1917
A tobacco factory
The house was built and taken into use in 1917, as a tobacco factory.
The tobacco factory, around 1917. Photo: Norges næringsveier i tekst og billeder.
1947
In the family
In 1947 the Romsøe family bought the house and rented it out. Meanwhile, Finn Romsøe, born in 1913, built up Finns Konditori in town: from 1953 with a bakery in Karlsminnegate and a shop in the city centre.
The house in its early years.
1970
Finns Konditori moves in
In March 1970 the bakery moved to Eiganesveien 9, and the shop opened in the small extension at the front, where the glass orangery stands today.
The Finns sign above the shop. Photo: Stavanger byarkiv.
Next door
The house on the corner
Later the family bought the Swiss-style wooden house next door, then clad in panels, with a little grocery shop on the corner and a delicatessen in the half-basement, four steps down from the street.
They raised the house, built a new ground floor and joined the two buildings. The shop grew almost four times bigger, with its own departments for cakes and ice cream, and a new bakery went up in the courtyard behind.
The house next door, before the two were joined. Photo: Stavanger byarkiv.
What Stavanger remembers
Ice cream, krumkaker and the skolebolle
The ice cream was made fresh every day and had a soft texture, a bit like soft serve. It came with a crisp krumkake, baked in-house.
There was ambrosia bread full of raisins, often sold spread with butter and brown cheese. And the skolebolle: the custard was piped in a ring rather than a dot in the middle, so every bite got some, and the coconut was stuck on with a light wheat glaze instead of sweet icing.
Finn Bjørner Romsøe in the bakery. Photo: Stavanger byarkiv.
2008 to today
From bakery to hotel
Finn's only son, also named Finn, was born into the bakery trade. Finn Bjørner ran the konditori until Godt Brød bought it in 2008. Godt Brød still bakes on the ground floor.
Today his son, Bjørn Thomas Romsøe, owns the building through Finns Eiendom. The latest renovation is by the architects Haga & Grov AS, who took much of their inspiration from the original building from 1917. And when it became a hotel, the name stayed.
Today, and before the renovation.