Pip Hanson/ photo by Jeff Wheeler
Marvel Bar drink-maker Pip Hanson's announcement earlier this year that he was taking a year-long sabbatical in London was a mixed concoction: Sure, he would be missed running the scene behind the cutting-edge counter at the North Loop club, but locals were quickly salivating at the thought of what concepts Hanson would return with after his break.
Looks like his Minnesota fans will have to wait a little bit longer.
Artesian, the prestigious bar located in the upscale Langham London, announced Friday that it had secured Hanson as its head bartender, dashing hopes that he would return as Marvel's beverage director anytime soon.
Hanson, a James Beard finalist for two years in a row, left Minneapolis this past summer with no specific jobs lined up.
"I know where I'll be living for the first month, my uncle's house in Harrow, which is a London borough," he told the Star Tribune this past March. "Other than that, I don't have too many certainties right now."
Hanson said then that London had one of the world's best cocktail scenes. "It's creative and fearless, or maybe doesn't take itself too seriously in a way some American bars do."
Artesian, considered one of Europe's most influential bars since opening in 2007, said Hanson will bring meticulous attention to classic cocktail technique as well as a flair for stripped-down innovation.
