- 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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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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Author Archives: MikeQ
WHEN SOME OF THE CUSTOMERS ARE GANGSTERS . . .
I’ve been lucky in this business. I’ve always liked the places I worked . . . always thought highly of the regulars, the staff and the owners. In part, that was simply good fortune — lucking out in getting … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
11 Comments
BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING (Overwhelming response from Boston and beyond)
“We just heard from Oscar,” Stefanie told me, “He and his crew are all fine.” The news about the terrorist bombing in Boston had just broken, and Stef … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
11 Comments
VIVIAN (an old-school barmaid)
This post will be a quiet one . . . no bells and whistles, no big bang at the end. Today we’ll look at a simple, thoughtful moment — and the lasting image of a veteran bartender doing something beyond … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
31 Comments
OF MICE AND MEN (Summer vacations and going semi-anonymous)
“You should know you can’t keep secrets in this business for long,” said one of the bartenders at the club. It wasn’t really a secret. It’s just the way we’ve always done things. If you want time off, you need … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
14 Comments
DISAPPEARING SAM
Two waitresses from a nearby restaurant were in the club the other night talking their jobs, and they asked what I thought about life in this business. When I responded, one of them said, “Well, you’ve always had a positive … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
6 Comments
