A sad loss to our community was announced Saturday. Jens Hansen will be missed. I’ve mentioned how much the Happy Wife and I have enjoyed during our many years in Alaska sitting at the bar at Jens restaurant, drinking, eating, and carrying on with the staff and patrons, many of whom are regulars. Jens was an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. A native of Denmark who moved to Alaska at age 24, he worked and saved as a chef at a popular downtown hotel for twenty years, until finally opening Jens in midtown where he and a quietly dedicated staff (many have worked there since the restaurant opened in 1988, a year before I moved to Alaska) have steadily provided fine food, wine, and good times.
Whenever Jens was present and learned one of his guests was having a birthday, his signature thrill was to put on the the Beatles’ song, Birthday, and turn it up real loud, much to the chagrin of his wife, who’d quickly dash over to turn it down, only to have Jens turn it back up when she left!
We will miss his gravelly voice and joyful spirit.
Godspeed, Jens, Godspeed.
