Supper Tale
- Services: pop-ups, supper clubs, chef services, catering services, PR events and corporate recreation events
- Year of establishment: 2023
It is an early autumn evening at dusk at the Paimio Sanatorium. At a long table, a large group of employees from popular Helsinki restaurants dine by candlelight. There are crayfish by the plateful and glasses of colourful natural wines set among a creatively composed arrangement of courgettes on top of a white tablecloth.
The crayfish party has been thrown by Supper Tale, a company founded by Eyal Levit and Veera Soivio from Helsinki that organises atmospheric dinners for corporate customers and private persons and supplies top chefs to catering and PR events, among others. Supper Tale offers carefully designed and versatile food experiences, from planning to implementation. The food itself is provided by Supper Tale's top chefs or Levit, who has earned his stripes in the kitchens of Lauri Kähkönen, Toni Kostian and Tomi Björck, among others.
“We started the company to enrich the food scene. We want to provide customers with more food-related experiences and new career paths for chefs,” Levit says.
The Business Helsinki Business Advisory Service, which the owners of Supper Tale utilised when setting up their business, has offered important support in implementing this vision. Business Helsinki offers versatile services and support for the early stages of entrepreneurship – including personal advice, training and networking events with other new entrepreneurs.
“Many attend our general Business Info sessions on Teams, followed by our Business Plan and Calculation training. We also organise marketing and productisation training. You can have personal meetings with a business advisor several times to spar on business ideas, for example,” says Business Helsinki Business Advisor Pia Partanen, who was Levit and Soivio’s sparring partner in the early stages of Supper Tale. All trainings can be found in Business Helsinki's event calendar.
Levit and Soivio are partners both in business and their personal life. It has been an important tradition for both to attend the weekly dinner of the Levit family, where they eat together and talk about how their week has been going. The couple continued the tradition by arranging similar dinners for other people in Helsinki. When they were fully booked in minutes, Levit and Soivio had the courage to start organising dinners full-time.
They met with Business Advisor Partanen face-to-face in summer 2023 and refined the Supper Tale business plan for which the advisory services provided a template. Partanen also encouraged the new entrepreneurs to employ the services of an accountant.
“In the advisory session, a professional will tell you in easily understandable terms what you need to know about establishing a company. And it does not cost a thing. The help made us feel very good. It is a relief to not have to google by yourself at home and try to get a grip on complex issues,” Soivio says. Although setting up a business seems simple in theory, there is a lot to be done in practice, especially at the beginning, from fees and permits to customer acquisition and marketing.
"We have received invaluable support that has strengthened the development of our business and the making of strategic decisions."
Supper Tale has now been operational since 2023, and it has already expanded its activities from arranging dinners and supplying chefs to catering services, PR events and corporate recreation. Immediately after starting the business in autumn 2023, Levit and Soivio organised their first international supper club in southern France. At the moment, their chefs are actively working in e.g. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona and Berlin, and the international network is constantly expanding to new areas. Partanen has watched the company's growth with joy.
“It's great to see customers who came to me for help succeed. Eyal and Veera have an ingenious service concept that relies heavily on their individual special expertise. The high quality of the work and the clear brand have remained as the company has grown. The same creativity can be applied to any sector: in a highly competitive market, you can succeed as long as you find your own niche,” she says.
“In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must know how to apply for and use the help of experts. We have received invaluable support that has strengthened the development of our business and the making of strategic decisions,” Levit says.