Bartender International

Boris Gröner, One Trick Pony, Freiburg

44-year-old Boris Gröner is the owner of Bar One Trick Pony in Freiburg together with Andreas Schöler. He talks to Bar News about his beginnings in the bar scene during his studies and how he took over Bar One Trick Pony by chance and now runs it successfully.

Originally I come from a place called Rosswag, near Stuttgart, and I'm 44 years old now. I have two children, and together with Andreas Schöler I own the bar One Trick Pony in Freiburg.

When I started studying, I first moved to Mannheim to study economics, but I didn't like it that much, so I continued my studies in Freiburg in 1999 with sports economics and geography. Like many others, I had to finance my personal life, so right at the beginning of my studies I helped out at the Hemingway Bar, which was the first cocktail bar in Freiburg at the time. In total, I worked at the Hemingway Bar for fifteen years and got a full-time job as a bar manager right after graduation.

At home in the bar scene

I enjoyed the restaurant industry and nightlife so much that I wanted to stay in it after graduation. After four years in the full-time position at Hemingway, I heard about a new bar/restaurant/club project that caught my attention. I was asked to manage the place and was even able to bring in another person. At the time, I was already working with Andy at the Hemingway Bar, so it made sense for us to go into this new place together. Andy worked as the bar manager while we ran Passage 46 together.

However, after only one year the pub went bankrupt due to some financial problems of the investor. It was a very difficult time, but as luck would have it, we were able to take over the One Trick Pony because of the bankruptcy. That's how I became the bar owner. I think if someone had asked me three months before I signed the lease if I could see myself becoming a bar owner, I would have said "no way." I knew how tough a business in the restaurant industry could be, but the decision was ultimately very spontaneous. In the end, though, it worked out very well and I'm now very happy to have taken this step in my career.

One Trick Pony

When the idea was born in our heads, we thought about how we could make our bar concept palatable to the people of Freiburg. What was missing in Freiburg? We realized that there wasn't a single private cocktail bar that met our standards. We wanted to serve high-quality cocktails, but at the same time, Freiburg residents, who tend to like wine and beer per se, should feel appealed by what we were doing. We experimented a lot at the Hemingway Bar, but the guests in Freiburg are not very keen on experimenting. There are no cocktail nerds here like in other cities. But the journey we started at Hemingway- Bar could continue at One Trick Pony.

Just before we opened, we didn't have a name for our bar, but we had a poster outside for a while where people could write name suggestions. In the beginning, someone wrote "One Trick Pony," and we thought: Actually, we do "bar" very well and don't want to be anything else, so the name fits perfectly. Besides, Pony is an old bar ace that you often find in old cocktail books.

We make most of our own essences that we use for our creative cocktails and try to be as local as possible. But at the end of the day, we wanted the bar to be accessible to everyone. We didn't want to overcomplicate things and set high prices, that was never the goal. It was all meant to be fun and affordable. Over the years, the bar has really made a name for itself and we are now known at least in German-speaking countries, which makes us proud. In the meantime, we have opened our own liquor and beverage store called Chin Chin directly above our bar, where we sell our own bottled cocktails.

The future

In general, I think the German bar scene is still a step behind the global bar culture movement. I would expect more trends to develop in Berlin, especially when I compare it to cities like New York or London. Certainly Germany has never been a real cocktail country, and although a lot has happened in recent years, there is still room for improvement.

I see more and more bars being integrated into restaurants, which is an interesting development. At the same time, many culinary influences have found their way into bars in the last five to ten years. In Freiburg, it would be good for the development if there were a few other competitive bars on the market. It wouldn't hurt our business and at the same time it would create more awareness and develop the bar culture in the right direction.

Personal

Boris Gröner

Special Skills: I am super fast at loading and unloading dishwashers

Free time: family time, travel and computers, mainly marketing and social media activities for One Trick Pony.

Barkeeper since: 1999

Biggest mistake: running Passage 46 and unfortunately going bankrupt

Most important career step: opening of One Trick Pony together with Andy

Favorite cocktail: Definitely the Daiquiri. Why is that? It's very simple, with only three ingredients, and it has rum in it - which I love. You can also use it quite well as a test for Barkeeper , because you can still be creative with it.

Favorite bar: Difficult to say, because it always depends on the mood. If I had to choose one, I would go for Booze Bar in Berlin because I really like the people there. They are good friends.

Freiburg: For me, Freiburg is in three words "prevent and preserve". New things are always eyed very critically. As in so many cities, creativity is unfortunately inhibited by bureaucratic rules and regulations. In Freiburg, this may be due to the old history and the historic center or the still strong influence of the church.

This article appeared in
Issue 5-2022

BAR NEWS magazine as single issue

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