Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Norway’s Food Scene – The Best Cafés
Join Sweet Rain manager Krastina Ilkova at her Nordic dream patisserie in Bergen, and expect nothing but the best and sweetest.
Parisian tastes at a Nordic forest-inspired patisserie Let your senses adjust to the sumptuous taste of French viennoiserie and Nordic desserts based on seasonal ingredients at Bergen’s only French-inspired patisserie, Sweet Rain. By Karen Langfjæran | Photos: Sweet Rain
Do not be fooled by its partly Frenchinspired menu. The Sweet Rain atmosphere is much more inspired by the Nordic forests than it is by macaron-filled Parisian street cafés. A minimalistic aesthetic and colour palette with a wave of summer sky blue meet beautifully cut furniture, made by the owner’s family based on wood from the nearby Fløyen woods. “The idea is that you’ll have an equally relaxing experience here as in the Norwegian woods,” says Krastina Ilkova, manager of Sweet Rain. Together with husband Trayan, Ilkova nurtured the idea of opening Sweet Rain for a year before signing the lease, and they have recently celebrated the first98 | Issue 103 | August 2017
year anniversary of the opening. “We probably would not have had our Sweet Rain journey if it hadn’t been for my pregnancy cravings in the very beginning of the idea stage,” laughs Ilkova. “Sweet Rain is a mix of a confectionary store and a café, as we sell sweets and cakes as well as other baked goods and lunch items, such as our popular spinach pie, inspired by my Bulgarian heritage,” says Ilkova. Her husband, Trayan, has developed the menu and oversees the everyday logistics of the kitchen. Their menu ranges from French classic confectionary and viennoiserie to extraordinary cakes and traditional lunch items, ensuring that your favourite is indeed just minutes from your sight.
The managing couple also made sure to use seasonal and local ingredients, resulting in a menu that constantly changes in terms of certain ingredients. For example, you will find that some of the July favourites with strawberry flavours will have blueberries on top in the early autumn. “We also have an open kitchen, so guests may have a peek at the process of making extraordinary cakes and confectionary,” says Ilkova. You will also find some truly unique items on offer, which really make the Sweet Rain menu stand out. “As far as we know, Sweet Rain is the only place in the world where you can purchase a brown-cheese cheese cake, one of our most popular items on the menu,” says Ilkova. Now that is a treat for Scandi enthusiasts!
Web: www.sweetrain.no