while it’s almost impossible
to read a restaurant menu
these days without the term ‘locally sourced’ all but
poking you in the eye, the phrase is not often associated
with cocktail lists. Take the average Cosmopolitan, for
example. Russian vodka, US cranberry, Mexican lime,
French Cointreau – it’s a global grab bag of ingredients.
At Munich’s latest ‘it’ bar, however, a hipster crowd are
being treated to drinks with contents that hail from no
further than the average dog walk. “All the fresh
ingredients are either wild foraged by ourselves or locally
grown by small artisan farmers,” states the website for
Gamsei
(gamsei.com)
.
This means every eco-
tipple muddled by the
dungaree-clad bartenders is
made from freshly picked
fruits and herbs, along with
liqueurs and infusions made
in-house. It also means
anything that doesn’t
originate in the region,
including lemon and lime,
is
verboten
. “I don’t think this has ever been attempted
before,” says Australian owner Matthew Bax. “It’s like a
chef throwing out salt and pepper and oil.”
Despite this, he says, his larder is rammed with
inventive concoctions. “We use hundreds of ingredients,
depending on the time of year.” Even in the depths of
winter, it seems... “I’ve distilled my own glühwein. I also
have an aged
rumtopf
, an old recipe involving summer
fruit preserved in local brandies, and some amazing
lebkuchen
likörs
[gingerbread liqueurs].”
How sustainable the effort involved in a bar like this
remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: at Gamsei,
punters are getting an authentic taste of Bavaria.
04
03
BREWED AWAKENING
01
Preserved fruit
02
Lebkuchen
(gingerbread) dough
03
Citrus fruit isn’t local,
so it’s verboten
04
Interior of Gamsei
05
Even the glühwein is
distilled in-house
05
01
02
“All the fresh ingredients
are either foraged
by ourselves or locally
grown by small
artisan farmers”
WORDS
EUAN FERGUSON
PHOTOS
GETTY, STOCKFOOD, PLAIN PICTURE
0 3 4
O N T H E S C E N E
M U N I C H
Grow your
own booze
It’s not just restaurants that are mad for
foraging. At one German bar, everything
– and we mean everything – is local
