| INT | XXS | XS | S | M | L | XL |
| Chest (cm) |
74 to 77 |
78 to 81 |
82 to 85 |
86 to 89 |
90 to 93 |
94 to 97 |
| Waist (cm) |
59 to 62 |
63 to 66 |
67 to 70 |
71 to 74 |
75 to 78 |
79 to 82 |
| Hip (cm) |
83 to 86 |
87 to 90 |
91 to 94 |
95 to 98 |
99 to 102 |
103 to 107 |
“sometimes it feels like we’ve
already won the lottery.“
salt &
silver
-
creative
collective
salt &
silver
-
creative
collective
Surfing, traveling and cooking have always been the dreams shared by Cozy (Thomas Kosikowski) and Jo (Johannes Riffelmacher). Back in 2014, the two dropped out of university and a job in advertising respectively, grabbed their boards and a sharp knife, and set off to travel the world and collect soul food recipes for their first book, “Travel, Surf, Cook”. Since then, the two native Bavarians have devoted themselves to injecting the spirit of foreign foodcultures into Hamburg by opening two restaurants in St. Pauli. Tobi (Tobias Beck) joined the crew as managing director, and together they have created a culinary hotspot with a stunning view of the harbour.
- Hoodie
- Beanie Sold Out
Over lunch, they told us how they succeeded in achieving all this without investors, shared their most nerve-wracking travel experiences, and explained how they’re taking a creative approach to the challenges of the pandemic.
How would you describe Salt & Silver in few words?
Jo Adventure, a love of travelling, freedom, lack of constraints, pleasure and the
liberty to do what I want to. Our life dream.
Cozy Collective, creativity, consciousness, friendship, teamwork.
Tobi Informal, shocking, provocative, following your own rules. Because we look the way we look and do
things that others might not dare to do. For instance, by giving up our save jobs to follow our dream.
What gave you the courage to start your own restaurant in 2017 without getting investors involved?
Cozy Our self-belief comes from the fact that we left our nests and went travelling for a year in 2014. That was the spark for our first book and later our restaurants, which we financed without help from investors, something that isn’t going to change.
Did you previously have a special interest in cooking or any kind of professional training?
Cozy No, we were hobby chefs. Jo was Senior Art Director at Jung von Matt and I was studying to become a cameraman, which meant that we were familiar with cooking, photography and copywriting. But we soon noticed that there’s a bit more to it than that. We dived in and gained new knowledge in restaurant kitchens around the globe and in the end, our cookery book became great success. We published edition after edition and were able to put cash aside for our first restaurant. For the rest of the costs we went to the bank to get a loan.
You now have two successful restaurants next to each other with different culinary focuses (Latin American and Levante cuisine) Was there ever a moment you were afraid that your concept wouldn’t work?
Cozy We were always afraid, but we learned by experience that you can achieve
things that you haven’t mastered yet by applying the learning-by-doing principle.
Tobi In many instances, fear makes you more aware and sensible in certain situations. Admittedly, our
idea was bold. Without the necessary respect for what we were doing we could easily have wasted a quarter of a
million on the project. Passion keeps us going and makes us do crazy things, but then a little voice pops up,
“Oooops – that could go wrong.”
Has anything gone really wrong? What have been your greatest challenges?
Cozy Sure, in a bad month we’ve made high losses or imported mezcal from
Mexico that took us two and a half years to sell. We made no money, but we consider it a success in
failure.
Jo Fortunately, we’ve avoided any massive failures so far. It’s more the small challenges that trip you
up. Particularly when you’re travelling. It’s no good clinging on to a plan if you can’t cross a border in a
used car you bought on a street, or get caught graffitiing by a policemen in Mexico. But somewhere, there’s
always a way out. In this case, our Mexican graffiti-friend claimed to the police officers, that we were famous
artists from Germany and that there would be trouble with the embassy if they arrested us.
Your original plan was for you (Cozy & Jo) to go travelling every two years while the restaurant continued to operate. After returning, you wanted to change the concept to reflect all your new impressions. How have you adapted to the fact that you can’t go travelling under the present circumstances?
Jo We had planned to travel to Africa in March 2020 and to spend one year exploring African cooking in eight different countries. Since then, the world has changed and we’ve switched to a different mode. Doing whatever you like has been put on ice for the time being. Now it’s all about being grateful for what you have and look out for where you can help others.
So how can you keep up the travelling vibe? That’s the heart of your restaurant concept isn’t it?
Jo There are adventures to be had in the woodlands around Hamburg, too. The world has become a little smaller due to the crisis, but there’s so much to experience on your own doorstep!
You’re being really positive about the situation – aren’t you afraid of losing your livelihood or having to let some of your staff go?
