Meet Lapinlahti people: Jon Puolakka

The freezing temperatures and darkness of midwinter sometimes let the mind wander back to the warm summer days and nights at Lapinlahti, and the atmosphere that was influenced by the Mental Hospitality -terrace and its talkative host, Jon Puolakka. The tasty pizzas, drinks and atmosphere were an amazing addition to park flea markets, concerts, summer nights—and Jon’s own summer: “The whole summer was awesome, being at the terrace”, he says, “you got to see people’s good moods and how it spread around.”

At the moment, Mental Hospitality is a mental health -themed service restaurant in the North wing of the Lapinlahti main building, where our writer visited to interview Jon. He has a long backgound in the restaurant field since 2006. When the pandemic decreased jobs in the field, Jon ended up helping his spouse full-time in an office job in a company called Smooth It, that has products in grocery stores. At Smooth It Jon has utilized his experience with the restaurant field and has been responsible for purchasing deals. Another one of Jon’s passions is coctails, and how you can create stories through them. He says that coctails can open up taste memories just like food does. In addition to all this, Jon has also competed in several coctail contests.

Even though Jon lives quite close to Lapinlahti, it wasn’t familiar to him before fall 2021, when he came to visit KotKot-chicken burger terrace, that was then in the courtyard of the main building and owned by his friend, Kim Mikkola. Jon saw the activities in the area, and was impressed to see there was a place such as Lapinlahti near the city center. Jon was looking for a kitchen, and asked Kim for knowledge about a free kitchen space to be able to start up a business. Surprisingly, Kim suggested that they share his kitchen, and just like that, there was a space in Lapinlahti.

Lapinlahti is a meaningful place to Jon, because the concept of Mental Hospitality wouldn’t have been able to form or to function without the Lapinlahti Hospital. “You wouldn’t be able to imagine Mental Hospitality on Mannerheimintie”, Jon says. Lapinlahti has also made his spouse’s company possible. He thinks it’s wonderful that Lapinlahti has small businesses and a community that works for a common goal. The sense of belonging in Lapinlahti is also important: people greet each other and are ready to help in any and all situations. Jon has also been an active participant in the activities in Lapinlahti. His summer terrace with its pizzas and refreshment was a welcome addition to last summer’s activity platter. Jon also provided the restaurant spaces as backstage for musicians that were performing in the summer concerts in Lapinlahti. Next summer has also been in the works: you might be able to see a car-operated movie theater, Jon implies.

Like many other business owners in Lapinlahti, Jon wishes for the uncertainty about the future of Lapinlahti to dissipate, so one could plan for a bit farther in the future. If so, Jon could for example talk with Museovirasto what kind of alterations would be possible to do in the protected building, to make operating a restaurant easier. He has been following the conversation about the future of Lapinlahti, and hopes that the current main operators could continue operating in the area. We hope for that as well!

Thank you for the interview, Jon, and good luck to the continuation of Mental Hospitality! You can read the Helsingin Sanomat article (in Finnish) about Jon and Mental Hospitality.