- 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
Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
FRIENDS & COMPANY
This post may be a little disjointed, but right now I’m thinking about one of the best jobs I’ve ever had — at Friends & Company, in Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Today I want to tell you about the owner, Pam … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
9 Comments
COCKTAIL NAPKIN HAIKU
A server I know from Davis Square (Somerville, MA), recently started a blog featuring restaurant haiku. English language haiku is typically only three lines and is meant to capture a single moment, or feeling. Here’s a description from WikiHow: “When … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
9 Comments
A SUPER BOWL PARADE
There was no Super Bowl parade for the New England Patriots this week. (First, you have to get into the big game, and then win it — that means not dropping key passes during crucial playoff drives.) But I’m thinking … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
8 Comments
LULU (and the I Ching)
Her name was Lorraine, but everyone called her “Lulu.” She was a cute, sexy, bouncy sort of girl that everyone noticed when she walked in to apply for a waitress position. Phil, one of the bartenders at The Sunflower Café, … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
4 Comments
“HOLD THAT CHAIR!” (Christmas bar stories)
I spent this past Christmas Day with Colleen’s family — what a great time and a wonderful meal. (Colleen is a great cook . . . trays and trays of appetizers, followed by a twenty-pound turkey roasted perfectly, three kinds … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
18 Comments