Mathallen 10 years: Annis Sausage Maker
October 2022 marks 10 years since Oslo got its very first food hall. On Vulkan, an old industrial area right by the Akerselva River in Løkka, Mathallen Oslo was to become a cornerstone in the development of a completely new city within the city. Now, 10 years later, Mathallen Oslo has become a shopping center, meeting place, workplace and tourist attraction for thousands of people.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, we have had a chat with some of these people, more specifically a small selection of our beautiful birthday children.
Your local butcher
Why Mathallen?
I fell in love with Mathallen long before it opened. It was one time when I happened to walk past it and had to investigate what it was all about. The location, concept, vision and skilled project managers made me think that this would be the best place in the city to start a quality meat shop, as well as to be able to bring our brand name "Annis" out of Gudbrandsdalen and into the big city.
What product have you sold the most of over the years?
It goes a lot into sausages and steaks in general.
After a little search, I see in the statistics that overall, it is thin ribs that top sales in kg. We sell an incredible amount at Christmas, but we always have this on the counter, so it is very consistent throughout the year. In a strong second place is our lamb kebab. We introduced it only two years ago, and we have already sold almost 10 kebab skewers!
What is your Mathallen favorite?
My guilty pleasure is all the good things they have at Cupcakes & Pie Co.
They have everything from the best bread and baguettes, to all the sweets that are impossible to resist!
You experience quite a bit in 10 years. Are there any memories that stand out?
One of the things I remember best is our first big Christmas, where everything went wrong. I think it was in 2015.
We had two people on sick leave in a fairly small staff from before, and a Christmas that was much busier than expected. We had enough food, but we couldn't help customers quickly enough, so the queue went through the entire Mathallen and out the other side. Some customers got their beer in the queue past Barramon and Torget as they passed these places. We had long, hard days, and felt bad for all the customers in line, but afterwards it's fun to think back on. After this, we have done everything we could to get the smoothest Christmas shopping for employees and customers, and I think we have the shortest wait time for Christmas food of all.
