- 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)
- A PAIR OF LADIES’ PANTIES . . .
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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
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
