A list of interesting fun facts you didn’t know about IKEA

For many, the highlight of any IKEA outing is a stop at the store’s restaurant for a Swedish-meatball fix. The company’s first in-store restaurant opened in 1956 at the Älmhult location.

The in-store eateries were designed to feed hungry people who would spend all day shopping in the store and were meant to help these patrons feel welcome and taken care of.

Although the food IKEA kitchen serves tends to be quite traditional, the company still has a dedicated test kitchen to finesse dishes before they’re rolled out.

“We try not to look at the trends that we see are growing, we try to see what happens after that point. Since we’re such a big company, before we go full-on on something, we need to know that it’s going to have a sustainable future,” David Johansson, an IKEA food and restaurant product developer, said in a 2017 interview with Chatelaine.

Earlier this year, IKEA was in the process of testing a vegan version of its signature meatballs.