The history of Hjalmar’s

Restaurant Hjalmar’s got its name after “spirit-smuggler king” Hjalmar Mäkelä. In 1935, he built a house called “Pirtulinna”- alcohol smuggling base – where Hjalmar’s is now located.

Mäkelä was a witty businessman- he had Korpo’s first sports car and bus. On top of that he had a velodrome constructed in front of his house for biking, since he was a Finnish champion in biking for some time!

The Police never caught Mäkelä for smuggling alcohol, but he did get caught for having an illegal radio.