Kaffe Lykke

Kaffe Lykke has rather peculiar opening hours: 8-15, Monday to Friday. Such a “lazy” schedule does not seem to impart the impression that this place is here for serious business. This hasty conclusion, however, cannot be farther from the truth.

The fact is that the café is owned by the Oslo municipality and is used as a training venue for young adults in Grünerløkka borough ranging from 18 to 25 years old. Some of them might have dropped out of school, some might be struggling with addiction issues. The café is the place where they can gain some initial working experience before going into the society.

For now, the café has six positions for the young people, and each of them can work here from one week up to five months, under the guidance of one professional cook and a social worker.

We came to the café late in the afternoon, one hour before their closing time and the place was quiet. It has a very good location at the street corner, and the big glass windows let in lots of light. The inside has an atmosphere of a well-functioning canteen: clean, spacious and cosy, with a touch of hipster chillness.

Given their limited opening hours, the most important meal at Kaffe Lykke is lunch. Different from most places, the food here was completely made from scratch—by the young apprentices guided by the professional cook, of course.

Their lunch for the day, which usually costs around 120 NOK at the time of writing, was sold out. So we tried their foccacia sandwich (69 NOK). The foccacia was well made, moist and tasty, and the vegetables were very fresh. Everything tasted homemade, without a shred of the coldness typical of industrially packed sandwiches.

In addition, the café also makes their own pastries and cakes, and there are also drinks available for sale.

We tried a scone (39 NOK) and a slice of their chocolate cake (54 NOK). Similiar to the sandwich, both were good and tasted homemade. The scone was made in the traditional style, accompanied by a small box of fresh raspberry jam. The chocolate cake has a rich flavour, topped with custard and a pinch of pistachio sprinkles.

People not from the neighbourhood might not know: many apartments in the building that houses Kaffe Lykke are also welfare apartments owned by the municipality. With all the nice food reasonably priced, the purpose of Kaffe Lykke is also to create a gathering place for everyone. If you drop by on a regular day during the rush hours, you will find all kinds of people from the neighbourhood: young moms sitting together talking about their babies over a cup of coffee, young people sitting here editing their CVs looking for a job, and even neighbours from the building coming down asking for help to fix their washing machine.

Despite its importance in the neighbourhood’s social life, Kaffe Lykke still struggles with making profit. This is probably why Grünerløkka borough, in an attempt to reduce public spending, decided to shut down the café by the end of 2023.

The decision triggered “a tsunami” of strong reactions from neighbours, according to a local newspaper. Margrethe Weisser, a local resident, stepped up and gathered several hundreds of signatures from the neighbourhood under the petition to keep the café in operation. The petition was then sent to the Grünerløkka borough. After some internal discussions, the borough finally gave in and withdrew their decision to close the café.

If you happen to be around Grünerløkka during the café’s opening hours, you should come by for a visit. After trying out all the fancy places around Oslo, here in Dælenenggata, right at the corner of a quiet street, on the ground floor of a somewhat dated red brick building, you can finally find something that all the deep-pocked bakery chains as well as ambitious independent young bakers scream to create yet hardly ever succeed—a unique place with warmth, a purpose and a soul.