Visit Woodss Café to dine veggies in forest vibes

A newly opened vegetarian café in the Rovaniemi city centre now offers the city inhabitants vegetarian food as well as a platform where to have a feel of the forest without exactly being in one.

Opened just two weeks ago, the vegetarian forest-themed café happens to be the first of its kind in Rovaniemi.

Setting up and running such an offbeat business requires a lot of passion and creativity, said Vilma Klemetti, the brain behind the café and its owner.

Klemetti said her interest in vegetarian food started four years ago. Since then she has been planning to open a café where clean vegetarian meals other than salad would be available. She also wanted to create a forest-like environment in the café where the customers can relax, meditate, and feel at home.

Klemetti stressed that the name “WOODSS” is a reminder of the forests in Finland, especially in Lapland, as she is a native of the place. This instilled in her a drive to bring nature into the forefront of her business, since most Finns love to relax in the forest.

The use of wooden furniture in the café instead of plastic ones and various fruits from the forest such as berries on its menu are of great importance to her as she knows the Finnish forests have the enormous potential of supplying a wide range of fruits.

Also, it occurred to her that no restaurant has ever used the forests as a supply source. She is sure that a forest-like ambience can be created inside the café using a number of features ranging from the recorded sounds of soft bird chirps to the branches of trees used as the ceiling and roof.

The business has been booming since the very opening, said Klemetti, exceeding her expectations with the turnout being really massive. She hopes the patronage of the café will get even better by December and so plans to put more structures in place for students who want to study with their laptops in front while relishing the forest-like calm and quietness conducive to their pursuit.

“Since this is my first business ever, I would like to see it succeed, even though we have to keep practising more on how to run the business till we are good,” said Klemetti.

The 27-year-old Klemetti hails from Rovaniemi but has lived in Tampere for the last five years. She came back to Rovaniemi recently to start her own business. She has studied tourism and branding at the University of Tampere and worked at Lunette as a sales and marketing officer. Her ideology, passion, academic background and work experience all played vital roles in setting up this café of features.

The café now has five workers with a sixth one is due to join by December, said Klemetti. The enterprise was financed by a government loan and personal funds. She hopes to expand in a big way and branch out to other parts of Finland and abroad as time goes.

The primary tool for marketing the business has been the use of social media and Uusi Rovaniemi newspaper.

“Come to woodss and let us take care of you,” is the catchwords of Klemetti’s invitation to all potential customers.