it was unusual for a house to be built solely with the intent to be a tavern. stockholms utskänkningsaktiebolag was a non-profit company with roots in the sobriety business – which had a license to dispense and sell spirits in controlled forms. a kind of forerunner to the monopoly that systembolaget has today. the company had about 30 restaurants and in order to make people drink less, they would focus on serving good food rather than spreading the drinking custom. the restaurants all closed early, with very strict serving rules.

the restrictions meant that the queues could stretch far into the alley, people longing for the coveted allocation of alcohol: two units of clear and one brown. this was a way of regulating alcohol consumption, and it stayed this way until 1955. the ratio for men was 15 centilitres, for example two glasses of purified and one glass of eau-de vie. women received half, as long as they stayed in the pub environment.

the task of designing the house on blekingegatan during the beginning of the 20th century had been given to the architect sam kjellberg, one of the most hired architects in stockholm.

the house was large with many different spaces that over the years got used in different ways. party floor, liquor sales, apartment for the basement master. as well as, of course, a couple of different pub premises. the large hall, a dining room with wall-mounted bench furnishings and high panels in brown became a more exclusive restaurant environment à la city hotels. with its white linen tablecloths it got the name linen dining room. pelikan did not get her separate ladies' restroom until 1984, when two women bought the restaurant. 

in 1969, sara, sweden's general restaurant company, bought the restaurant on blekingegatan and renamed it from port arthur to the historical name pelikan. in 1984 the establishment was bought by two women who came to run it for almost thirty years. in december 2013, boqueria group stepped in as new owners.  in addition to the pelikan, among other things, run the historical landmark blå porten at djurgården. 

lena sahlberg started working as a waitress at pelikan in 1994. 

– i've met a lot of wonderful guests who all need your attention. you learn to see how they're doing and how happy they get if you care about them. 

a lot of famous names have visited through the years. lena sahlbergs favorite is the author stig claesson, called slas (1928–2008). he published 88 books and was an illustrator as well. he spent a lot of time at pelikan. 

lena tells of an event that well illustrates how special he was.
– stig came down to the tavern and was probably a little hungover. he had decided he wanted spaghetti. from his pocket he pulls out uncooked pasta – it was not on the menu but i asked the chef to arrange it.

lena sahlberg had no luck. the chef was one of stockholm's most sought after, and a proud man who did not want to compromise, "if it is not on the menu, it is not served". "you can't come to the opera cellar with filet mignon in your pocket either." but slas stood his ground. the solution? the restaurant's owner at the time had to cook spaghetti in the kitchenette at the tavern's office.

lena sahlberg says that every year in february, a number of men gather to eat at pelikan and pay tribute to stig claesson and above all his book "who loves yngve frej?".