evening.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- All about making it fun.
And I know we had talked about Instagram
a little bit and social media,
and you guys are just starting
with your social media.
I know a thing or two about social media.
I'd love to help you if I can.
So, here's the thing with food.
You eat with your eyes
and then your nose and then your mouth.
When you look at a photograph,
subconsciously, we look at it
from the top left-hand corner
to the bottom right hand corner, right?
If you know that, you can draw
the viewer's eye through the frame.
And see what I mean,
when you look at that,
how there's things
peeking through the frame?
- So that looks super fun. You know?
- [Karin] Cute.
[Dennis] All right, next up,
ready for more fun?
Okay. What do we have here?
Essentially, this is a charcuterie board,
but it's a sandwich version.
It's fun. I've literally never seen anyone
do this before.
Beautiful salmon that was smoked
on your smoker back there.
Perch, which I know is very, very popular
and also, everywhere in the water
that we're looking at right here.
That is so true.
We've got come quick pickles,
Archipelago bread,
beautiful herbed mayo here,
celebrating dill, tarragon,
all the things they grow out here
that are beautiful.
Entirely customizable.
Can I taste one?
We need to take a picture first,
because once we start eating,
we're not gonna stop.
[Marina laughs]
- [Turo] Shall we put the hands in there?
- [Dennis] Yes. That's very fun.
[Karin] I like you.
You're art directing now.
[Dennis] Yeah.
[Turo] Dennis, I'm speechless.
This is really good.
It's like a small buffet,
but this is a modern, fresh way to do it.
So, I have one more thing.
There's nothing to complete a meal
like a little sweet after you eat.
[Karin] Dennis, I think this is the most
beautiful thing you've ever made.
[Dennis] Absolutely.
You know,
and I fell head first into Brita.
- I hope I'm pronouncing that properly.
- Yeah.
The beautiful cake
that you guys know, I'm sure, and love.
So this is kind of my version of that,
a deconstructed Brita cake.
[Marina] This is absolutely gorgeous.
All the flavors together.
You really nailed it.
And you brought the food up
to a new level completely.
We sit in this beautiful...
restaurant, which had a really,
really huge change if we compare.
It will make a huge difference
to the customer experience.
I can guarantee you that.
- Let's celebrate you guys tonight.
- [Marina] Yes, celebrate.
- [Turo] Yes, let's do it.
- It is time to party.
[Karin] This new design reflects them,
who they are as people and as a couple.
And it's Finnish.
Everything in this room is from Finland.
That's what people in Finland like.
[Nick] I truly believe that Marina
and Turo have been set up for success.
They have all the positivity,
initiative, and creativity
to make this place
the best restaurant around here.
[Dennis] Maininki now has a new direction.
This restaurant has its soul back.
It's an experience.
People wanna Instagram it.
And it is what's gonna drive
people to the restaurant from Turku.
They have their new vision.
They have a new direction.
[upbeat music playing]
[theme music playing]