Thornbridge brewery announced today that they plan to open a bar in Helsinki within the next few months. Here’s the press blurb:
Thornbridge Brewery is starting its search to find a site to open a bar in Helsinki, Finland’s capital city. Working with their Finnish importer Brew Seeker Oy and its mother company Captol Invest Oy the search is underway to find a suitable site in central Helsinki with the target of opening by the end of 2015.
“This is an exciting project working together with one of the most innovative and exciting breweries in the world,” says Teemu Lehto, CEO of Captol Invest-group. “We believe the Finnish beer audience will be thrilled about having a totally new concept in Helsinki which will surely also support the role of Finland and Helsinki as being among the front runners in the development of great craft beer offering”.
“We have been delighted at the great reception our beers have had in Finland,” says Thornbridge MD Jim Harrison, “and we have really enjoyed working alongside our partners there to provide a wide range of our beers in top quality condition. The prospect of a bar in Helsinki and working with Mikki and the team to make this a great Thornbridge experience is something that we are really looking forward to.”
Entrepreneur Mikki Nyman has been appointed as operational restaurateur for the project. Mikki will run the bar with Captol Invest’s support in line with their new MYBAR concept.
“The new pub will have a great selection of beers, including special brews from Thornbridge on a regular basis,” says entrepreneur Mikki Nyman. “Our intention is to have a modern approach to the classical British pub in our interior design and offering. Thornbridge’s well known slogan; “Innovation, passion, knowledge” will describe perfectly our aim with the pub.”
Thornbridge runs a number of pubs in the UK, and only this month they announced details of their first international bar in the Netherlands. Captol Invest is the parent company of the Delifox chain; the firm went brewery-hunting in the US not long ago and returned home with a Tommyknocker franchise.
They might be stretching it a bit with the “totally new concept in Helsinki” line, but if the bar is as good as their beers, it’ll be worth visiting. Meanwhile, the Black Door regularly has their stuff on both keg and cask, so no need to go thirsty.