Some bars serve drinks.

Źródło serves identity crises in beautiful glassware.

Featured in the Poznań Daily Spring Paper Edition, the Jeżyce cocktail spot has quietly become one of the city’s most respected places for people who take drinking seriously — but not too seriously. Because beneath the geometric interior, surgical-level cocktail precision, and obsessive ingredient work, there’s also a very clear sense that everyone here is having fun with it.

And honestly? That’s probably why it works so well.

The name “Źródło” literally means “source,” so naturally we had to ask what exactly they’re the source of.

“We’re a source of all kinds of liquid pleasure.”

Fair enough.

But after sitting down with the team behind the bar, it quickly became obvious this isn’t just another cocktail place throwing rosemary into gin and calling itself innovative. These guys approach drinks like designers, chemists, and slightly sleep-deprived alchemists.

“We’re bartenders, chemists, designers… Science is magic in our world, so maybe alchemists even.”

That energy explains a lot.

Because some of the ingredients they casually mentioned during our conversation sounded less like cocktails and more like somebody lost control inside an experimental kitchen. Kefir. Smoked twaróg. Cucumber. Green apple. Fermentation experiments. Somehow, against all logic, it works.

“The distinction between a cocktail, a soup, and a salad is actually quite thin,” they laughed. “If you try enough, you’ll eventually enjoy all of them through a straw.”

That might honestly be the most Źródło sentence possible.

And while a lot of bars love talking about “creativity,” the team here seems refreshingly honest about how difficult innovation actually is. According to them, consistency isn’t the hard part — creating genuinely original flavour combinations without producing complete disasters is where things get dangerous.

“One in every twenty ideas turns out either too unusual or too flat.”

Which honestly feels like a surprisingly good success rate considering somebody here once attempted lacto-fermented strawberries that accidentally became “terribly salty.”

No regrets though.

Originally opened almost 12 years ago by Bartosz Grochowski as a whisky-focused cocktail bar, Źródło has evolved massively over the years. Since taking over in 2022, the current owners have focused on bringing the bar back to the level that once made it one of Poznań’s defining cocktail destinations.

And today, they’ve stopped trying to fit into one category completely.

Whisky still matters. But so does tequila. Rum. Technique. Freshness. Classics. Wild cards. The menu constantly shifts, evolves and experiments without becoming pretentious about it.

Last year, the team even rebuilt the menu every single month — creating sweet, sour, dry, classic, and “other” cocktails, with the final category becoming their playground for controlled chaos.

“That last category was always the most fun,” they told us. “It let guests step outside their comfort zones without even realising it.”

That philosophy probably defines Źródło better than any single drink ever could.

Even the interior reflects that balance between control and experimentation. Clean lines, geometric shapes, custom furniture, lighting that somehow makes everyone look cooler than they are. The design was created by Poznań-based wiercinski-studio, led by architect Adam Wierciński, whose sculptural approach gives the entire place this sharp but strangely relaxed atmosphere.

And yes — we had to ask the important question:
What drink do people order purely to look cool?

“Ź’mowe Negroni,” they answered immediately.

Honestly? They’re probably right. Everybody looks cinematic holding a Negroni.

But when we asked them to define Źródło with one final drink, the answer became a lot more interesting.

“It’s impossible to define the bar with one cocktail,” they said. “For years, Źródło ran without a menu. It’s the people, their experiences and desires that shape the place. The menu shows our character… but the defining cocktail? It’s simply the next one.”