- 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
FRESH STARTS/NEW ENDINGS
Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s hope it’s a good one. Now that the champagne bottle is empty and the noise-makers have bleated their last toot, here’s a few thoughts and resolutions that caught my eye–hope you enjoy them as … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
1 Comment
EDDIE VEDDER IN THE HOUSE
What a World Series! Great games, controversial calls, weird endings — and Boston won. Perfect. But what was with all the Eddie Vedder references? Apparently Pearl Jam has a new CD coming out, and during every night’s game they broadcast … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
5 Comments
FUBAR (and then a beautiful moment)
Sunday, 10/13/13, 12:18 A.M. It’s never good to leave a bartender working alone on a slow night. There’s too much opportunity to think. You keep glancing at the clock, again and again. You might listen to one of your customers, … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
3 Comments
THE PROMISE OF SEX
Everyone knows there’s a lot of sex in the restaurant business. It’s a promise that lures big crowds to the pick-up joints. Even in a quieter place, anytime there’s drinking involved you’ll usually find at least some sexual undertones. And … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
6 Comments
IN VINO, VERITAS
In wine, truth? Well then, there are some people who probably shouldn’t drink — or at least they should learn when to drink, and when to stay sober. Let me be clear, I know how it feels at the end … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
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