- 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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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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Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
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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A HOLIDAY THOUGHT
(This note is from Johnny D’s on Thanksgiving night.) Yup, Johnny D’s was open last Thursday. Johnny D’s is always open — Easter, Thanksgiving, even Christmas night. It’s a tradition that began when John and Tina DeLellis first opened the … Continue reading
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HOW I GOT MY NAME
A thought occurred as I was writing the last post. Someone out there reading about Free Beer, Joey Cigars, or Sal (no pizza!) — someone might read this blog and say, “Hey, I once knew a guy who met all … Continue reading
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