- 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)
- JOHNNY D’S IS CLOSING . . .
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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!
Archives
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Blogroll
Category Archives: Life on a Cocktail Napkin
OF MICE AND MEN (Summer vacations and going semi-anonymous)
“You should know you can’t keep secrets in this business for long,” said one of the bartenders at the club. It wasn’t really a secret. It’s just the way we’ve always done things. If you want time off, you need … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
14 Comments
DISAPPEARING SAM
Two waitresses from a nearby restaurant were in the club the other night talking their jobs, and they asked what I thought about life in this business. When I responded, one of them said, “Well, you’ve always had a positive … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
6 Comments
THE KITTEN WHO LIKED TO BE TIED UP (The whole story)
(The first part of this story appeared here in early 2011. Today’s post will start with a recap before revealing the rest!) Honest, I’m not kidding. She liked to be tied up . . . One of the waitresses had … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
10 Comments
BOSTON BARTENDER SHAKES UP NATIONAL ELECTION
Last year on May 17th I went to work behind the bar — made the usual drinks, chatted with customers, earned some tips and went home satisfied that I’d done my job. That same evening, another Boston-born bartender had a … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
6 Comments
DROPPING THE BALL (Restaurant fuck-ups)
We’ve all seen it. At a crucial moment in the game — when everything is on the line — some key player makes a horrible mistake. (Bill Buckner’s legendary error costs the Boston Red Sox the 1986 World Series title … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
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