From dream, to vision, to reality

The dream
Our history has traces and roots all the way back to 2004, when Lyspunktet café and coffee shop opened its doors in Kipervikgata in Ålesund. This was the realization of a dream at the time, to have a coffee shop in the city center. This coffee bar was to be a gathering place for coffee lovers, and a supplement to the cultural life of the city, with a separate stage in the venue, for concerts and various performances. In addition, the walls of the room were made available for local artists to exhibit their art.

We had a wonderful journey of 15 years with this cafè. Everything has its measured lifespan. For Lyspunktet, it was 15 years of an adventurous journey. It was sad to close this chapter. But at the same time we were carrying a new “café baby” who was to be born and grow out of this vision. The Dråpe dream came true while we were still in Lyspunktet’s premises. As it became clear that the days of that place were numbered, this dream moved on to become a vision.

The vision
The vision was a coffee house, inspired by the coffee houses in Europe several hundred years back in time. Back then it was the coffee houses that were the meeting place for the citizens. They met there over a cup of coffee and that was were ideas and dreams, where cultural life got “new legs to walk on”, and these coffee houses eventually became what we today call our culture houses. Coffee, cultural life, creativity and entrepreneurship grew and flourished from the coffee houses.

Reality
The vision quickly became a reality, as it was important to us that our city did not lose this place, which had managed to become an important part of the cityscape. We wanted all our friends and guests at Lyspunktet not to have to wait long before they could meet over coffee with us again.

Storgata 4 was vacant, and we got to rent this place, right in the city center. Actually this was a dream location! It took us 6 weeks to put the premises in order. Those weeks we worked day and night, and there were many of us who had neither held a drill nor a paintbrush in our hands before … New floors, new ventilation system, construction of a kitchen, toilets, coffee bar, demolishing walls and building walls, finding the right furniture and interior. Fortunately, we had a skilled and patient construction project manager, Jan Huse, with all the skills needed! Not to mention all the friends and acquaintances who lined up with food, tools and helping hands.