Tobi Of course, you’re always afraid of not making it financially.
Particularly when you wake up in the middle of the night. We have an incredibly strong team spirit and we feel
very responsible for our people. We have an environment where everyone can say what they think.
Jo Objectively, the situation is really shitty, but subjectively you can also make the most of the
situation. It was difficult to have to admit it to myself, since it were some of the scariest month in my life,
I also had fun during lockdown and have fond memories. For example, the day we cooked for hospital staff and
homeless people, then played badminton in front of the restaurant and cracked open the first bottle at midday
because there was simply nothing to do.
Swipe to continue reading
The favourite spots of the Salt & Silver trio in and around Hamburg
Weinladen St. Pauli by Stephanie Döring weinladen.de/weinladen/st.-pauli-hamburg/
Standard by Momo, Mina and Minou standard.hamburg/
The XO Seafoodbar and Haebel by Fabio Haebel thisisxo.de/ haebel.hamburg/
jo, cozy and tobi’s selection
So how can you keep up the travelling vibe? That’s the heart of your restaurant concept isn’t it?
Jo There are adventures to be had in the woodlands around Hamburg, too. The world has become a little smaller due to the crisis, but there’s so much to experience on your own doorstep!
You’re being really positive about the situation – aren’t you afraid of losing your livelihood or having to let some of your staff go?
Tobi Of course, you’re always afraid of not making it financially.
Particularly when you wake up in the middle of the night. We have an incredibly strong team spirit and we feel
very responsible for our people. We have an environment where everyone can say what they think.
Jo Objectively, the situation is really shitty, but subjectively you can also make the most of the
situation. It was difficult to have to admit it to myself, since it were some of the scariest month in my life,
I also had fun during lockdown and have fond memories. For example, the day we cooked for hospital staff and
homeless people, then played badminton in front of the restaurant and cracked open the first bottle at midday
because there was simply nothing to do.
To keep your team going you have joined forces with other restaurant owners, launched an online petition and are planning a gourmet delivery service. Do you feel you’ve done all you can to get through the crisis?
Jo Yes, even if it gets even worse and we really have to close our restaurants, we can honestly say that we did everything in our power across the board to prevent that from happening. If everything goes down the drain, then we’ll start out again in a different location, a different city, a different time with something new. And it’ll be cool, too.
Is there a dream for Salt & Silver? Any other projects you’d like to work on?
Jo Eight million projects!
Cozy How much time have you got? We’re dreaming of a kind of Salt & Silver utopia in Portugal with a
great big barn, treehouses and hanging bridges. Plus avocado and lime plantations and a vegetarian restaurant
where we cook with all the things we grow in the garden. It wouldn’t be far from the sea so that we could drive
over, go surfing. The second dream is our own vineyard, which is even more unrealistic. The biggest ultimate
dream of all would be a combination of both. We often had dreams that we thought we couldn’t achieve – and yet
we succeeded. That’s why we’ve raised the bar so high. There’s no pressure to complete it in three years or even
in 17 years.
Jo I don’t know whether we’ve managed to communicate our gratitude for what we’re fortunate enough to
have. We are aware that much of that is due to luck, the right timing and chiming with the zeitgeist. Even if
everything goes to the dogs, we have been lucky for so long. Sometimes it feels like we’ve already won the
lottery. So it’s okay, if at some point the winning streak is over.
Swipe to continue reading
Outside of Hamburg
Gärtnerei Grünkorb
The market garden is one of our refuges. Picking what we’ve cultivated together is a great experience. Here, we grow 20 different chilli varieties from all over the world. We also grow corn with blue, red, yellow and orange grains and herbs that aren’t available anywhere else in Europe. https://gruenkorb.de/
Salt & Silver
Cookbook
The Salt & Silver collective has published two cookbooks with delicious recipes inspired by their travels. Find “Mexico – Tacos, Tequila, Tattoos” and “Reisen, Surfen, Kochen” in your local book store. Not in the mood to cook? You can also order their taco sets online!
silver
Salt & Silver
Cookbook
The Salt & Silver collective has published two cookbooks with delicious recipes inspired by their travels. Find “Mexico – Tacos, Tequila, Tattoos” and “Reisen, Surfen, Kochen” in your local book store. Not in the mood to cook? You can also order their taco sets online!
silver
- 01:
- Hoodie
- Beanie Sold Out
- X-Lent Tapered Jeans
- Sneaker
Hard Copy XI -
out now!
You can also find our story about
Salt& Silver (and a recipe!) in the
new issue of our HARD COPY
paper - On Reinvention. It’s
complimentary with every order in
our online shop. Happy reading!
