Remembering Murray Stenson, Seattle's 'perfect bartender'

If you've ever seen a great Seattle craft bartender work, chances are they learned something from Murray Stenson, who died last week at the age of 74. KUOW's John O'Brien reached out to a fan and friend for this remembrance.

Murray Stenson was born in Colville, Washington, in 1949. His family moved to Kirkland when he was a kid. After high school, he got his first job behind a bar at Benjamin's, a Schwartz Brothers restaurant in Bellevue, after he realized he hated being a shoe salesman. Something clicked.

Casey Robison is a Seattllite who lives on the East Coast now. He's a working bartender who, like many other mixologists, studied Stenson's work. He became a friend and published an appreciation of Stenson three years ago.

"I think he was a very private, very humble guy who didn't want anyone to fuss over him. I think he personally enjoyed the fact that all the young bartenders of the early 2000s wanted to sit at his bar, wanted to learn," Robison said. "I think he enjoyed the fact that we gave him an outlet to be a fellow nerd. He loved the trade of bartending. He was a nerd in that sense. I know for a fact that he didn't enjoy the spotlight. He just always saw himself as a bartender. And that's it."

Robison said if you ever had the pleasure of sitting at Stenson's bar, you have a Murray story.

"He was just the best," Robison said. "He knew how to make people feel at home. He knew how to make them feel comfortable. He knew how to introduce you to a new thing that you might not have thought about before without making you feel dumb that you didn't know it already."

Robison added that Stenson was fast — his nickname was "Mur the Blur" — quick-witted, had an infectious laugh, and an encyclopedic memory for drinks and people.

Stenson built a loyal following in the 1990s at Il Bistro, in Pike Place Market, then for most of the 2000s at Zig Zag Café, just down the hill. One of his claims to fame was resurrecting a lost prohibition-era cocktail called "The Last Word."

In 2010, Stenson was named “America’s Best Bartender” at Tales of the Cocktail, an industry convention in New Orleans. He was too busy working to attend the awards dinner.

Robison said he didn't expect his friend's death, but it wasn't exactly a surprise. Stenson had a heart attack in 2012. When friends found out he had no health insurance, they initiated "Murray Aid." Bars around the world pitched in, raising more than $200,000 for his medical bills.

In their interview, which Stenson only did as a favor to Robison for a writing class he was taking, Stenson summed up his life this way.

“A lot of stuff happened to me by accident, and it somehow led to a really great career," he said. "A career that I am so thankful for that. But I was never the cool guy. I was the boring guy in the corner, listening to old jazz records and sipping champagne. I own about 4,000 jazz records on vinyl, and that’s the most interesting thing about me.”

Stenson told Robison his favorite movie was Casablanca.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine," he said. "Man, that’s a good line.”