NUTSHELL: Neal Murray says he created his Cosmopolitan in 1975 at the Cork ’n Cleaver Steakhouse in Golden Valley, Minnesota. In 1981, at the Elite Café in San Francisco, he showed bartender Michael Brennan how to make his Cosmopolitan. It slowly became a popular cocktail throughout the city.  In 1986, Murray worked at the world-famous Fog City Diner, making the cocktail even more popular.

I first tried to contact Neal Murray in December 2016 and heard back from him on April 15, 2017. Here is the story he has shared with me. Murray was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 15, 1951, to politically influential parents of European, Native American, and African descent. When he was ten years old, his family moved to Roseville, Minnesota. His parents had a white woman/friend buy their land in Roseville because at the time, people of color were not allowed to purchase and build homes in this area.

As a young boy, he had been in the room with many political figures, including President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Evert Dirksen to name a few. He got to meet Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Vice President Walter Mondale, and a couple of Minnesota governors, all before he was in high school. Murray was a high achiever and grew up being the “only black kid in school” from 5th grade to 12th grade. Out of 1200 students in junior high, he was the president of the student council. At Alexander Ramsey High School, Murray was the vice president of the junior class, student council, and the canteen council that planned the dances. As a senior, he was to become student council president, but he told the school principal that he would like to see the first woman in the history of the school become student council president. Murray then convinced the principal to let him create a new conference-wide student council. After meeting with all thirteen principals, he founded and became president of a Suburban Conference Student Council representing 22,000 students in thirteen high schools.

In the second semester of 1975, while studying political science at the University of Minnesota, Murray applied for a bartender position—without experience—at the Cork ’n Cleaver Steakhouse in Golden Valley, located at 905 Hampshire Avenue South (it’s a Volvo car dealership today). Murray applied for the position with the encouragement of two college friends who worked at the Cork ‘n Cleaver, Michael Hannah and John Peterson. Murray made it through the interview and hiring process quickly but learned from Hannah and Peterson that he would not be getting the job because he was black. The restaurant accountant called Murray a week later to tell him that the managers would be out of town, and if he could learn to be a bartender in four days, then she would hire him. As any good college student would, Murray bought Mr. Boston’s Bartender Guide and crammed for three days.

By the fall, he was still employed and noticed changes in cocktail trends. Murray watched the Gimlet (gin and Rose’s lime juice) change into a Vodka Gimlet and then into the shooter Kamikaze (Vodka Gimlet with triple sec) One cold autumn night, Murray was experimenting with cocktails and made a connection between a Cape Cod (vodka and cranberry with a lime garnish) and the Kamikaze. He poured a little cranberry juice into the Kamikaze, then shook and strained it into a stemmed cocktail glass (Murray made it with Gordon’s vodka, Leroux triple sec, Rose’s Lime Juice, and Ocean Spray cranberry juice with a lime wedge garnish). A regular sitting at the bar asked Murray about the pink drink. At first, Murray didn’t have an answer but then smiled and said, “I just thought it needed a little color,” making a joke about how he was hired. The regular said, “How cosmopolitan!” and the Cosmopolitan was born. 

I have not been able to locate college classmates and co-workers Michael Hannah or John Peterson yet, but in 2017 I was able to speak with other friends, Greg Harris and Steve Knapp, who had visited Murray at the Cork ‘n Cleaver.

Fun fact: Murray, Harris, and Knapp were Alexander Ramsey High School classmates with Richard Dean Anderson, better known as MacGyver. I talked to Harris (born in 1950), and he confirmed that he and his wife Patty did indeed visit Murray at the Cork ‘n Cleaver, but admitted he’s never been a “mixed drink person” and does not remember the Cosmopolitan. He said he would ask his wife if she remembers and get back to me. I never heard back. It took some time to connect with Steve Knapp (born in 1950) as he lives in an off-grid cabin without a car, phone, or Internet six months out of the year. Murray told me that when Knapp was in high school, he rode his bicycle from St. Paul to Vancouver, British Columbia and that he still rides hundreds of miles every year. Anyway, I finally was able to speak with Knapp over the phone, and he was full of energy. He remembered Murray’s Cosmopolitan, remembers visiting Cork ‘n Cleaver with Harris, and told me about a farewell John Denver concert he worked before Denver moved to Colorado and some other bars he tended bar at Butler Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Knapp even suggested that I contact bar schools to see what year the Cosmopolitan first entered into their curriculum. I contacted Ricky Richard, the owner of Crescent Bartending School, founded in 1983, and he researched for me. He discovered that the Cosmopolitan recipe was in his curriculum around 1990.

