Colville Kid Among Best Bartenders

Bon Bon bartender Shawn Heale just posted a link to an excellent new Seattle Weekly feature on Murray Stenson (pictured), a bartender at Seattle bar Canon, who grew up in Colville and, at 62, has been recognized by cocktail afficionados as one of the best bartenders in the country. The story also makes for a good history of the Washington cocktail scene in general. (Did you know it was illegal for full-service bars in Washington to even have windows before the mid-‘70s?) I don’t really have my own Stenson story, as do the characters in the opening of the Seattle Weekly , but I will say that, last fall, I stopped by the Zig Zag cafe, the Seattle bar where Stenson spent a decade, specifically to try his Last Word, an old drink that he has made famous as the city’s signature cocktail , and it was, unsurprisingly, incredible/ Joel Smith , Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo)

Question: Anyone out there with bartending experience? What’s it like?