Located on Vartoftagatan on Skrapan's southeast side on Södermalm in Stockholm Ljung & Baker Café. Here you can drink "kick ass" coffee and marvel at the fact that healthy rawfood balls taste so good while you watch as the bike mechanics at Bonne Mécanique thread a freewheel wreath. For Jennica Ljung the overall experience is part of the quality thinking.
The café is located in the same room as the bicycle workshop and bike shop. The two operations run in parallel and provide mutual benefits.
- It is entertaining for my customers to sit here and watch the guys work in the workshop, something always happens. It's exciting for me too, I learn a lot about bikes, says Jennica Ljung who owns Heather & Baker Café and Catering and runs it together with her future husband Ian Baker.
She thinks sharing a local with bike mechanics is a different and fun cafe business. In addition, there will be customers who need extra energy.
- There are many hungry cyclists who come here and want healthy food. I would describe my food myself as a powerfood; healthy, fresh, vegetarian, organic. Then I serve really good kick-ass coffee. The guests should know that I do not use any additives, I do everything from the ground up, all the pastries are made in place without gluten and sugar. All food is vegetarian. Since I do everything from the beginning, it sometimes happens that the food ends, and then it is. I don't have things in the freezer like that, but I always work with fresh ingredients.
Quality a means of competition
The café opened in September 2017. To a certain extent, the location on a side street is a challenge, but regular customers found themselves fairly soon.
- It seems that it is starting to spread that we are a cafe that suits cyclists well. After all, it's not just the cycling enthusiasts who come, but it is, on the whole, very mixed when it comes to guests: cyclists who want powerfood, toddler parents, students, people who work in offices nearby and so on. Students come here to study, then I can ask if they are not disturbed by everything that happens, but they often feel the opposite, that it stimulates, and many say they like the smell in here. Toddlers also have a lot to look at.
If you run a cafe, then coffee is a strategic issue. The drink is located Jennica Ljung warm about the heart.
- For me personally, the quality of the coffee is very important. A guest came to me one day and said that "it is odd, you are in a bike shop and have the best coffee in the neighborhood". Although you are small you can claim against the big chains, and considering how many cafes there are on Södermalm, it feels like a good rating.
Not only should the coffee be of high quality but it must characterize the whole business. She sees this as a way of coping with the competition.
- Great food, quality, personal service, value for money. You just have to work hard to succeed as a small business owner, I have marble tables, art, cacti, there must be a thought behind everything.
Exercise people switch to vegan
To an ignorant, it may seem that there is a contradiction between plant-based, vegan food and the energy and protein that a hard-working person needs. It does not mean a knowledgeable person who Jennica Ljung.
- Blueberries, seeds and nuts contain lots of energy and useful substances. When making rawfood balls, I use macca powder, which is a super root that is rich in vitamins, minerals, calcium, iron and fiber. I have worked with many bodybuilders and others who exercise a lot, who have switched their diet entirely to vegan diet and raw food. In the past, many men thought "I have to have a steak," but now it's different. Those who exercise think very much about what they put into themselves and eat vegan because they want to feel good. This has been great abroad for quite some time, and now it comes to Sweden seriously.
The interest in healthy food has brought Jennica Ljung to many different places in the world. Among other things, she has worked at the famous Scandinavian restaurant Aquavit in New York.
- I have worked as a chef for ten years in different places in the world. Then you learn a lot of course. Then I am a trained relaxation therapist and hold courses in nutritious cooking. During the spring I will give lectures at different companies, talk about how to cook nutritious food in a natural way. For me, everything is related, not only is it useful food but you have to sleep well, be relaxed, move on and so on. But healthy food is a very good start.
All deliveries with own cargo bike
The holistic approach encompasses the entire company and, not least, the environmental impact. Jennica Ljung thinks that she thinks about the environment and climate in everything she does.
- We have a cargo bike outside the cafe. With that, Ian fetches all our food, and if we are out on the catering delivery itself we use the bike lumber MovebyBike. All purchases are made by bicycle, all deliveries.
She sells organic coffee and tea that is compostable with recyclable packaging. When you cook, it can be raw material when you are done. On Heather & Baker you throw almost nothing.
- I work with fresh products all the time, make a soup every day, and then I make sure we have no waste at all. It's both uneconomical and bad for the environment with waste, so I totally avoid that. Then it may happen that someone comes in late and asks for soup, and then I have to tell them it's over for today, but there is new tomorrow. It feels like people are accepting.
Rawfood breaks down all resistance
If you then stroll along Götgatan and decide to fold down Vartoftagatan and grab a cup of organic kick-ass coffee, what should you do?
- Then I would recommend rawfood truffles and a rawfood cake that I do. Besides being fantastic, if I may say so myself, they are useful. I use things like fresh dates, coconut oil and various kinds of fruits like pomegranates. Many people are surprised that it can taste so good without sugar, and without useless things in them. I know parents who buy them for their children, as the only candy they get.
Even the most difficult customer categories fall short of raw food delicacies.
- A month ago, two middle-aged men came in who took their espresso. They stood and watched and were a little skeptical, but when they tasted each of their rawfood balls I looked at the facial expression how surprised they were. They did not expect it to taste so good.
Facts
Bearing: Vartoftagatan 45 next to Skrapan, opposite Åsö Gymnasium.
supply: Café, lunch, catering, evening event
Background: worked at Salt & Brygga in Malmö (ecological, environmentally friendly, energy efficient restaurant), Hilton in Copenhagen, Aquavit in New York, chef at Food Story in Stavanger.
Personal: Will marry Ian Baker, who she runs the cafe with. Ian delivers goods with a load bike.