In 1977, Murray moved to Washington, DC, to take a position as a congressional intern. While traveling to visit friends, Murray always ordered a Cosmopolitan, explaining to each bartender that it was a Kamikaze with cranberry juice served up in a cocktail glass. He ordered the cocktail everywhere he traveled including Boston, Manhattan, Atlanta, Miami, airport bars, and every bar he visited up and down the East Coast.

In 1979, Murray gave up politics and moved to San Francisco to study psychology at San Francisco State University. While in school, he worked as a waiter at Enzo’s restaurant in the Embarcadero Center and then at Kimball’s—not once pushing the Cosmopolitan. But all that changed in 1981 when he handed his 30th resume of the day to co-owner Tom Clendening at a New Orleans cuisine restaurant called the Elite Café (2049 Fillmore Street). Murray accepted a waiter position because even in this day and time, you still did not see black bartenders. I finally made contact with Clendening in July of 2019, and he confirmed that the Cosmopolitan was indeed invented by one of his employees.  Murray recommended the Cosmopolitan cocktail to his customers, making the Elite Cafe (est. 1932) the first place the Cosmo was served in San Francisco. The first bartender Murray taught to make the Cosmo was Michael Brennan. Brennan must have forgotten to renew his domain in 2019 because it is defunct.  If you would like his contact info, then ask me. You can read about him here, here, here, and here. There are other artists with the same name so I wanted to give you the correct one. I spoke with Brennan (born in 1952) over the phone in 2017. He bartended in San Francisco for 15 years and remembered Murray, other co-workers, and of course, making many Cosmopolitans. He did not know that he was the first in San Francisco to make one, though. Brennan's passion has always been art. He started painting in the third grade. Today he is a famous San Francisco artist and has designed many spaces, restaurants, and bars in San Francisco. You can check out his latest unconventional design work at the Curio Bar, which opened in June of 2018 (775 Valencia Street). As for the Elite Cafe, it went through four owners and closed in April of 2019. I asked Brennan for some "back in the day" photos, and he replied, "The ex-wife has all of those."

I also spoke with co-worker and waiter Hugh Tennent. During my research on Tennent, I found a small September 10, 1982 article in The Honolulu Advisor Hawaii newspaper that read, “Honolulu adwoman Lynn Cook was dining at the Elite Café in San Francisco, and her waiter was Hugh Tennant, [sic] grandson of artist Madge Tennant [sic]”. Hugh’s grandmother Madeline “Madge” Grace Cook Tennent (1889–1972), was considered the most important individual contributor to Hawaiian art in the 20th century. I found Tennent via his sister, Madge Walls, who is a writer and lives in Oregon. It took quite a while to connect with Tennent because he does not have an email address, doesn’t text, and rarely answers his cell phone. I left several messages, and then finally, one December day in 2017, he answered. Tennent (born in 1947) lives in Hilo, Hawaii. For fun, he drives a tour van, but his passions are golf and cars. Tennent was very outgoing and remembered Murray, Brennan, and Cosmopolitans at the Elite Café. He also recalled another bartender named

Willie Karnofsky talked about him for quite some time about how back in the day, he was a model and golfer. In 2018, I called Karnofsky (born in 1956) via the phone number on his website. He remembered the Elite Café days, Murray, Brennan, and Tennent, but sadly did not remember serving the Cosmopolitan. But he said his focus at the time was golf, not cocktails.

