Turbulent Decades – Photos of Restaurant Life in the 60s and 70s

 "I started studying in 1966 at Lappeenranta Summer University. Lappeenranta was a charming summer city, and it also had a new, fascinating place to eat: Adriano's bar! Italian food was still completely new in Finland"  (Museum's Food Tradition Survey)

Read this text in Finnish here

Dance pavilion culture continued in city restaurants. Kantakievari, Kurikka

The Hotel and Restaurant Museum's permanent exhibition tells about the transformation of Finnish food culture that began in the 1960s. In the 1960s, people ate meat soup, macaroni casserole, meatloaf, pea soup, and sausage sauce at home. Alko's best-selling products were vodkas Koskenkorva, Jaloviina, and Vaakunaviina. Restaurant dishes included French fries, Coq au Vin, clarified consommé, and frozen desserts (parfaits/mousses). New restaurant types were Japanese and Greek restaurants, pizzerias, and establishments licensed to sell medium-strength beer (keskiolutravintolat). The 1970s brought English-style pubs, hamburger restaurants, and lunch vouchers.

Disco Mobile, Helsinki. Photo: Hotel and Restaurant Museum

Now the museum is expanding the spectrum of restaurant culture with the photography exhibition 'Turbulent Decades' (Kuohuvat vuosikymmenet). The exhibition consists of 65 photographs from the 1960s and 1970s. The title refers to change, and the interesting exhibition delivers on its message. The pictures of the restaurants truly tell brilliantly how Finland urbanized and changed.

Motorest, Lappeenranta. Photo: Hotel and Restaurant Museum

The exhibition space is a bit homespun, and the image information is only found on A4 printouts. The museum clearly needs its own dedicated space for temporary exhibitions, separate from the main exhibition. But the content is interesting in any case.

I actually feel like comparing the images in the exhibitions to the Kaurismäki brothers' portrayal of Finland. If the museum's main exhibition features Pizzeria Rosso, like the title of Mika Kaurismäki's film of the same name, then this photography exhibition illustrates the world of Aki Kaurismäki's films. In Kaurismäki's films, restaurant culture has been characterized not only as a setting but also as a symbol—it represents Finnish identity, melancholy, and also a safe haven and hope.

Kantakievari, Sysmä. Photo Kuvakiila 1966. Hotel and Restaurant Museum

Hämeensilta, Tampere

The Kaurismäki brothers have also founded restaurants themselves, and in their films, restaurants are an important part of the plot. Kaurismäki also comments on the change in restaurant culture, just like the Hotel and Restaurant Museum. In the film 'Drifting Clouds' (Kauas pilvet karkaavat) (1996), the restaurant's laid-off staff open a new restaurant. They first try sushi, but the concept eventually changes to rely on traditional 1960s and 1970s restaurant culture. The Work (Työ) restaurant becomes a success.

I've sometimes thought that the restaurant scenes in the films were exaggerated or caricatured. In them, people dressed somewhat oddly often sit silently, focused on their alcoholic drinks and smoking cigarettes. The spaces are timeless and worn, darkened by tobacco smoke. Styling is conspicuously absent.

This doesn't seem to be the case, as a very similar world is found in these contemporary photographs. In some places, a restaurant orchestra has even been captured in the pictures, confusingly reminiscent of the musicians in Kaurismäki's films.

Opening of Kurikka's Kantakrouvi 1965. Photo Valokuvaamo V. Anttila. Hotel and Restaurant Museum

The exhibition is divided into four themes.

The first is Social Transformation: With economic growth, rising living standards, and urbanization, jobs shifted from the countryside to cities and to Sweden. Women also began working outside the home, which increased the demand for services.

The second theme is Restaurants for Everyone: As Finns' incomes grew, restaurants ceased to be places for the upper class only. They began to serve workers, the middle class, families with children, and young people broadly. The spectrum of restaurants diversified (lunch spots, dance restaurants, nightclubs).

Thirdly, the Liberalization of Alcohol is described: The Alcohol Act of 1969 allowed the sale of medium-strength beer in grocery stores and brought licensed restaurants to the countryside. Restaurants changed from places for eating to places for socializing and spending time over drinks. However, the harms of alcohol consumption led to new restrictions in the late 1970s.

The fourth theme is New Youth and Travel: The large age cohorts (baby boomers) adopted international influences and were interested in politics and equality. Increased free time and foreign travel brought new food cultures, such as pizzerias and Asian restaurants, laying the foundation for today's diverse restaurant culture.

The museum's other changing exhibition relates to food delivery by courier. As far as I know, this is the first exhibition made about the Wolt-phenomenon, which shows that the museum is very current.

The English-language exhibition 'Diary of a Food Courier' is based on documentation carried out in 2024–2025 on the work of food couriers. Photographer Yehia Eweis documented the work of couriers Ghulam Murtaza, Mustafa, and Alexander Oyeniyi. The museum interviewed Fakhrul Dalim, Boniface Mutindia, and Alexander Oyeniyi and collected experiences through an online survey. Wolt and Foodora donated couriers' work equipment to the museum, and the collected material has been added to the museum's collections.

'Turbulent Decades – Photos of Restaurant Life in the 60s and 70s' is on display at the museum from September 19, 2025 – August 30, 2026.

'Diary of a Food Courier' is on display from October 7, 2025 – May 17, 2026.

Photographs from the exhibition are by the author, unless otherwise stated.

You can find the presentation of the museum's permanent exhibition here

Museums webpage

Admission

Adults €16

Seniors, students, unemployed €6

Cable Museums joint ticket €18

Open

Tue–Fri 11 am–7 pm

Sat–Sun 11 am–6 pm