From Cheers‘ Sam Malone (with his sinewy build and bonnet of feathery hair) to Brian, the bottle-tossing, poetry-reciting star of Cocktail, America loves a celebrity bartender. Here in Seattle, we’ve got Murray Stenson, the Playboy-ranked mixologist-of-renown behind the bar at the Zig Zag Cafe. Legend has Stenson never forgetting a regular’s name and tasting every drink with a straw; an hour of watching the flesh-and-blood Stenson in action revealed something just as commendable: a superfast, superfriendly, superprecise bar pro (albeit one with a press pack). As for the Zig Zag: Happy hour features a $2.75 draft selection (Old Seattle, Imperial Pale Ale, Salmon Bay Bitter), a $4.75 list of specialty cocktails, and a thrifty snack menu (sautéed calamari, $5; black tiger prawns, $6).
Marti Jonjak—The Stranger’s fashion columnist—has a technical degree in apparel design and works in the garment industry. Her treasured casual-wear aesthetic is both glamorous and trashy, suggesting... More by Marti Jonjak