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Location: Kaskenkatu 1, 20700 Turku

Year of Inscription: 2024

Venue Type: Whisky Specialists / Historic Venue

Map

Description

Gallery

EBG Rating:	8.2/10
Choice/ Quality of Drinks	❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ An impressive selection of whiskies dominates the range, but there are good beers here too, some harking back to the 1990s scene rather than cutting edge craft, but certainly distinctive enough to be notable. A brewing operation on site has sadly ceased.
Style/ Décor	❤️❤️❤️❤️ An old pharmacy converted sympathetically to a bar. Sweeping mid-brown bar area with a wide open-plan approach, pharmacy cabinets turned into leaning posts, and carpeted lounge rooms to the rear.
Atmosphere/ Character	❤️❤️❤️❤️ Without music, there is a soft hubbub of quiet chatter and conversation acoustically dampened by the carpeting. This leaves the atmosphere feeling both very comfortable, relaxing but discreet, in a manner some bars, even the ones going for that, fail to execute.
Amenities/ Events	❤️❤️❤️ Snacks, books, board games.
Value For Money	❤️❤️ Nothing more or less than the going city centre rate.
Description	Opened in 1993 on the site of a former Pharmacy dating back to 1907, your first impression as you approach the building is of the Art Nouveau styling in the signage and the carved stone at the entrance. Enter through a peculiar set of doors which betray its former use to discover a preserved Pharmacy interior now operating as a pub! A sweeping bar is backed by old wooden shelves and cabinets which extend along a lobby to the rear lounge rooms, while further cupboards in the centre of the main bar room act as leaning posts. It is not sacrilege so much, the set up kind of works. Perhaps it is the large whisky selection and the medicinal utility that has served over the years that helps bridge the gap. Without music and with a carpeted interior the ambience has a warm, subdued hubbub, at once homely but discreet. It will not be to everyone’s tastes, but there is very little else remotely like it around in Finland. The pub has also hosted microbrewing operations in the last decades but not continuously by any means. The beer selection is decent but certainly traceable back to the 90s rather than offering a cutting edge selection.  The pub has acquired a sense of institution, bolstered by its inclusion in crime novels, writers clearly influenced by a few visits here to sample its beer, whiskies and atmosphere. We impress upon you to pay a visit here too one day.