Imagery courtesy of @lateef.photography
Naples-born mixologist Giulia Cuccurullo has just been promoted to head bartender at Artesian, London, the first female to take the role in the bar’s storied history. She meets 50 Best to discuss her plans for the legendary space, explains how her training in architecture influences her drink design and why she’s ready to continue Artesian’s recent upward trajectory in The World’s 50 Best Bars list
Architecture graduate Giulia Cuccurullo has grand designs for Artesian, the record-holding four-time No.1 in The World’s 50 Best Bars set in London’s Langham Hotel. She has recently been named head bartender, following in the footsteps of globetrotting star-tender Marco Corallo, who held the position for one year, and industry heavyweight Remy Savage, who left to plot the opening of his Bauhaus-influenced A Bar With Shapes For A Name in early 2020.
Prior to that, between 2012 and 2016, Artesian was led by Simone Caporale, who recently launched the revolutionary Sips Drinkery House in Barcelona, and Alex Kratena, who now runs London’s Tayēr + Elementary, Disaronno Highest New Entry in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2020. The duo was backed by Jamie Rhind, who now plies his trade in Bangkok running The Bamboo Bar, currently The Best Bar in Thailand, which was announced in May at Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021.
Indeed, Cuccurullo has sizeable boots to fill. With an academic background that majors on study, structure, balance and form, she brings a fresh way of thinking to cocktail craft. “I will put my own stamp on the bar here, but I will also make it fun,” says Cuccurullo. “That’s my style – I never take myself too seriously but I’m incredibly dedicated to the things I love. My background as an architect definitely helps. I’m going to give everything, bring all my skills to keep improving Artesian and always keep a smile on my face.”
Giulia Cuccurullo making one of her first cocktails as head bartender
Cuccurullo spent five years studying for her degree in architecture at the University of Naples Federico II. Around halfway into her course, she started tending bar at a waterside venue in the city. She pursued education and bar work concurrently for the remainder of her studies, but found herself taking increasing joy from the time spent with guests. When the moment came to complete her degree, she took and passed her final exams, but chose to miss her graduation ceremony in favour of her regular Thursday shift at the bar. With that decision, she defined her future.
“I felt so good making drinks and getting to know people,” says Cuccurullo. “I’d spend the time at work happy and would think about cocktails when I was studying and dream about the drinks I would create. I made the decision that I’d move to London to get a job in a bar and learn English. Today, I’m very glad that I did.”
That was six years ago; Cuccurullo has not looked back. She has worked at Artesian since 2018, studiously learning from the talent she’s seen come through the bar. “Everyone I’ve worked with here has had a completely different style,” she says. “I actually first met Remy when I spent a summer working in Paris. He is a true leader, but what I really admired from him was his mind for flavours and how they work together. He studied philosophy and he lives by his own words. The drinks he created would all be built so they could be interpreted in different ways. That’s the kind of architecture I love – where buildings are seen it different ways by different people – so it suited me perfectly.
Cuccurullo and her team at Artesian
“Marco was certainly more of a classical bartender, but someone who wanted to make everything fun. His Disco cocktail menu [which had a Covid-truncated run at Artesian between December 2020 and March 2021] was outstanding. When you read about the drinks, they sounded fun, but they arrived with elegance – so that’s what I took from him.”
It’s impossible to speak about any learning experience at Artesian without mentioning the name of industry doyenne Anna Sebastian, who had the role of bar manager between 2017 and 2021 and masterminded Artesian’s return to prominence, resulting in it re-joining the 50 Best list in 2019. “Anna is one of the strongest women I have ever met,” says Cuccurullo. “She taught me that when your structures are correct, you can relax and have a good time. Having such a brilliant female leader to learn from taught me a lot and I will continue her legacy here as best I can.”
Cantilever cocktails
According to Cuccurullo, there are a surprising number of similarities to designing a building and building a drink. “For an architect, you first need to understand the physics behind what you are trying to create before you start thinking about materials,” she explains. “I have the same approach to drinks – I think about the chemical thesis behind the flavour compounds and look at how they work together before I pick up my cocktail shaker. Not every person finds beauty in every building and not everyone will like every cocktail I create – I look at the two in the same way. In architecture, I enjoy curves, angles and good use of glass. In drinks, I like to see colours blended and harmonious flavour. For me, that’s where real beauty arrives.”
London's Langham Hotel, set a short walk from Oxford Circus tube station
Artesian is famous for its pagoda-style bar. It’s entirely incongruous to the rest of the Langham Hotel, whose trademark pink hues and international five-star luxury feel with marble and rich furnishings juxtapose the bar with striking impact. “The pagoda is really stunning to me,” says Cuccurullo. “I’ve always admired Oriental architectural motifs. Every time I look at it, it takes me back to Japan, which is a place I’ve spent some time studying its bartenders. Every movement is so clean and precise, there is synergy between the bar here and the style me and the bar team look to adopt.”
Cuccurullo’s first menu at Artesian is entitled Connections. The ideas for the list stem from the interactions we have all experienced in the past 18 months through various lockdowns across the globe. It comprises 18 drinks across five sections, each with a clear purpose.
Three drinks from the new Connections list
It begins with the ‘Wellness and Mindfulness’ segment, which plays on the greater awareness people have adopted of their own mental state during the Covid period and features a number of low ABV and zero ABV serves. CBD also plays a sizeable role, which makes Artesian one of the first bars in London to implement its use.
The most notable drink in this section is Banana Bread 1933, a homage to the lockdown baking craze that sees rye whiskey, oloroso sherry and banana liqueur blended with ground spice, cocoa butter, burnt toast essence and vanilla to create a shared lockdown memory in liquid form.
‘Celebration’ is there to mark those moments of in-person connection the Artesian team hope will take place in their bar as people begin to reconnect. Champagne takes centre stage in many of the drinks and also includes Cuccurullo’s favourite cocktail on the list: Treat Yourself 2.0. “It’s based on the indulgence and brilliant pairing of strawberries and cream. I mix vanilla vodka with Champagne and strawberry and clarify everything in a centrifuge,” she explains. “We dilute it slightly and then re-add the solids to garnish the drink, so there’s no wastage.”
Treat Yourself 2.0
The third section, ‘Community’, includes drinks that contribute to charitable organisations and those people in need near the hotel. The Layer Cake cocktail features dark rum and stout syrup both from Kernel Brewery – a tribute to the hotel’s own British boozer, The Wigmore.
Next is ‘Sustainability’, taking an environmentally friendly approach to the sourcing of ingredients and a seasonal twist on the drinks. The team has used produce from with wider hotel F&B operation which would have otherwise gone to waste, upcycling the unwanted produce into cocktail-ready ingredients.
‘Happiness’ concludes the list – collection of cocktails designed to take guests to the exciting destinations, festivals and big events that were absent throughout 2020. Tropical fruit provides a sense of exoticism, notably in The Butterfly, which combines Michter’s Bourbon, lemon juice, mango, peach, and mango-imbued Butterfly Tea.
It’s a seriously studied list by anyone’s reckoning, with huge levels of thought, design and research applied to each of the serves. Cuccurullo’s first menu comes as a statement of intent and, if her success to this point is anything to go by, it will be the first of many award-winning menus to come.
Have you come across a cocktail menu that’s worthy of recognition? 50 Best has just started the search for the inaugural Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu, open to all bars across the globe. Check it out and encourage your favourite bar to enter here.
