Nature's spirits: Munich bar goes hyper-local

Gamsei is the brainchild of Matthew Bax, an Australian artist and founder of Melbourne’s celebrated cocktail bar Der Raum.

For his first Munich venture, Bax has said he was inspired by ‘Bavarian culture and their closeness to nature’. Gamsei’s cocktails – with fanciful names such as Lavender Drunk Bee and Mid-Life Crisis – contain herbs and berries foraged in the wild by Gamsei staff or sourced from artisan farmers. The alcohol and mixers are created in-house, while lemons, lime and sugar, which all come from abroad, are forbidden. To complete the hand-crafted feel, the names of the drinks are scrawled on menus made from home-made paper. 

The clean, warm lines of Gamsei’s interior, crafted using locally sourced steel and oak, reflect the same ethos. Architects Fabian Wagner and Andreas Kreft created amphitheatre-style seating so that guests can see the leather apron-clad bar staff at work. The set-up does away with the traditional bar that separates staff from customers. 

Gamsei is a good example of the Revivalism macrotrend, which emphasises craftsmanship, hyper-localism, Conviviality Culture and folklore.