A top-notch bartender at Zig Zag Café

In these hard times, it's comforting to know we still have happy hour with Murray.

Murray Stenson of Zig Zag Café is one of America's top bartenders. He holds court Tuesdays-Fridays at the Zig Zag, where specialty cocktails go for $4.75 during happy hour. (Here's a little perspective: The going rate for a sophisticated cocktail by a top-flight bartender is $12 and up.)

Even famed mixologist Toby Maloney of Violet Hour in Chicago plopped on a stool to watch master Murray make cocktails a few weeks back.

Located behind Pike Place Market, Zig Zag just debuted a new cocktail menu, with such delights as the Clear Note Sour cocktail (pear brandy, mandarin liquor, lime and egg white), made from Clear Creek brandy — arguably the best eaux de vie in North America — and in which every sip bursts with fresh pear flavor.

All the cocktails are balanced and consistent night after night — each deftly crafted, bitters and citrus juices subtlety playing secondary roles, never overpowering the brandy or other spirits.

A new happy-hour food menu will debut by the end of the month. As foodies can attest, the happy-hour noshes here have never been in the same class as the cocktails — the bites are merely to settle your growling tummy in between drinks.

Zig Zag Café, 1501 Western Ave., Seattle, happy hour 5-7 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, when house-specialty cocktails and wine cost $4.75, beer $2.75 and food $4-$8 (206 625-1146 or zigzagcafe.net).

— Tan Vinh, Seattle Times staff reporter