ENTER SWAY —
a casual addition to Pannierstrasse, with a focus on good wine and clever snacks, set in a charming environment that’s soundtracked by your favourite DJ’s loungeroom set.
Headed by Jamie Tiller, Rohan Bell-Towers, Tasya Kudryk and Hayley Morgan, the co-founders have a patchwork of experience that definitely suggests the foundations for an excellent bar, without actually having any experience in opening one. This is their first.
Good wine for Sway means supremely natural, sourced by DJ and ‘Music from Memory’ label founder Jamie Tiller, predominantly from France, Italy and Germany. The selection is unique in Berlin: all of the bottles at Sway contain organically farmed grapes and nothing else — no chemical additions of any kind, including no added sulphites. It’s curated to be exciting for natural wine buffs, but never intimidating for the novice, filled with both culty faves and fresh picks from lesser-known artisanal makers.
Clever snacks means stuff you actually want to eat when you’re drinking. Nothing fancy, just good-quality ingredients on an accessible plate, dreamed up by musician and passionate home-cook Rohan Bell-Towers. Think local saucisson that you hand carve at the table. The best blushing Greek pistachios. Sweet and salty baby sardines ready to be doused in charred lemon. And a buttery brioche grilled cheese stuffed with housemade fig chutney, and sided with a crisp pickle and warm mustard.
The environment is designed to feel like going to a cool friend’s house — charming, comfortable, not perfectly styled but instead little pockets of inspiration. Directed by fashion editor and auction abuser Hayley Morgan, the space sees a brilliant lighting commission by jewelry designer Anna Santangelo, a large scale work by painter and ceramicist Neuza Rodrigues, a lush silk painting by Daisy Watson, original archival Yves Uro-designed Ku Ibiza posters from Tiller’s personal collection, and personally sourced vintage accoutrement. Graphics and CI by Munich’s very best Public Possession are a cherry on top.
Given the team’s connection with music, it makes sense then that a semi-secret roster of DJs will blow in on weekends for loungeroom sets on the off-days of their mainroom tours. For this, the space is cornered by impressive hand built speakers via Sound Metaphors-adjacent H.A.N.D HiFi, paired with a sleek DJ booth built by one Lance Ravenswood (carpenter to the stars of Berlin’s new-wave gastro scene), and fitted with a custom mixer from local makers Resor.
