- 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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- 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
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- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
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- These American Servers
- Waiters Today
- Wino on a Ramble
Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
NAKED LADIES, and The Writing on the Wall
From the swankiest nightspot . . . to the seediest, run-down tavern in America, every restaurant or bar has rest rooms. So it’s not surprising that most bartenders have at least one good tale about their establishment’s facilities. I remember … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
14 Comments
New Post Coming Saturday
This week’s post will be a day late — so in the meantime I thought I’d throw in this quick update on someone who’s leaving Johnny D’s. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Oliver Simosa has been a … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
4 Comments
SCARIEST THING I’VE SEEN IN A BAR (and other bits and pieces)
Today’s post is about three unrelated incidents that happened years apart in different bars. I’m not sure why each of them crossed my mind this week. 1.) A bartender’s comeback . . . The Lark Tavern was mobbed, three deep … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
13 Comments
WHEN GOOD PEOPLE LEAVE . . .
Here’s a short clip of what Johnny D’s looks like on a busy night. (Booty Vortex was playing; video by Mojo.) Next busy show, there’ll be one person missing. It seems that in this business, just when people become really … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
7 Comments
DIRTY TRICKS behind the bar
This blog generally has a positive outlook. I try to stay focused on what I find interesting, and funny . . . let someone else write about the negative stuff in our … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
21 Comments