She can't imagine anything else.

The work at the bar, the conversations with the guests, the evenings and nights behind the bar, life in and with the bar - all this is made for Diana Haider.

She has never seriously thought of another job since she started in a student bar in Berlin-Wedding when she was almost twenty.

Peter Badenhop

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Of course not after the bartender course, which she completed a little later - and certainly not after Jens Hasenbein, one of the protagonists of the German bar culture revolution and co-founder of the pioneering magazine "Mixology", brought her to the "Lore Berlin ' brought.

At the time, it was one of the hottest bar clubs in the capital and for Diana Haider it was the start of a long, intensive bar career, first in Berlin and now for almost 20 years in Frankfurt.

The Main metropolis is the second home for Haider, who was born in East Berlin in 1979 and later grew up in West Berlin – or rather: the new home.

Because she is no longer drawn to the capital, where she grew up, dropped out of high school and instead took her first steps in the bar world.

She no longer has family ties there and thinks Berlin has changed for the worse over the past two decades, while Frankfurt has gained enormously.

She finds the city on the Main to be pleasantly compact and an ideal starting point for trips all over the world.

Worked in many places

Haider has played her part in the positive development in Frankfurt – at least as far as the bar scene, which is now highly acclaimed across the country, is concerned.

As one of the few women in a male-dominated industry, she belongs to the circle of restaurateurs who put Frankfurt on the international bar map.

Since she came to the Main in 2003 and got her first job in "Nachtleben", she has worked in many bars, participated in numerous openings and has always been working on new concepts.

She stood behind the counter in "Helium", in "Pulse", in "Blumen", later in "Palour" and in "Tiny Cup".

Haider was at the epicenter of the Frankfurt bar revolution right from the start - and ultimately in her own bar, the "Old Fashioned" in Alt-Sachsenhausen, named after the forefather of all cocktails.

This classic, at least from the outside inconspicuous bar on Klappergasse is a relaxed, serious alternative in the noisy amusement district with its drinking and partying venues, a place for adults without drunken bachelors and party music, without shisha pipes and flat screens.

It is a pleasant contrast to the unrestrained hustle and bustle in the surrounding streets.

Shortly after entering the bar in 2016, Haider took over the "Old Fashioned" from the previous owners in early 2017, married her husband, who had died in the meantime, in the same year and, with his support, made the bar what it is today: a real constant in Frankfurt's sophisticated nightlife.

Actually, she says, she never wanted to have her own bar.

Because of the great responsibility for the company and especially for the employees.

But now, with the "Old Fashioned" and her four employees, she is "at peace" with herself.

She lives with her three cats - the brothers Ramos, Gin and Fizz - just a few meters from her "oasis" in the district.

And can't imagine anything else.