- 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)
- 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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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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