- 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
“What is this . . . GENERATION WHINE?”
When I started this blog, I had to decide whether to reveal that I work at Johnny D’s. What if I had something negative to say about the customers, or the staff? I decided if so, I’d just wait until … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
15 Comments
TWO PART-TIME (Perhaps over-the-top) EMPLOYEES
One of the great things about working in bars and restaurants is the people you work with. Restaurant employees are just not your typical working Janes and Joes. Maybe it’s because this business is a little out of the mainstream. … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
11 Comments
GO BRUINS!!! (And way to go, David Hayden)
I apologize in advance because this post is going to be all over the place. It’s just that two completely unrelated things happened this past week I feel compelled to talk about. FIRST, THE BOSTON BRUINS finally won the Stanley … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
9 Comments
ANOTHER CHARLIE on the M(B)TA
“Is this way good for you?” she asked innocently as she shifted her body a little to the left. With a playful tone, she broached the subject so easily it surprised me. This was a rather awkward position for us. … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
10 Comments
MEN with BRASS BALLS chasing GHOSTS
The day after Osama bin Laden was killed, John Bonaccorso (The Drowning Frog, The Chocolate Starfish) was at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Just before game time the announcer asked everyone to rise for a moment of silence. 34,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
32 Comments
