It’s not an exaggeration to say that if it weren’t for Murray Stenson, my career, and my life, would be disappointingly different.

View phone numbers, addresses, public records, background check reports and possible arrest records for Murray R Stenson. Whitepages people search is the most trusted directory. Background Checks. Murray Stenson’s full report may contain information on how to contact them such as phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. The personal information that is included in the full report could contain schools that they attended, degrees earned. I'm pretty sure someone asked me every single day over the last week if I'm “going to the RN74 party tonight.” Yes, the Michael Mina machine has been firing on all cylinders in the week leading up to the launch of its full service, hosting private.

A longtime Seattle bartender — most recently at Canon, and for much of the decade before that, at Zig Zag Cafe — Murray first got in touch with me in the summer of 2005, when this blog was only a couple of months old and my readership numbered, maybe, five cocktail-centric individuals with questionable taste in Internet browsing. Murray had stumbled across my blog via a comment I’d left on Chuck Taggart’s site, and invited me to come down to Zig Zag to geek out a bit about cocktails.

I did, and we did, and really, nothing’s been the same for me since.

Type “Murray” in the search window to your right and several pages of results will come up, with good reason: in the more than seven years that have passed since our first encounter, I’ve sat across the bar from Murray Stenson more than I have any other individual bartender on earth. During that time, he taught me about cocktails and spirits and all the assorted mechanics of mixology, but more importantly, he taught me how all this stuff isn’t what really matters.

Over the years, as I sat on a barstool across from Murray, he might occasionally mention a drink I wrote about on this blog or, more frequently, would introduce me to an obscure oldie that I’d then run home and blog about. But the blog post Murray remarked about more than any other was one from 2006 that had absolutely nothing to do with cocktails and absolutely everything to do with those sparkling, magic moments that happen when friends, acquaintances and strangers are all together in the unique social environment of the bar.

Without Murray, this blog would be depressingly flat. Without Murray, my skill — and my career — as a drinks writer would be weaker. Without Murray, my Wednesday evenings — which for years were (and to a certain extent, still are) my regular nights at Zig Zag — wouldn’t have been one of the highlights of my weekly calendar; they would have been, well, Wednesdays — the blandest night of the week.

Over the years, Murray demonstrated his endless patience with me, not just by tolerating my incessant cocktail-geek questions, but by putting up with me as I started bugging him with questions for articles I was writing. I used Murray as a source many times — for Imbibe, for the San Francisco Chronicle, and probably for stories I’ve forgotten ever writing. Over time, I shoved him more into my journalistic spotlight, as I did in profiles of Murray for Imbibeand for Shake/Stir, and in an essay I wrote in 2009 for the New York Times.

This is all to say that Murray’s given me a lot. And if you’re at all interested in cocktails and bars — and really, why are reading this blog if you’re not? — then he’s given you a lot, too, because this story I’m sharing about how Murray’s influenced me can be echoed by dozens of bartenders, bloggers, cocktail enthusiasts and others who enjoy relaxing in a bar, not only in Seattle but around the world, as well.

Now, it’s time to give something back to Murray.

Here’s the scoop: Murray has a heart condition, and may require intensive surgery. As with bartenders everywhere, Murray doesn’t have medical insurance, and he’s unable to work while incapacitated with this condition. Evan Wallace, a longtime friend of Murray’s, set up a MurrayAid page on Facebook, where people like me and you (hint, hint) can make a donation via PayPal to help defray Murray’s medical expenses. UPDATE: There’s now a website for the coordinated efforts to help Murray: murrayaid.org. Also, donating directly through PayPal, as described on the website, ensures your full donation will go to help Murray, without Facebook taking a cut.

Here’s what you can do:

• Make a donation to MurrayAid. (duh)
• Help spread the word — Murray doesn’t use Twitter or Facebook, but you probably do, so inform everyone in your networks of this issue and point them toward the donation page.
• Cocktail bloggers: roll up your sleeves and write. Mix yourself a Last Word and post something on your blog about Murray — even if you haven’t dusted off your blog in months, break it out now and get your readers to donate.
• Bartenders & bar owners: consider hosting a benefit or having a special that will raise funds to help Murray. “Like” the MurrayAid page on Facebook and post details of your event there. There are already benefits planned at Zig Zag Cafe on November 4 and at Paratii Craft Bar in Ballard on October 27 & 28, and those are only the events I know of right now — get on board, and make sure the word gets out. UPDATE: If you’d like to host an event, please coordinate with Jamie Boudreau from Canon in Seattle — an organized effort is a more effective effort. Jamie can be reached at drink[at]canonseattle{dot}com.

Murray’s done so much for the cocktail community over the years, and as I blathered above, he’s done a lot for me. Counter-strike: global offensive. Let’s help him out in this time of need.

The Last Word is a gin-based prohibition-era cocktail originally developed at the Detroit Athletic Club. While the drink eventually fell out of favor, it enjoyed a renewed popularity after being rediscovered by the bartender Murray Stenson in 2004 during his tenure at the Zig Zag Café and becoming a cult hit in the Seattle area.

