- 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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Recent Entries
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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!
Archives
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Blogroll
- Because we're not all there
- Behind The Stick
- Best Restaurant Blogs
- Hospitality Formula
- I'm your SERVER NOT your SERVANT
- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
- On the Rocks
- Restaurant Laughs
- Same Food For Every Day
- Squirrel Farts Drink Blog
- Tales From a Bar
- The Real Barman
- The Rogue Wino
- The Truth About Bartending
- These American Servers
- Waiters Today
- Wino on a Ramble
Author Archives: MikeQ
STORMY MONDAY
When I started this blog, I was determined to use the real names of all the people I was writing about. How could I not use them? I had learned to tend bar from a veteran barman named Johnny La … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
14 Comments
JAW-DROPPER AT THE SYMPHONY
The NBA finals are going on right now, and our Boston Celtics aren’t in it. The Miami Heat beat them in last week’s heart-breaking conference championships. But today I choose to think about happier times, looking back to when the … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
12 Comments
THE NIGHT HAWKS
Like everyone else, I have an alarm clock. Like everyone else I hate when it goes off, and all I want is to continue to lay there in bed. I hate it so much that my snooze-bar has a finger … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
10 Comments
“STUPID TUESDAY” (And something new from David Hayden)
I’m taking a week off from our usual posts. Typically I write about the bar life — free beer, naked women, lousy tippers, and patrons over-indulging. I like stories about gangsters and strippers, or those who just behave like them. But … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
13 Comments
SECOND CHANCES IN A BAR
It’s a bar room tradition with a long history. It’s such a part of this business that some establishments include a reference in their name — The Last Chance Saloon, Second Chance Bar, and Heinold’s First and Last Chance (still … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
16 Comments
