Valerie Kauffeldt wears the same shirt as her employees. It’s black, with three small white letters in the middle: “dad” is written there. Some read father, others see it as an acronym made up of the initials of the wine bar “Die alten Druckerei”. Both are correct. The 28-year-old from Hamburg, blond pageboy cut, blue eyes, did not take over her parents’ business, as is often the case, but she did take over the business premises and with them a lot of memories. For 45 years, first her grandfather and then her parents ran a print shop in the Kontorhaus district in the city centre. Then they moved to the outskirts of town with the company to give their daughter the space for her own business idea.
When Kauffeldt thinks about her childhood, she remembers the smell of paper and the volume of the printing machines, because she was often here with her siblings and was allowed to take colorful snippets and stickers with her to do handicrafts. Thanks to the parents and the appreciation for the past – that’s everywhere in their wine bar. The hints are subtle, they don’t want to impose themselves, they want to be found, because Valerie Kauffeldt doesn’t like the bold.
In addition to the name of the restaurant and the shirt imprints, there are the old paint cans on a shelf in the corner and a hanging strip of paper for changing mottos. The wine list is of course written down by the parents and is stuck on an old printing plate. An antique wooden chest of drawers used to house letters for hot metal typesetting. Some points even further back: There is a small safe, in the basement a larger one. Because the first user of the rooms was a bank.
A fresh start in the middle of the pandemic
Turning a manufacturing industry into a restaurant, and doing so in a listed office building, turned out to be more tedious than expected. Even though the machines in the print shop were much louder than the popping of corks and the clinking of glasses, a soundproof ceiling had to be installed and footfall noise routed. A new door was needed because the old one opened inwards, new windows because the exit was a few centimeters too narrow for an escape route, and wheelchair-accessible toilets. Kauffeldt created the room concept with her best friend, designed the counter, tore out the walls and took down the wallpaper. Electrics and water had to be replaced.
Lovingly redesigned: the premises of the former printing shop.
(Photo: Anja Martin)
“I needed all of 2020 for this,” says the young restaurateur. At least the start delay coincided with the first year of Corona. It was only the second lockdown that made her nervous, because now she was done, had invested a lot, had been paying rent for a long time, hadn’t received any Corona aid and finally wanted to get started.
“The Old Printing Shop” has now been open for a year, and Kauffeldt is satisfied. The guests are also as the owner imagined. “People like me.” In other words, the majority is between 25 and 35 years old. They like to go out and spend time with their friends. “I didn’t want it to be just people in suits coming in, smartly talking about wine,” she explains. “Wine is such a beautiful product, I just wanted to make it more approachable.”
Of sabers and little blackbirds
She herself discovered her love for it while studying hotel management at a six-month sommelier course in South Africa. The number of 110 wines on the menu is not intended to scare you off, but to make you curious. That’s why she has at least forty of them open, serving 0.1 and 0.2 so that guests can try them out and make discoveries. Wine lists usually only say something to connoisseurs, she thinks. That’s why she describes the wines briefly, understandably, without many technical terms and very personally, also with fun facts.
Who knows that Merlot means “little blackbird”, either because the grape is so dark or because blackbirds like it that much. That it was Napoleon who started the sabering of champagne, i.e. opening the bottle with a saber. That Pinot Noir sunburns easily, Bordeaux is a blend, Vinho Verde is definitely not made from green grapes, but comes from a green area.
The unusual categorizations were actually intended as a gag, but they work. If you don’t have much time, you can make your selection based on the mood of the evening. There are suggestions for a “Ladies Night”, “Deep Talk” or “Easy to drink”. What Kauffeldt absolutely wants to avoid: “The guest ordering a Pinot Gris.” Not only would that be boring, it would also just be inappropriate for a place that used to be full of paint and colored paper.
More information at die-alte-druckerei.de