- 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!
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
JOHNNY D’S WILL BE CLOSING …
Sad news in the Boston area music world. Owner Carla DeLellis announced last weekend that the legendary nightclub Johnny D’s will be closing. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris and Bruce Cockburn once shared the billing at Johnny D’s … all … Continue reading
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TAXES, RESTAURANT TIPS, and the filthy rich
(Just finished a big project and will be back next week with new stories. In the meantime, here’s a repost …this issue keeps coming up.) We’re taking a break today from our usual bar stories. Something has been bugging me … Continue reading
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AN OWNER’S FOLLY (The king and the tide)
(One more bar post involving an Aesop’s fable . . . I can’t help it, those old scribes knew what they were talking about.) I’ve known Jake for years. I trained him as a bartender when he was a few … Continue reading
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THE MIDAS TOUCH
(Here’s something from bartending at The Lark Tavern in Albany NY.) “Johnny Walker Black, no ice, water on the side.” The guy was back again, as pompous as ever. He owned a popular bar on the outskirts of Albany, and … Continue reading
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“MOUNTAIN”
It was by far my all-time-worst bartending experience, and it started with a simple but nasty prank among friends. Who knows how long everyone had been picking on the guy they called “Mountain.” His friends had been teasing him at … Continue reading
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