Philipp M. Ernst – Josef Bar

My Life

I was born in Graz, Austria in 1980, but grew up in the countryside close to Ebersdorf and later, during my teenage years, in Gleisdorf/Weiz, where my parents still live now. I feel much more at home in Gleisdorf than in Ebersdorf. All these towns are situated in a 30 to 40-kilometer radius around Graz. My grandfather always wanted me to be an architect and so I did attend a technical college (HTL) for three years; but I really struggled with my motivation. During my three years at HTL I also did a one-year apprenticeship as a photographer before continuing with my studies. Around 1996, I even had the idea to become a fitness trainer, but my parents wouldn’t let me. When I finally left HTL because I couldn’t bear it anymore, I began a restaurant apprenticeship at Der Steirerhof in Bad Waltersdorf. This was Austria’s third best hotel back then.

“The Austrians call us Schäumlibar as well, which kind of translates to “little foam bar.””

Philipp M. Ernst

The clientele consisted mainly of guests from Vienna and Russia. It still exists as a five-star hotel today. I worked all the stations as you are supposed to during such a training, and after three years I graduated with flying colors. In my last year I started working behind the bar of the hotel and I took a real interest in it. Before I turned eighteen, I wasn’t allowed to work later than 10 pm, but once I was of age, I could stay longer, which I enjoyed very much. After the apprenticeship had ended, I continued working there for around nine months, but then the first Intercontinental resort opened in Bad Loipersdorf. They had two bars and real international flair thanks to the Intercontinental brand. I got a job as a barkeeper there, since I had a lot of experience already. My friendships from this period have lasted until today, and I cherish them a lot, even though this was more than twenty years ago.

Since I was already a bit older, I had to do my compulsory military training afterwards though and didn’t earn much during that time so I had to work weekends in a bar to get some extra money. I worked at Rossini, a dive bar in Gleisdorf, which did show barkeeping like in the movie Cocktail. It was fun, but the quality in terms of cocktails wasn’t very high. We did 400 cocktails per barkeeper per night, which is crazy to think about. After leaving the army, I started working at Rossini full time for three years. In 2005 I decided to go to Ischgl and work at Hotel Post, where I stayed as bar chef for ten years. In 2014 we were even named hotel bar of the year by Falstaff. In 2015, my last year at Hotel Post, I won the Worldclass in Austria. From there I set out to become an entrepreneur and do my own thing. I had already founded my own small company for cocktail catering in 2008 and only returned to Ischgl for the winter season each year.

I had a truck with all my equipment in it and was doing all the prep in the garage of my parents’ house. I finally started doing it full time in 2015. Worldclass helped me a lot to make my name known in Austria. Due to Worldclass I also had a contract with Diageo and was able to do a lot of events. And since I had a cocktail catering company already, had all the equipment, and was able to travel in my van, I managed to do a lot of them, so it was kind of a win-win. The partnership has lasted until today and I still do these events today. I was travelling mainly in Germany and Austria, so in 2016 I decided to move to Vienna as most of the events took place there. I found a small location which I could use as storage and which still exists today. From Chopard to Patek Philippe, I was lucky enough to have a lot of excellent clients, mainly in the ultra-premium segment. My girlfriend was still living in the Styria region though, and I wanted to settle down and find something more permanent. From this desire, the idea of Josef as a standalone bar was born.

Josef Bar

I found today’s location and opened Josef in 2017, founding a new company together with my wife. We wanted a fairly small bar. I am a passionate cigar smoker and having a cigar lounge was permitted only in small spaces. We are open 365 days a year. With my background in hospitality, my dream was always to provide everything for the guests: from beer to hot chocolate to fancy cocktails, but at the same time, I wanted to be able to focus on cocktails only. That is also why I opted for Vienna as a location, because the city has enough to offer to allow for specialized bars with a small menu. We started with cocktails and champagne, and also did a lot with espumas, which was quite popular throughout the gastronomy sector in the 2010s, but I took this on and adapted it for the bar. The Austrians call us Schäumlibar as well, which kind of translates to “little foam bar.”

I am an expert in espumas now and they have remained our CI even today. We have around eight to nine espumas on the menu at any given time. There’s only a small humidor left now for cigars, as smoking is no longer allowed indoors in Austria. My wife’s grandfather and my grandfather were both called Josef, and that’s where the idea for the name came from. We come from very humble origins and had no money except our own, so we started with Josef with a budget of only 100,000. A lot of the things we used to decorate Josef were owned by my grandfather. I wanted Viennese Baroque rather than an American bar, and this is the flair the bar still has today.

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The Future

I think if things continue developing in Austria as they are now, bartending will become a hobby and making a living off it will become increasingly difficult, especially for smaller high-end cocktail bars like ours; a dive bar can have much more turnover than we do. Rent is high, employee costs are high, good hotels pay much better, so finding people is difficult. You always have to be there and having a private life is basically impossible. And you’ve got all the admin costs as well. If I look back, I wouldn’t do it again, as I don’t see a bright future for cocktail bars like ours. We now own multiple companies in order to diversify; one of them is a beauty bar. We needed a pillar that wasn’t in gastronomy.

I thought about what we could do to diversify and be successful without having get a new education entirely. The beauty sector seemed like a good choice. My wife was also interested in that field, so in 2023 we opened beauty bar Josef and do skincare consulting. We provide you with a guide on how to do a routine at home on a daily basis. You don’t buy the products in our store, but we have partner companies and earn a commission when the products are sold online. We work with Nu Skin but already have multiple partners. LumiSpa is an important product—it is a beauty device to clean your skin. It’s been going very well with the beauty bar so far.

Profile

Year born: 1980

Special skill: I have a very good sense of taste

Free time: I don’t have much, and if I do, I like to play with my son

Bartender since: 1998

Biggest fail: Lost money on wrong decisions as an entrepreneur, but I guess that is part of the game of having your own company.

Most significant career step: Winning Worldclass in Austria

Favorite cocktail: Martini and Old Fashioned. Martini before eating, Snickers OF after eating; OF also works well with a cigar

Favorite bar: The Gibson by Marian Beke, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist anymore

Vienna in three words: World’s nicest city

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Images: ©Adrian Almasan