- ABOUT THIS BLOG
- Everyone has done it – you’re in a bar, looking for a scrap of paper to write a woman's name and phone number on, or just want to make a note to yourself so you don’t forget something. You grab a cocktail napkin.
- (In the TV series The West Wing, a political consultant decides that Jed Bartlet – played by Martin Sheen – should run for President. He takes a cocktail napkin and writes down the slogan, “Bartlet for America.”)
- I work in bars. Over the years, I’ve accumulated enough of my own cocktail-napkin notes to fill six liquor bottle boxes.
- Here are the people and stories that wound up in those notes -- real-life characters like Jackie Rabbit and Maude the Broad, the narcotics cops Paul and Sonny, mafia guys, some shameless tramps and one suicidal young man. You'll meet an old-time boxer who wants to take me into the gym to teach me his trade, and a woman who thinks God is on the stool next to her, urging her to have one more whiskey and ginger. It's life behind the taps.
Popular Posts
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Recent Entries
- LIFE ON A COCKTAIL NAPKIN, the book—a story of the joyous, free-spirited, and sometimes unsettling early years in the life of a city bartender in the 1970s— is now available on Amazon
- DANNY (sample chapter)
- BLINDFOLDS AND BINDINGS (and then a big step)
- THE BRUTAL LESSON (last sample chapter)
- JOHNNY D’S IS CLOSING . . .
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Check out the stories you’ve been missing in our Archives (below). And my sincere thanks to all of you who have visited here!
Archives
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Blogroll
Author Archives: MikeQ
THE PERFECT STORM (the ending)
Back when I was working at The Sunflower Café I didn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on relationships. Those of you in the business know what it’s like — everything happens so fast, and it’s non-stop. Bar relationships come … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
9 Comments
THE PERFECT STORM (part two)
(This is the second part of the story, . . . the first part is here.) I was still thinking about Terri when I got up the next morning. (Arrrggh, mornings . . . I hate using the alarm clock. … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
12 Comments
THE PERFECT STORM (part one)
“OK, then you’ll be over tomorrow to shovel me out . . . ?” We were all drinking at 33 Dunster Street, the restaurant/bar that shared a back alley with The Sunflower Café. A big snowstorm was forecast for the … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
13 Comments
FEED THE GOOD WOLF
I’ve been slacking off a bit on the bar stories — there’s some good ones that need telling but they haven’t been written down yet. And here it is the weekend before Christmas and I just wanted to wish everyone … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
7 Comments
LOCAL BREWS
OK, I’ve been a bad boy. No details, but the results are evident on this page . . . there’s no post this week. For those who came looking for a good … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
3 Comments