Original recipe and variations[edit]

The Last Word consists of equal amounts of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and freshly pressed lime juice, which are combined in a shaker with ice. After shaking, the mix is poured through a cocktail strainer (sieve) into the glass so that the cocktail contains no ice and is served 'straight up'.^[1]

The cocktail has a pale greenish color, primarily due to the Chartreuse. Audrey Saunders of the Pegu Bar in New York City considers it one of her bar's best cocktails and describes its taste as follows:

I love the sharp, pungent drinks, and this has a good bite. It's a great palate cleanser. And it's perfectly balanced: A little sour, a little sweet, a little pungent.

Murray Stenson 2019

The taste may also vary slightly depending on the brand of gin being used. The original cocktail at the Detroit Athletic Club during the prohibition era used bathtub gin, and even today the club is using its own recreation of 'prohibition era bathtub gin' (vodka, spices, herbs, citrus) for it.^[3] Some variations of the cocktail have sprung up, which usually replace the gin with another base liquor and sometimes switch the limes for lemons. A particularly well-known variation is the Final Ward, created by the New York bartender Phil Ward, who replaced the gin with rye whiskey and the lime juice with lemon juice.^[2]

History[edit]

The first publication in which the Last Word appeared was Ted Saucier's 1951 cocktail book Bottoms Up!. In it, Saucier states that the cocktail was first served around 30 years earlier at the Detroit Athletic Club and later introduced in New York by Frank Fogarty.^[2][3][4] Since this dates the creation of the drink to the first years of the prohibition (1919-1933), it is usually considered a prohibition era drink. A research in the archives of the Detroit Athletic Club by John Frizell revealed later that the drink was slightly older predating the prohibition era by a few years. It was already offered on the club's 1916 menu for a price of 35 cents (about $8.22 in 2019 currency) making it the club's most expensive cocktail at the time.^[5]

Murray Stenson Seattle

Fogarty himself was no bartender but one of the best known vaudevillian monologists (roughly comparable to today's stand-up comedians) of his time. Some assume that this occupation gave rise to the cocktail's name. Nicknamed the 'Dublin minstrel' Fogarty often opened his performance with a song and ended it with a serious heartthrob recitation. In 1912 he won the New York Morning Telegraph contest for the best vaudeville artist and in 1914 he was elected president of The White Rats (vaudeville actors union).^[3][6][7] Around the time the cocktail was presumably created, Fogarty performed at the Temple theater in Detroit.^[5]

Murray Stenson

The cocktail however fell into oblivion sometime after World War II until it was rediscovered by Murray Stenson in 2004. Stenson was looking for a new cocktail for the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, when he came across an old 1952 copy of Saucier's book. Soon after being offered at the Zig Zag Cafe it became somewhat of cult hit in the Seattle and Portland areas and spread to cocktail bars in major cities worldwide. It also spawned several variations with The Final Ward probably being the best known among them.^[2][3][6] In addition its recipe reappeared in newer cocktail guides including the 2009 edition of the Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide.^[1]

On May 20, 2011 Rachel Maddow demonstrated the preparation of the cocktail in her show on MSNBC and called it the 'last word for the end of the world'. This was meant as an ironic comment on the rapture and end of world prediction of the Christian radio host Harold Camping and in reference to the MSBNC news program The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, which covered Camping's predictions extensively.^[8][9]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^ ^abAnthony Giglio, Ben Fink: Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide. John Wiley and Sons, ISBN978-0-470-39065-8, p. 80
   A. J. Rathbun: Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz: A Cocktail Lover's Guide to Mixing Drinks Using New and Classic Liqueurs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2011, ISBN978-1-55832-771-9 , p. 137
   Mardee Haidin Regan: The Bartender's Best Friend: A Complete Guide to Cocktails, Martinis, and Mixed Drinks. Wiley 2010, ISBN978-0-470-44718-5, p.211
2. ^ ^abcdTan Vinh: The Last Word, a cocktail reborn in Seattle, is on everyone's lips. Seattle Times, 11. März 2009
3. ^ ^abcdKara Newmann: The Spirited Traveller: Having the last word in Detroit. Reuters Africa, 2011-9-8
4. ^Paul Clarke: The Last Word. The Cocktail Cronicles, 13 April 2006
5. ^ ^abSam Dangremond: How Three Classic Cocktails Got Their Names. Town & Country, 2015-07-20
6. ^ ^abA. J. Rathbun: Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz: A Cocktail Lover's Guide to Mixing Drinks Using New and Classic Liqueurs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2011, ISBN978-1-55832-771-9 , p. 137 (online copy, p. 137, at Google Books)
7. ^Brett Page: Writing for Vaudeville. Echo Library 2007 (Reprint), ISBN978-1-4068-2313-4, p. 32 (online copy, p. 32, at Google Books)
8. ^Kase Wickman: Maddow celebrates the Rapture with Last Word cocktail at rawstory.com 2011-05-21 (contains the video clip The Last Word Rapture cocktail of Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, 2011-05-20
9. ^Jack Mirkinson: Rapture 2011: Maddow Makes A May 21 Cocktail (VIDEO) . Huffington Post, 2011-5-21

Murray Stenson Seattle

Further reading[edit]

• Ted Saucier: Bottoms Up!: With Illustrations by Twelve of America's Most Distinguished Artists. Greystone Press, New York, 1951. (Reprint Martino, Eastford, CT, 2011, ISBN978-1-891396-65-6.)
• Neal McLennan: 'Barfly: The Last Word'. Vancouver Magazine, 2011-11-1.