Lorena was born in 1991 in a small Bavarian town called Eichstädt. Her first contact with bartending was when she was fifteen years old and belonged to a group that ran a bar at the annual town festival.
In 2010, she went to Halle to study biology. It was Lorena's wish to continue working in bars alongside her studies, so her first six months were spent in a music bar in Halle called Flower Power. She only worked at night, which was exhausting, and the bar mainly served beer, schnapps and a Cuba Libre here and there.
The next stop was a restaurant and bar called The One. They served the odd cocktail like Sex on the Beach, but there wasn't much creativity involved - it was mostly food, milkshakes and long drinks.
Lorena loved working in the hospitality industry and bartending became more and more of a passion. The world of gastronomy was always more important to her than her studies, but she still completed her bachelor's degree and moved to Hamburg in 2014. Halle had become too small and too boring. The city on the Elbe was much bigger and she didn't know anyone there, which is exactly what Lorena wanted.
She felt - at least partly prompted by her parents - that you couldn't (or shouldn't) make a decent living as a full-time bartender. She started a research position at a small foundation, but it was a low-paid job that she didn't enjoy very much. So she started studying again, as she always wanted to learn Italian and it also enabled her to work as a bartender again.
Lorena started working at Café Kostbar and stayed there for three years. Besides the rather cosy Café Kostbar, she also helped out at events at Festplatz Nord, as she needed the fast, lively party life and, as she admits, quite likes drunk people. During those three years in the city, she started drinking high-end cocktails as her network of Barkeeper friends grew.
She completed her bachelor's degree in Italian in 2017 and decided to move to Padua for six months. During this stay, she spent a lot of time reading and learning about bars, and she often visited a place called Barcode, where she regularly spent most of her savings drinking.
"The Drilling is a place where experimentation is allowed."
When Lorena returned to Hamburg, Café Kostbar was no longer enough for her. She started at a place called Familieneck, but it wasn't creative enough for her and she felt too strictly controlled. After only six months, she left the café.
Through Diageo, she was able to take part in a two-and-a-half-month theory course called Learning for Life, where she learned what it takes to work in her first real cocktail bar, and through a friend, she came to Drilling in 2018.
Drilling
Drilling is a distillery, a cocktail bar and a coffee house with specialities. In the bar you can learn more about spirits, cocktails and coffee. The distillery produces gin, various other spirits and even a whisky.
Drilling is a place where experimentation is allowed. In and around Bahrenfeld, the Hamburg district where Drilling is located, there are many residential and commercial developments, so there is a varied and exciting hustle and bustle.
The bar can seat more than 60 guests. The cocktail menu features various signature cocktails with their own spirits from the distillery, classics and there is the option to be inspired by Sour or Old Fashioned varieties, which are selected by rolling two special dice.
Inspiration
Lorena gets inspiration from other bartenders she visits and by drinking cocktails. She loves spirits and loves reading about them. Finally, and importantly, her guests and their choice of drinks inspire her. All this leads to new ideas for new cocktails, and Lorena loves to watch the guests' reactions.
Favourite bar
Park Hotel Bar in Gütersloh, Germany. Lorena has never felt so welcome and well entertained as in this bar - a remarkable experience for her. Hospitality was the key in this place. It wasn't necessarily the bar where she had her best drinks ever, but it was all the other things that made her experience there perfect.
This article appeared in
Issue 4-2020
BAR NEWS magazine as single issue
