Café Finspang

Half souvenir shop, half bakery stand right when you walk in the east entrance to Midtown Market with a surgence of offerings around Christmastime. This place has a lot of stuff for those into Scandiwegian culture. The food offerings are not as varied as I hoped with virtually nothing I’d consider Finnish — where’s joulutorttu? Piirakka? Lihapiirakka? — but have an extensive chocolaterie as well as the usual lefse, so there’s plenty to whet the palate. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any Fazer milk chocolate bars this time, which was the reason for my second visit.

Lingonberry bar. Good stuff. Like a cookie with granola on it. Lingonberries remind me of cranberries. Lefse was cold and would be much better heated up and I think maybe they should have offered that option to me. Guy working there was polite, but not friendly or helpful. Like he was doing the bare minimum. You are selling food, maybe try enjoying it and taking pride in it?

Conveniently located in the MGM, Café Finspang has quite a few unique Swedish and Minnesota items. Not only do they have a huge display case offering some tasty chocolate truffles of all varieties, (Get the Sea Salt Caramel if nothing else catches your eye) there is also a great selection of souvenirs and gifts. I always find a cool children’s book or unique to Minnesota toy or trinket for nieces and nephews. It takes a while to look through the assortment of stuff they have, it’s a pretty big area right across from La Loma Tomales and the ladies working are always super nice. It’s nice to have vendors that are different and add to the uniqueness of the MGM experience overall!

Stumbled upon this gem during my visit to the market, brought me back home to my days in Denmark. They have all the products and foods typically served in Scandinavia but not in Scandinavian prices! Bless you Finspang! I ended up getting a kringla and smörsgador. The bread tasted similar to Denmark’s, typical soda bread. The pastry not as good as Denmark’s but close. It was less sweet which I liked. Seriously the food here is as close as it gets to being authentic and it doesn’t come with a high price tag. Thank you for bringing me back to Scandinavia, Finspang. There are times I miss it, and you made me feel at home for a little bit.
P. S. The lady speaks Swedish and a bit of danish! Skål!

Came with my boy after we indulged in way too much savory food. I stopped to get some Swedish coffee before I get kicked in the a– by my food coma.
Swedish coffee was good, strong, and crisp. It was smooth and I normally don’t like coffee black but this was was a good contrast to the treats.
Truffles ($ 1 each) were okay. I got two the green tea matcha and he got something else I can not remember but both were mildly above average. Both of ours were white chocolate though so you don’t get as much cocoa as it is processed billion times over. I would be willing to try the milk chocolate flavors since they have some interesting selection.
Lingonberry bar (I think $ 1.75) was decently good. It also had what I think are oats on top. it wasn’t too sweet which was perfect to balance the coffee.
Coconut tops ($ 1) which reminded me of coconut macaroons made me so happy I wanted to get more but my belly was crying for a reprieve. Will have to come back next time to get more. The boyfriend who lived in Sweden and traveled around europe said the goods are pretty legit so I was pretty satisfied with my mini-​purchase.
Overall, I thought the selection was pretty narrow today (sunday) but I would be willing to come back to try other goodies… hopefully with more room in my belly.

Good selection of desserts and scandivanian stuff.
–Florentine, coffee cookies with hazelnut cream, fucking delicious
–Thumbprint cookie, very yummy as well, couldn’t stop myself from taking a bite when the counter lady wasn’t even done processing my card; gluten-​free if you’re into that sorts of thing
–Lefse, I got plain with just butter, might’ve tasted better with sugar added, but it was only $ 1 a roll, fucking cheap

Delicious! Melt in your mouth truffles! The best I have ever tasted. Especially the caramel chocolate sea salt truffles!!! Wow! We ordered 2 to share and ended up going back to buy 6 more to take home for the rest of the gang and ended up ordering a dozen… they last 24 hours…
I will be heading down at Christmas time to get more for gifts!

Yummmmmmm. Amidst all the clutter of Scandinavian gifts at Café Finspang are some wonderful bakery cases with pastries, cookies, and truffles. I let the owner know right away that I would need several minutes to ogle all the sweet selections before I could make a decision. And did I ever make the right choice! The Florentine pastry encases a luscious whipped caramel cream between two caramelized crisp wafers (cookies?), with one end dipped in chocolate. CRAZY GOOD!
I also tried the Lingonberry bars, which Rhonda G. highly recommended, but I can’t say I agree with the high marks, as the bar I had was dry and lacking in flavor. The lemon poppyseed truffle I sampled was pretty good, and the chili chocolate truffle and the key lime truffle looked awesome and are next on my list.
Owner Maj-​Britt Syse was easy to chat with and very helpful in explaining her specialty items. I will be back lickity split to indulge in some more Scandinavian delights!

If you have a sweet tooth, be sure and try some of their dainty (and some not-​so-​dainty) Swedish dessert treats! I have recently been impressed to discover:
Florentines (lace cookies filled with mousse and dipped partially in chocolate) AND Coco Balls (homemade coconut cream-​puff treats surrounded by a thin chocolate shell and real coconut shavings).
With the Salty Tart next door it’s hard to notice these lovelies but do take a spin by Fingspang for dessert, especially if you are watching your wallet!

Moving to MN can be a culture shock for anyone. Even with food. Hence my first introduction to «the bar». After 21 years, I’ve become an expert. This Finnish café has one kind, the lingonberry and its perfect. You don’t even have to make them anymore if you don’t feel like it. I was introduced to this jam at Ikea, and love it. Alison C. describes this place best, I just can’t get my mind and mouth past those bars.