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Kosmos' first eighty years attest to the staying power of an enterprise faithful to its own style. However, despite the restaurant's apparent agelessness, ambience, the clientele, as well as the preferences for food and drink have changed with the times.

When, in 1924, Yrjö Teodor Lindfors established the Kosmos dining rooms on what was then Vladimirinkatu street, prohibition prevailed in Finland. The modern, up-scale yet moderately priced restaurant found particular favor among university students.

The spirit of the times placed great value on hygiene, expressed, among other things, in the easy-to-clean floor tiles and marble  tabletops. Table linens, wall-towall carpeting, the shades of the chandeliers, and the planters have later been added but for the most part the dining room interior has retained its original appearance, as created by student of architecture Arvo Aalto, furniture designer Einari Kyöstilä, and Eino Räsänen, who carved the Hellenic motifs of the booth panels.

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The easing of the Great Depression ushered in a new era in which Vladimirinkatu was replaced with the more patriotic Kalevankatu, the Swedish name Lindfors was fashionably translated into the Finnish Hepolampi, and 1932 brought the repeal of prohibition.
The growing prosperity brought in new customers: lawyers, artists, civil cervants, businessmen - even the occasional businesswoman.

Mrs Aino Hepolampi took charge of the enterprise. The Winter War (1939-40) first brought an end to coffee, then beer, and the frugal meals served against coupons were rationed to the gram. With the end of what is known in Finland as the Continuation War (1941-44) already in sight, business came to a halt when Kosmos was requisitioned and leased for use as a mess hall by the German army.

After the war lunches were augmented by generous quantities of schnapps, and the punches and cognacs that rounded meals off were followed by the mixed drinks that typified the era. In a moralistic campaign by the state alcohol monopoly to curb liquor consumption and restrict its availability in restaurants, Kosmos too was gravely reprimanded for disproportionate sales of strong spirits. The enduring favourites of the menu - escalope of veal á la Oscar, pork chop Robert and fried salmon with tartar sauce - gradually came to be accompanied by such international newcomers as paella, chop suey, and canneloni.

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Today our kitchen seeks to spotlight a culinary culture most characteristic of our capital, a "Helsinki cuisine" based on long-standing Russian, French and Swedish influences combined with updated Finnish cooking traditions and indigenous ingredients. From Baltic herring to blinis with whitefish roe, from sweetbread salad to reindeer with spruce-shoot sauce - these are delicacies that appeal to international tastes as well.

In the 1950s the clientele had come to include artists and the journalists associated with nearby newspaper offices, in the 1960s Kosmos was invaded by writers and leftist radicals. Kosmos became e cultural hangout. The "better" writers drank cognac, while everyone else went over to wines.
It was during this period that the first art was acquired for the dining room. Among the works of art our customers can at present enjoy are Juhani Harri's Snow Queen, Alvar Gullichsen's Kosmo, and Martti Aiha's sculpture Landscape. Olli Pajulahti's Flavus can be found in the foyer and Sirkku Ala-Harja's sound installation Birds of the Tropics, in the restroom stalls.

In 2001 the entranceway was remodelled to plans by Stefan Lindfors, and discreet changes to the dining room were overseen by Kaisa Blomstedt. The entertaining of customers with orchestral music was relinquished in the 1930s, after witch kosmos became a free speech zone dedicated to convivial conversation and discourse.

In these cross-currents of the past and present, of respect for preservation and renewal, what has perhaps best endured is Yrjö Hepolampi's original straight-forward business concept: now in our third generation as a family enterprise, we continue to serve with impartiality and pride both the rich and the poor, the intelligentsia and the ordinary public.