- 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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Check out the stories you’ve been missing in our Archives (below). And my sincere thanks to all of you who have visited here!
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Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
SPOTTING THE EX-STRIPPER
At Johnny D’s, a young woman leaned over the bar, almost grabbed my arm as I walked past. “Hey!” she said, “What’s the matter . . . you won’t say hi?” For a second I thought she must be someone I should … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
13 Comments
JOHNNY LA LA and the HICCUP CURE (And two more short notes)
1.) ONE THAT NEVER FAILS . . . A guy at the bar had the hiccups. It was at Johnny D’s this past Saturday night and the place was packed. I’d come over to ask the man if he would … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
13 Comments
A CHILD’S TRICYCLE (and drinking to forget)
I was behind the bar at The Sunflower Café in Harvard Square when I got the call from Bruce S. Bruce was a drinking buddy from my Albany, NY days. He and his girlfriend Betty had been regulars at The … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
8 Comments
“What is this . . . GENERATION WHINE?”
When I started this blog, I had to decide whether to reveal that I work at Johnny D’s. What if I had something negative to say about the customers, or the staff? I decided if so, I’d just wait until … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
15 Comments
TWO PART-TIME (Perhaps over-the-top) EMPLOYEES
One of the great things about working in bars and restaurants is the people you work with. Restaurant employees are just not your typical working Janes and Joes. Maybe it’s because this business is a little out of the mainstream. … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
11 Comments
