Elegance in a glass
Famed German bar owner Charles Schumann shows Bangkok the new crystalware he's designed
Schumann’s American Bar in Munich is one of Germany’s most popular nightspots. The man behind it is Charles Schumann, its founder and the author of “American Bar” and several other well-read bar books. He’s also one of Germany’s best-known barkeepers due to his numerous classic cocktails using few ingredients, among them the Swimming Pool, a colada cocktail with rum, vodka and coconut cream.
Now he’s behind Zwiesel’s new barware collection, Hommage by Charles Schumann. which contains 42 different crystal glasses designed by Schumann for the German crystal receptacle maker.
The crystal-ware was unveiled recently in Bangkok because the Thai company Italasia imports Zwiesel’s products. And Schumann joined the Bangkok launch, unveiling both the new collection and a slew of his signature cocktails at the Siam Hotel on the Chao Phraya River.
Hommage glasses have three different shapes, varying with the grinding technique used, to create a play of light and colour. Comete reinterprets classic grinding with modern refinement, while Glace optically makes the glass move and Carat shows up with elegant-looking, plane-grinding structure.
Schumann was selected to design the collection because he’s the man who “characterises the global bar culture” through his timeworn experience.
A former German federal border guard and a consulate secretary at the Foreign Office in Bonn, Schumann plunged intentionally into the world of bars. After a stint at a chicken grill joint on the Adriatic coast and a Munich discotheque, he moved to the south of France in 1971 and joined several discotheques and nightclubs. In two years working there, he earned his nickname Charles (his real name is Karl-Georg Schumann).
Later he became a manager at the Montpellier branch of Tiffany’s, a Munich discotheque, and managed a club at the French-Spanish border. He first worked as a barkeeper in Munich at Harry's New York Bar in 174 and later opened his own Schumann’s America Bar in 1982, on Maximilianstrasse.
The bar soon became a favourite haunt of journalists, authors and artists and the most popular watering hole for Munich drinkers. The fame has much to do with Schumann’s cocktails and his several books. Most are collections of anecdotes and short stories centring on the bar theme. “American Bar” has sold 300,000 copies in 20 editions. It’s been translated into several languages. The revised edition of “Schumann’s Bar” came out in 2011.
