It was in 2001: "Have fun, you are now our Barkeeper!" I tried to do the job as best I could, but of course I didn't use jiggers or pourers to measure accurately. In retrospect, I think the cocktails must have been terrible. After that job I moved around Germany for a while, working here and there, and in 2005 I decided to move to Bath, England for a few years. I worked in different hotels as Barkeeper, sommelier and restaurant manager.
In 2010, I came to Stuttgart and started working at Ciba Mato, a high-volume bar. We sent up to 800 cocktails a night over the counter. It was a tough place, you were always under time pressure and had to be quick, but I learned a lot during that time.
Just one year later, I was already ready to open my own place when I passed by what is now Schwarz Weiss Bar. It looked like the bar was for rent. At the time, there was an apartment for rent above the bar, so I called the tenant and asked if the bar was also available. The bar had been vacant for almost a year when I found it, but the location was pretty central. Maybe it was because of the small size that no one was interested, but I decided to start renovating the place in August 2011. After a few months of hard work, completely remodeling the place, I was able to open on November 11, 2011.
Black White Bar
First of all, why is the bar called Black White Bar? When I started as an entrepreneur, I always imagined having the perfect bar. At that time I had seen a movie in which in one scene there was a large room with small round tables and a lamp in the middle of each table. The movie had been shot in black and white. People were dressed in evening clothes, smoking cigars and sipping champagne, whiskey and cognac. On the stage there was a grand piano on which a woman dressed in red was playing and singing at the same time. That was the mood I wanted to capture for my bar as well.
Of course, my bar with its 28 square meters does not come close to the size of this room, but the mood as such is what I want to reflect for my guests and my bar. Therefore, you can say that it is an homage to this movie scene. The concept of the bar was always to serve cocktails. At that time, I had a business partner for the first year and a half, and we decided that the focus should be exclusively on cocktails. We have a few wines, but there is no food and, for example, no coffee on the menu.
Looking back over the last ten years, the concept seems to have taken off and the bar has established itself in the city's night scene. Over time, whiskey has become our main spirit, and we offer over 250 bottles in this small bar. All the cocktails on the drinks menu are our own creations, but of course you can also order all the classics.
The future
Personally, I am a big fan of good products, high quality, in a relaxed environment. That's very important for me. I don't like this false facade you sometimes see in bars - when the Barkeeper smile at you just because they have to, but drop the smile a second later when they leave. In all the successful restaurants in Stuttgart, they are professional and deliver high quality in a relaxed setting. I like that, which is why I also see our bar as a kind of living room.
"I would like to see more places follow suit with this kind of philosophy."
Technically, a lot has already found its way into the bar, but there is more to come and we try to be up to date here - of course, always in such a way that it makes economic sense for us.
Knud Scheibelt - Personal
Born: 1980
Special Skills: Ginger beer and bad jokes
Free time: I have two small children, besides we have a dog that needs attention. So my free time is very limited. Having a family and a business fills my time pretty well.
Barkeeper since: 2001
Biggest failure: I wanted to open a second bar, but that turned out to be a mistake. I wasted a lot of energy and money on that project. I prefer to concentrate on what I have now.
Most important career step: For sure the opening of the Schwarz Weiss Bar
Favorite cocktail: Whiskey Sour and Gimlet. Simple ingredients, focused on the spirit, which allows for variations. Simply perfect.
Stuttgart in three words: home, independence, traffic jam.
Stuttgart in three words: home, independence, congestion.