In 1984, Murray often visited Union Street bars and always ordered the Cosmopolitan. Singer Boz Scaggs owned one bar he often visited called Blue Light Cafe. Also, in 1984, he left the Elite Café to be part of the opening crew at the Café Royale (2050 Van Ness). But in 1985, Fog City Diner General Manager Douglas “BIX” Biederbeck hired Murray as a bartender to help serve a celebrity clientele. Bill Higgins, Bill Upson, and Cindy Pawlcyn owned The Fog City Diner. Within five years, it became a national hot spot much due to VISA featuring it in a commercial. While at Fog City Diner, Murray created his first Cosmo spin-off by switching out the vodka for Mt. Gay Barbados Rum and called it a Barbados Cosmopolitan. It became an instant hit in the gay community.

Biederbeck became part of the Real Restaurant Group and opened many more San Francisco restaurants. In 2008, he released a book called Bixology . On page 11, he writes, “We were the first West Coast restaurant to respark the current Martini boom. It’s a little hard to imagine that, only twenty years ago, the white-wine spritzer, gin and tonic, and occasional sweet drink were the calls of choice. The Cosmopolitan had only recently been invented, and there were about six vodkas known to man.”  

By 1988 Douglas “BIX” Biederbeck went on to be a true San Francisco restaurateur. He opened his first restaurant, BIX (56 Gold Street), which is a swanky jazz bar and still employs two original white-jacketed barmen, Bradley Avey and Bruce Minkiewicz.  I contacted Biederbeck via bixrestaurant.com, and to my great surprise, he called me at 5 PM central time on November 22, 2017. He remembered hiring Murray at Fog City Diner and even put his Barbados Cosmopolitan on his BIX menu. He said, “It was a good drink.” We chit-chatted about how I lived in New Orleans and how BIX was a jazz bar. He ended our conversation by suggesting that I contact the Fog City Diner owner and chef at the time, Cindy Pawlcyn—a pioneer in the development of wine country cuisine.

I was able to contact Pawlcyn via her website. Her email said, "Of course, I remember the Cosmopolitan at Fog City Diner. It was one of my favorite cocktails, and it was very popular amongst [sic] the customers." Like Murray, she grew up in the Minneapolis area and made her way to San Francisco in 1979. She said that the waiters referred to it as a “girl drink.”  At Fog City Diner, Pawlcyn was pairing cheeseburgers with Champagne. Today she has four cookbooks and is a James Beard Award winner. She has also been nominated twice for the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef in California. 

In 1986, Murray was given a VIP card by a Fog City Diner customer to the famous Limelight nightclub in New York City (20th Street and Sixth Avenue). So, he and his friend Dana Williams flew to the Big Apple to use the card. Sure enough, the card got them to the front of the line, and they walked in immediately. And, of course, Murray ordered a Cosmopolitan, explaining to the bartender how to make it. Murray said he also visited Area (157 Hudson Street) and Milk Bar (2 Seventh Avenue South), each time ordering a Cosmopolitan. I have joined Facebook pages for all of the clubs mentioned, and no one has posted that they remember a Cosmopolitan yet.

In 1989, Julie Ring from Julie’s Supper Club (1123 Folsom Street) hired Murray to become her head bartender and part owner of Miss Pearl’s Jam House (601 Eddy Street in the Phoenix Hotel). Murray said that Ring didn’t realize Murray had a large following around San Francisco with his Cosmopolitans. He introduced another new Cosmo twist called the Cactus Cosmo, made with aloe vera juice and tequila.

In 2004, The Almanac published an article titled How Cosmopolitan! Marche's maitre d' lays claim to creating the Cosmopolitan cocktail. In 2010, Cheers Magazine Online released a story with the title "The True Original Cosmopolitan Cocktail Story".

Murray traveled a lot throughout his life and ordered a Cosmopolitan at every bar he visited. He went on to work at many San Francisco restaurants as a consultant and general manager, and in 2016 he retired. Murray now enjoys traveling and writing about restaurants through his website. In April of 2018, he visited me at the Bourbon O Jazz Bar in New Orleans, and I was so busy that I never got a photo taken with him :(

The Cosmopolitan recipe he gave me is with the others under the Cosmopolitan Fun Facts section.