Restaurant Muru turns 15 today.
by Samuil Angelov the mobile phone had a number stored for a long time under the name “Remontti-Timppa Henka sukulainen”.
– Timppa knew how to plaster the walls, he borrowed work machines and sometimes said: “Not like that boys”, Angelov recalls the renovation of the restaurant Muru more than 15 years ago.
Today, Tuesday, exactly 15 years have passed since four young men Samuil Angelov, Henri Alen, Timo Linnamäki and Nicolas Thieulon opened the restaurant Muru on Helsinki’s Fredrikinkatu.
Angelov is the only one of the four who is still involved in running Muru.
– I am proud of Muru every day. I have a really strong bond with this restaurant. I am also proud of my own children every day, although I am not always satisfied with how things are going. Then you just have to grow better and do more things together.
The wine storage ladder is in heavy use every day. Samuil Angelov laughs that they have lasted amazingly well, even though they were made by himself. Jenni Gästgivar
This same applies to a teenage restaurant. It is loved unconditionally, but education work is needed every day.
According to Angelov, the work must be done as well as possible every day and strive for the best performance in every service. This does not mean that mistakes will not happen, but then we apologize and move on.
– Passion for this work takes you forward. I enjoy being able to surprise the customer, create experiences and see happy faces.
A tight budget
If the restaurant Muru’s concept has lasted well over time, the same can be said about Muru’s interior design. Angelov laughs that it has held up surprisingly well. In addition to Remontti-Timpa, there were two professionals at the site for the first two weeks. After that, there was no more money to hire them, so the rest of the renovations were done by myself.
The bar counter was built from the ends of wine boxes Angelov collected. And there it still stands. Likewise, the ladder, which is used every day when fetching bottles from the wine cellar or rather from the wine cellar.
For the first two weeks, the wine bottles were lowered in the wine box with a winch, but it turned out to be too cumbersome. Wine bottles move faster with muscle power. On the left, Ikea lamps, on the right, lamps made from Savoy wine bottles. Jenni Gästgivar
Over the course of 15 years, the chairs have been thoroughly repaired five or six times and their upholstery has been renewed once. The chairs were bought from a company that sells bankrupt nests, but the restaurateurs didn’t know anything about them other than that the manufacturer is Asko. Until a couple of years after opening, an older gentleman became a customer.
He said that he was Asko’s export director in the 1960s and 1970s. The chairs were familiar to him, although they were not made for wide distribution. According to him, this chair model had only been sold in the Soviet Union to Petroskoi schools.
The lamps that once cost 9.90 euros at Ikea are still hanging on the ceiling of the restaurant hall, and above the coat rack are 90-cent plate racks, which were used to make lampshades.
The wine bottle lamps hanging above the bar counter are also self-made. Angelov went with a permit to collect the bottles from Savoy’s bottle dump.
– Most of the good innovations are created when there is only a small amount of money available.
A phenomenon from a restaurant
After opening Muru, the initial hype was wild and the hype was intense. The restaurant was full months in advance. No wonder Angelov’s two-year-old child wondered at home: “Mom, where does dad live?”
In 2012, the Society of Finnish Gastronomists chose Muru as restaurant of the year.
Before Muru, there was a Chinese restaurant in the property for a long time, whose memories are still on the toilet doors. Watch the video at the end of the story, where Angelov talks about the stages of the property. Jenni Gästgivar
Muru has been a pioneer in many things. It was one of the first bistro-style restaurants. You can even say that Muru started the bistro boom.
Murus first had a menu on a blackboard, now they are everywhere. The plates were granny style, i.e. old dishes from Arabia, which you see a lot nowadays. Even so much that Muru has thought about whether the dishes should be changed.
Muru’s risotto has its own chapter. When Henri Alén was younger, he had worked in northern Italy, where he brought his passion for risotto. In Murus, a smaller risotto, typical of northern Italy, is served as a snack, but of course nothing prevents you from eating it as a main course as well.
– Truffle risotto became a hit. Over the years we have had a hundred and one risottos. For example, last summer’s ice-cold nettle-rhubarb risotto.
Several years ago, there was a cucumber risotto on the menu, which quickly spread on social media. Angelov laughs that in the same summer he and his family went to eat at a good restaurant in a smaller town. When the menus were brought to them, the waiter explained that this open country cucumber risotto is not made according to your recipe.
Impressive wine cellar
Muru’s wine list has been awarded several times. No wonder, because Angelov, who has been named Finland’s number one sommelier on several occasions, takes care of it. There are hundreds of thousands of euros worth of wines in Muru’s wine warehouse.
Muru and the Muru wine bar have received international recognition for their wine selection. Jenni Gästgivar
There are many rarities that will be drunk from further afield. Angelov recalls how once a year they had a group of Norwegian gentlemen drinking Burgundian wines. They explained that it was cheaper for them to buy flights, hotels and go to Muru to eat and drink certain wines than to go to a restaurant in Oslo to drink the same wines.
– The four gentlemen made a bill of many thousands of euros and were very satisfied when they saved money.
Angelov emphasizes that the service is the same whether the customer orders a 60-euro or a 600-euro wine. Expensive wine does not make the customer any better.
– It must be served with the same heart.
Angelov does not agree to sell certain wines to anyone at the moment. He has removed all Crimean wines from the wine list. They won’t get back until the Russian war of aggression ends, if even then.
Wines bottled in Crimea have been removed from the wine list for the time being. Jenni Gästgivar
The wines are from the Massandra cellar, which was built by the Russian emperor Alexander III. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Yalta Conference was also held in the same landscape.
Angelov also stores empty wine bottles in Muru. Among them are gems, such as the rarity of the 1945 vintage bought at auction. He has drunk it with his colleagues. The label of the bottle bears the mark that all French resistance producers put on their labels that year. On the side of the wine bottle is the letter V (victory = victory).
There is a message on the label of the wine bottled in 1945. The letter V is faintly visible in the background. Jenni Gästgivar
Alko sometimes releases old bottles for sale. Angelov has queued several times in the morning for bottles of wine. As a result of one line, he bought the best wine he has ever drunk. According to book information, Chateau Margaux 1934 was also Mannerheim’s favorite wine. The bottles bought by Angelov came to Finland in 1936 or 1937, so it is possible that the same box also contained bottles ordered for Mannerheim. Or so Angelov likes to think.
The oldest wine tasted in Muru was Madeira from 1772, which according to Angelov was really great.
The Robin Hood of the wine world
Unlike many other restaurants, wine in Muru does not have a percentage margin, but a euro margin. Because of this, Dom Pérignon champagne in Muru is 30 euros cheaper than in Alko.
Angelov playfully likes to think of himself as the Robin Hood of the wine world, offering industry enthusiasts the opportunity to taste rarities cheaper than the world market price. Although the wine is of course not cheap by any means, a bottle of one thousand euros might cost two thousand euros somewhere else.
In the early days, a reservation book was used in Muru. The restaurant has many regular customers. One group got their name on the backs of the chairs after they had visited 50 times in 2018. Jenni Gästgivar
After Corona, there have been two changes in customer behavior. Reservations are made really late, literally at the last minute.
Another feature is greater anger and the amount of hate speech than before.
– The customer may speak in a very important way, calling names and shouting in the ear of all customers. People feel more bad than before, because these cases do not happen once or twice. The wonderful things are overwhelming.
Middle-aged people in particular demand their rights, name names and get personal. Angelov speculates that the behavior stems from the general atmosphere, uncertainty and war.
But it is absolutely certain that positivity will win in Muru. Always.
The day before the opening, the names of the original Muru were immortalized in the plaster of the column. Jenni Gästgivar