- 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!
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Blogroll
- Because we're not all there
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- I'm your SERVER NOT your SERVANT
- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
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- Waiters Today
- Wino on a Ramble
Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
A CONNECTED GUY
There’s a lot to love about this job. Behind the taps on a busy night, the dance floor is packed and everyone is having a blast as the band rocks out on the stage. Drinks are flying out over the … Continue reading
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THE CHOCOLATE STARFISH (and other bits and pieces)
This blog came about when I started to sift through all the cocktail-napkin notes that I’ve accumulated over the years. My goal — to transfer the more worthy scribbling to one very large computer file. That first day, sitting at … Continue reading
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LILLIAN, one of my worst shut-offs
(This note is from one night at Christopher’s, in Cambridge MA.) “I’ll have one more VO and ginger,” Lillian said. She had said the same thing before ordering each of her last four drinks. I was behind the taps at … Continue reading
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THE CUTE BLONDE NURSE
(This note is about a plot that was hatched at Johnny D’s, the Boston-area nightclub where I tend bar now.) For as long as I could remember, my cousin Bill Patti was always breaking my balls. He was a great guy, … Continue reading
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GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST
Decorating the tree and finding a special gift . . . that‘s Christmas, right? Not entirely, at least not for bartenders. Remember the movie, It‘s a Wonderful Life? Jimmy Stewart struggles to find the true meaning of Christmas, and a … Continue reading
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