Zig Zag’s Murray Stenson Up for Bartender of the Year at Boozy Oscars
He’s also nominated for Lifetime Achievement.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 23, 2010 at 07:32AM
6 Comments
About a month from now, Tales of the Cocktail, an enormous and notoriously boozy cocktail convention, will begin in New Orleans. Like every good convention, Tales has an awards series, the Spirit Awards. Do I need to say that they are the Oscars of the cocktail world? Okay then, I will. They are the Oscars of the cocktail world.
And Murray Stenson of Zig Zag has been nominated for both Bartender of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
His competition for the first: Eric Alperin from youngin’ bar The Varnish in LA, and two New Yorkers: Kenta Goto of The Pegu Club and Sam Ross, Milk & Honey.
For Lifetime Achievement, he’s up against Brian Rea, Gary Regan, and Tony Abou-Ganim. The funny thing is that of these four guys, Murray is the only one who is just a working bartender. He may be a great freaking bartender, but that’s what he is. Not an expert speaker or the author who pops up on Amazon.com when you plug in “cocktail.” You won’t find his face on a line of bitters. I can’t think of a better lifetime achievement candidate than one who shows up to work everyday and just does his job awesomely, can you?
I’ll be reporting from Tales this year, and will let you know (probably via Twitter) as soon as the award is announced on July 24. Meantime, head down to Zig Zag and offer Mur the Blur your mazel tovs.
Side note: Not for the first time, Zig Zag made Esquire’s best bars list this year. “It’s one of the torches that sparked the cocktail revolution, and it doesn’t act like it,” wrote Esquire. You could say the same of Murray.
Tags: Seattle Bartenders, Tales of the Cocktail, Murray Stenson
He’s just a really nice guy, too. The cocktails are amazing, but it’s the service, the conversation, and the smooth way he makes even wiping down a glass look cool that garners my loyalty.
Best bartender in Seattle. Hands down. Good luck Murray!
I was at a different bar, listening to the bartender talk about this “legend” – I believe he’s the one who brought back “The Last Word?”
Keridwyn – http://bit.ly/k80blog
Fantastic – he deserves all the awards for bartending that exist…!
On behalf of Team Thursday, Murray, Cheers!
Keridwyn Yup, as far as I know, Murray resurrected the Last Word. I think Tan Vinh of Seattle Times has an article about it.