Felix Engels

My name is Felix and I’m Bartender and Co-Owner of the Cocktailbar Suderman in Cologne.

Gastronomy and I first crossed ways when I was still at school and in need of a part time job to earn money. I immediately got stoked by the amount of teamwork that was necessary and the direct feedback of your work by guests. After my A-Level exam I decided to follow the hospitality track and started working in a Hotel in Cyprus for a season, followed by a trip to Australia, where I worked for a little while in a pub. After putting lots of thought into what to do with my life I finally decided against university and for a professional career in the hospitality branch. I started an apprenticeship at the “Intercontinental Hotel” in Cologne, one of the best addresses in Town at the time, and soon specialized in the gastronomy outlets, taking as many extra shifts at the restaurant and bar outlets. (the wages for apprentices are so low, that you have to take extra shifts to afford a living)

I can look back at positive vibes in a super professional team with a lot of fun at work and we were lucky to host some really big and exclusive events which fascinated me and confirmed my decision. Gastronomy was my life – and still is to this day.

In 2010 I started working at “Spirits Bar”, which has been reopened by my future Business Partner Dominique Simon. I began as a Barback and worked my way up to Bar Manager.

I felt so good at “Spirits” and we had been very successful as a team, creating great moments for our guests every day, that I could actually have stayed there forever.

But there is an adventurous side to me and so I decided to move to Paris, to work at “Candelaria” and later managed the cocktail-/divebar “Glass”.

After a while I felt that there was more to Gastronomy and that time had come to open my own Cocktailbar. Dominique and I had been in good contact since I left and so we decided to open Suderman in 2015. I call Cologne my Hometown again since that year and with our company Spill & Cut we keep on being creative, hosting all kind of events and caterings, tastings and cocktail workshops, our food pairing dinner series “Speis & Trank” and all things fun.

The crave for networking, knowledge and pushing the limits lead me to Co-Founding “Bar Symposium Cologne” in 2018, together with Dominique Simon and Dominik Mohr, a yearly event for hospitality professionals.

Our latest baby is called “Soul To Soul”, an online shop for lifestyle products, with a focus on our bottled Cocktail series aswell as other gourmet drinks and food specialities. Have a look at soultosoul.shop ;-)