the (one and only) hoito

every lakehead student and thunder bay resident has memories of the hoito, a thunder bay institution famous for its finnish pancakes and unique atmosphere. now you can bring a taste of that memory home!  participants will receive a bag of hoito pancake mix and, after flipping some ‘lettu,’ they can join finnish historian saku pinta on zoom to learn about “a brief history of the hoito restaurant: one hundred years of labour, community, and co-operation.”

pinta, a lecturer at the university of manitoba, worked at the hoito intermittently for over a decade and his mother, kaija pinta was the head cook at the restaurant until her retirement in 2008. more recently, pinta has served as a board member of the finlandia co-operative of thunder bay, a new initiative that will re-open the hoito as a consumers' co-operative. until that happens, this is your opportunity to taste the hoito one more time.