Hasta La Ideas

German firm Buero Wagner has designed a bar for mixology company Gamsei with ceramic bottles of ingredients hanging from a metal grid on the ceiling (+ slideshow).

Munich-based Gamsei specialises in using foraged and locally sourced ingredients for their cocktail blends.

The brand wanted to encourage drinkers to watch the barmen mixing their cocktails, so Buero Wagner designed seating as two sets of solid oak steps that rise to meet two opposing walls, while the bar tenders make the drinks at two bars in the middle.

“Gamsei is a wholly integrated concept that turns the event of drinking a cocktail into a novel experience,” said Buero Wagner.

“By eliminating the common separation of bartender and guest, here the interaction is key and everybody has a front row seat: from either side guests can enjoy a view onto the two centrally placed bars,” the designers added.

An oak cupboard and shelving unit covers the whole of the far wall, part of which opens up as a hidden door into the bathroom.

Oak shutters can be pushed up to reveal the coffee machine and the many shelves are used to store dried leaves, herbs and white ceramic bottles full of Gamsei’s self-made liqueurs, syrups and essences.

These bottles also hang in neat lines from a black steel mesh covering the celling.

Just like Gamsei’s drinks, the wood, steel and ceramic used for the bar were all locally sourced.

Gamsei opened in 2013 and is owned and founded by Australian bartender Matthew Bax.

The Buero Wagner designers who completed this project were Fabian A. Wagner and Andreas Kreft.

Here’s a project description from the designers:

GAMSEI

Sex on the Beach, Cosmopolitan, White Russian. A cocktail bar is usually rated by the quality of the classic drinks (and their modern adaptations), but those who hope to get a taste of them at Gamsei, may either look elsewhere, or dare find out what a Lavender Drunk Bee is made of.

Juniper schnapps, verjuice, lavender honey. When owner and head bartender Matthew Bax opened Gamsei 2013 in Munich’s trendy neighbourhood Glockenbach, he introduced hyper-localism to a field of practice which had until then been mainly confined to the food scene.

At Gamsei, ingredients for cocktails like Lavender Drunk Bee, Mid-Life Crisis and Frühlingserwachen, are either wildly foraged by Bax and his team or grown by local artesian farmers, thus reestablishing a connection with local products, region and culture and offering something that is unique in its kind.

Bax, an Australian artist and founder of three bars among which award winning bar Der Raum in Melbourne envisioned his fourth as an antidote to the globalisation of cocktail bars; why drink the very same cocktail in every bar you go to in the world? Why not experience the excitement of the new when sipping a cocktail?

The bar interior, designed and executed by Fabian A. Wagner of Buero Wagner (Munich, Germany) with Andreas Kreft, is a clear continuation of this philosophy – looking for surprising configurations whilst paying a tribute to the local Bavarian culture and craftsmanship.

The ambience of a typical Bavarian beer hall has been applied to the 40m² interior through amphitheater-style benches against opposing walls thus eliminating the common separation of bartender and guest, here interaction is key and everybody has a first row seat: from either tribune guests enjoy a view onto the two centrally placed bars and follow how Bax and his team mix, shake and stir up the cocktails. Also the bars have been stripped of all boundaries: workspace and bar are one.

Dried flowers, herbs and leaves are stored and displayed in a wooden built-in cupboard that stretches the full length of the back wall; Besides ingredients, also the coffee machine and even the doors to the bathrooms and laboratory are seamlessly integrated and can be flexibly displayed or disguised behind lattices. Tribunes, bars and cupboards are executed in solid oak with a natural oil finish.

White ceramic bottles are suspended from a black steel mesh attached to the ceiling, which contain self-made liqueurs, syrups and essences, in-between which light bulbs make for a reduced lighting scheme by night. Just like Bax’s cocktail ingredients, Buero Wagner procured all materials such as wood, ceramics (custom-made by Gefäß & Objekt) and steel locally, and worked in close collaboration with local carpenters and manufacturers to produce custom-made solutions.

Gamsei is a wholly integrated concept that turns the event of drinking a cocktail into a novel experience. The refreshing take on the cocktail bar extends further: bartenders, dressed in uniform leather aprons, serve their guests an amuse-gueule such as “Biersand”, after taking their coats upon entering, and the tribunes on either side – to be climbed only without shoes – allow for sports broadcasts.

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