- 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.
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- Life on a Cocktail Napkin has over 30,000 page views per month. Check out the stories you've been missing in our Archives (below). And my sincere thanks to all of you who have visited here!
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Author Archives: MikeQ
THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE AYSLUM
I know this is late. I spent too much time this week watching the Olympics, then on Sunday I was called in during brunch — something was wrong with the soda guns. Got stuck there for another two hours in … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
16 Comments
SHIT CUSTOMERS SAY (when they think we’re not listening)
It always amazes me when customers carry on private conversations — when they discuss things they clearly don’t want overheard — while there’s a bartender working just two feet away. They talk trash about their girlfriends or boyfriends, their bosses, … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
15 Comments
THE BARTENDER’S “GREAT ESCAPE”
Usually when people talk about a bartender’s escape, scenes of tropical islands or some weekend ski resort come to mind. But today I’m thinking about a different kind of break . . . an escape from the real world in … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
17 Comments
Kate
Sad news . . . my long-time friend Kate O’Connor passed away this week. Kate and I worked together behind the bar many years ago, and although separated geographically afterward we always remained close via email, phone, and in spirit. … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
11 Comments
THE BOYS OF SUMMER
First, let me wish you a great Fourth of July now, because I’m taking this week off. We’ll be back next Saturday with more tales of the bar life. If this is your first time here and you’re looking for … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
9 Comments