EAT
Espresso
ROMANCE
Meet the power couple behind a coffee empire
L
ena Khoury walked into a newly opened coffee shop on W58th Street and started talking with the owner. Five months later, he proposed. Less than a year later, they were standing in front of Elvis in Vegas saying: “I do.” That’s the power of fika.
ILLUSTRATIONS: FREEPIK.COM
fika (n): (Swedish pronunciation: [fi:ka]) A concept in Swedish (and Finnish) culture with the basic meaning “to have coffee”, often accompanied with pastries or sandwiches. It’s at the core of Scandinavian culture. The chance to take a breath, indulge in the ritual of conversation, and connect with your fellow human beings. So when Lars Åkerlund visited New York for the first time in 2001 (he’d been considering making cocktails in the Caribbean until he realized he “needed more of a pulse to be able to stay in one place”), he fell in love with the city. Head over heels. There was just one thing missing from this perfect pairing. “I immediately knew that the fika tradition which I’ve grown up with in Sweden could have a huge potential to do well here and the dream was born. I spent the following five years saving up money and researching how to make that dream a reality.” He had to learn fast about things like permits, licenses, and construction, and approached 96 locations before finding a landlord who could share in his vision. “I knew the right location would be key and searched high and low for an exclusive address, but no landlord understood or could visualize my concept. They all thought I was opening up a standard deli and didn’t want any part of it. That changed when I met Kate, our landlord at W58th St. She was bold and brave enough to take a chance on me and my
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vision, and I will forever be grateful to her for that.” Fika was born. Less than a month later, Lena walked through the door. Fresh from Sweden, she was looking to escape for six months when she was stopped in her tracks by that Fika sign. “If you’re Swedish, that word is part of your DNA,” she says. “And so I became curious enough to walk through the door. Lars was behind the counter making an espresso, it was lunch time and the small café was packed and had an amazing energy about it. I instantly asked Lars if he was Swedish (in Swedish) and we began sharing our New York stories over a classic fika by that counter. Before I left, he had already offered me a job and I had accepted.” Their first date? A road trip to Boston on their first day off together. “Spending a few hours together in a car, having someone be map reader and then exploring a new city together is a great way to get to know each other fast,” says Lena. “Five months later,” adds Lars, “I proposed to her in the Caribbean and less than a year later we got married in Las Vegas in front of Elvis Presley. We’ve been building the business together ever since that first day we met.” Now with 17 locations, and an ambitious global expansion plan, they are firmly rooted in Hell’s Kitchen, with one coffee shop on 10th Ave - 41st St and their bakery, catering kitchen and offices housed in their largest space, on 10th Ave - 54th/55th St. “We wanted to make a statement in what we feel is a really vibrant and transforming neighborhood. There’s such a wide range of businesses and new residences nearby and Hell’s Kitchen houses some really interesting and diverse personalities. We hoped and felt that our take on the coffee break had the potential to be well embraced by the
DIGITAL EDITION
Right: Lars (coffee of choice: black or a short double espresso. “I keep it simple”) and Lena (“I love a double cappuccino. Now that I’m pregnant with our second child, I live on our decaf coffee and matcha tea lattes.”)
locals and we are so happy that’s proven to be true.” Which makes it all sound like a piece of perfectly baked prinsesstarta. Which it wasn’t. By the end of the first day, Lars had just $247 in his personal bank account, and he was charging $2 for a small cup of coffee, which was still considered steep in 2006. “I think we’ve always had a tremendous amount of faith in our concept, because it’s real,” says Lars. “We’re not trying to imitate it or pretend to be Swedish – we are the real thing. And instead of trying to please everyone we can think of, we’ve tried harder to remain true to our core concept as we’ve grown. “And the dark days when you have your own business are not only in the beginning,” he adds. “We face constant challenges and obstacles, but how you handle those is what makes the difference. We’ve never once thought of giving up or doubted that we have something great – that has always helped us push through hard times and allowed us to stay in business for over a decade.” And as the Fika family has grown in business terms, it has also nearly doubled in personal terms. Lars and Lena have a young son, with a second child on the way. Making the life/work balance a daily challenge. “It’s certainly not easy,” says Lena, “but anyone with kids and a job knows that. Especially when you run your own business, there’s no ‘off’ button. You could literally work 24/7 and still never be done. I think in our case, we make it work well because we truly enjoy all of our different roles and are a good team. In some ways it’s also easier than ever to let go of work when we come home now, because our little guy demands all the attention and provides so much entertainment that it’s hard to focus on anything else.” fikanyc.com