Daily Inspiration: Meet Carl Wrangel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl Wrangel.

Hi Carl, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My professional story starts in a nightclub in Sweden August 2002, and I just finished high school. At the time, I was driving a black cab to make some extra money in the weekends. I met a good friend from school, he asked if I’d like to come to London with him to study graphic design and get away from our hometown. Two weeks later, we were there.

I went to a “media school” it was a new type of high school with a large focus on film, radio, photography, graphic design and journalism to prepare you for further education, So, a design university seemed like the natural thing to do.

Fresh of the plane I quickly got caught up in London’s vibrant nightlife. Coming from a small town in Sweden, it was like a Disneyland for going out and I forgot all about university. Then my savings ran out and I had to get a job fast. I printed a stack of CV’s which wasn’t very impressive at the time and went from door to door. Clothing shops, coffee shops, restaurants and at the very bottom of the line, bars. Of course, I got a bar job.

I was told that me and another guy was competing for the job and the competition was on. It was a very busy bar, there wasn’t much time for instructions or training but I was pretty much only collecting glasses and filling up ice while trying to stay out of the way. It was an enormous energy in this bar, and I felt that I had a good understanding of what was going on here and I really enjoyed the work environment. In retrospect, I can tell that this was the bar that shaped me the most. I had a hate/love relationship with my manager who pushed me really hard and I still do not know if it was because he believed in me or disliked me, but I definitely got my work ethic from here.

After half a year or so I started training for the bar, and before I knew it I was slinging drinks like there was no tomorrow. I stayed here over four years before I moved on to a few different bars around London until I landed a job at Green & Red, a new Mexican bar and restaurant with a massive collection of tequila. This bar definitely changed my direction and sharpened my focus, now I knew that agave spirits and Mexico would play a big part of my future. And it does.

I moved to Copenhagen in 2007, it is close to home but nothing like home and the bar scene here was about to explode. The same year I moved here 4-5 new bars opened and set a whole new level in the Copenhagen cocktail scene. Agave spirits wasn’t a big thing here yet which gave me plenty of space to work with and over the years tequila cocktails caught on and if we fast forward til today, the Danes are very lucky with the extraordinary selection of agave spirits available to them.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been a bar owner over ten years now and it has not always been easy. I think the constant challenge is keeping/hiring good staff. I have during the years always had a very personal relationship with my staff, which always makes it harder when they leave but always makes me feel so much joy when they succeed at their new ventures. I have always acknowledged that we’re just a stepping stone on someone’s way to achieve their goals, so we try to make the most out of the time we are given with our staff. I wanted to be the boss I never had and treat the staff fair, train them properly and prepare them to work in any bar at any level. I have also realized that this is not always possible. Especially when we don’t do service together. A lot has changed over the years and I now two bars and a liquor store together with my partner Jarek. I also have two kids, one of them in school, two both of them at football practice, gymnastics, playdates and whatever else that come with having kids. Time just isn’t enough to be there for everyone. I think what I am trying to say here is that the constant struggle is to find the balance where you perform your best both at home and at work.

Corona changed everything for me and though it was really hard business-wise we are still in Denmark and got a lot of help from the government, and I really have nothing to complain about in that regard compared to friends from around the world. But the biggest change it had for me was a long forced break I would never have had if we didn’t go into lockdown.

Initially, we thought it was very temporary, Our liquor store was still allowed to be open, so we offered free home delivery in all of Copenhagen. Every evening we packed our bikes and went around the city with all kinds of booze, and we really connected with a lot off our customers this way, standing outside people’s houses chatting booze, Then came the second lockdown and things were different, homeschooling became a thing, it was a longer period of time, and home deliveries were going down, it was winter, cold and very dark. But, and this is the big but, I got to spend so much time at home and with my kids I almost started looking at it like a blessing. Never would this have been possible otherwise. Having that much time off gave me a lot of time to think, change priorities a little and now I have a different perspective to business.

You realize how fragile everything you built can be and if it’s all going to shit then let’s go full speed ahead. We came into this with nothing and the worst that can happen is that we leave with nothing but a whole lot of experience and great memories.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The 10-year birthday of a barking dog was a big milestone in my professional life. As a celebration of this, I surprised my partner with a specially made beer with his dog on it wearing a 10-year medallion and our slogan “in dog we trust” and got a special batch of Raicilla in collaboration with our good friends La Venenosa.

Financial Times voted The Barking Dog as one of the world’s top 10 agave bars and last year at the Bartenders Choice Awards I got voted “Improver of the bar industry”. It always feels really good with such a pat on the back from the industry even though this has never been what we strived for. We always wanted to do the best we can for our community here in Copenhagen. Both med and Jarek live and work in Nørrebro for a very long time now, and though the neighbourhood is developing fast it seems the community is growing stronger.

What were you like growing up?
I have always been a restless soul, I never really enjoyed being inside or alone, I would always be out and about with friends and would often get away from my parents if we were on holidays, in the city, etc. I would see something i though was interesting and just leave. If my parents stayed where I left them, I would always come back, sometimes after a few minutes sometimes an hour. As a parent myself now I can see how this can be very stressful.

I grew up around good food and drinks, especially my dad always cared a lot for good quality, in most things from food and drinks to clothes, furniture, etc. He’s a truck driver and I spent some of the summers traveling around Europe with him. He had friends in truckstops and restaurants all over Europe and I was usually the center of attention when he brought me along. I studied adults a lot during my childhood and a lot of them were tipsy.

Coming into my teenage years I spent most of my time on a skateboard, playing football (soccer) and being all kinds involved with music. I never played myself but many friends had bands and it came natural to me to help out setting up concerts, flyering, emotional support, etc.

I always been around people in the creative sector and I have always enjoyed studying people.

Contact Info:

• Website: shoppencph.dk / barkingdogcph.dk / palomacph.dk
• Instagram: @therealpapacarl / @shoppencph / @barkingdogcph / @palomacph
• Facebook: facebook.com/barkingdogcph / facebook.com/shoppencph / facebook.com/palomacph