The small southern Finnish town of Lohja has recently opened to the public a restaurant in the middle of a mine.
Eighty meters underground on the floor of the former Tytyri limestone mine, the restaurant Muru has opened up shop as a play on the popular 'pop-up' restaurants that are showing up in cities worldwide, this time as a 'pop-down' restaurant.
Though unusual as it is, guests are interested in the quirky experience and a visit includes a four-course meal that includes interesting menu items such as snail flambéed in Pernod with fennel risotto and smoked vendance which is a type of fish bathed in lemon oil.
Restauranteur Timo Linnanmaki said about the menu to UK's Daily Mail, "The main theme with the menu was Elemental Earth."
The meal costs approximately $160 a head and includes drinks and transportation down the mine and back.
Linnamaki said to CBS, "'Pop-down' is such a unique idea that I just had to do it. It's great working down here because you are totally cut off from the world, so nothing distracts from the cooking."
The beautiful yet eerie setting is set in blue lights into the ceiling all made out of limestone. There are 64 seats available to diners in rows of wooden tables laden with candles.
Muru literally means "crumb" in Finish and won 2012's gourmet title in Finland only two years after its opening in Helsinki. Linnamaki said that working in the mine has inspired him to look for new challenges.
"Certainly it's the weirdest place I have cooked," he said to CBS. "It could be difficult to find something on par."
The pop-down restaurant experience ends on September 29.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
