Get out of my way, I’m a customer

 I stopped at the front door, I didn’t have a mask and this particular grocery store required one. I rummaged through my pockets, and then through…

Barfly Podcast Season Four

Episode One: Stuart Morris, Sake Sommelier at SF’s Pabu Izakaya

Vodka is vodka, right? Not anymore

 It was in Ian Flemings second James Bond book (Live and Let Die, 1954) that 007 ordered his first “vodka martini.” By the time Bond made…

You reap what you sow, so sow carefully

The bar was full but not actually busy. A good bartender can make a huge crowd seem effortless, and a bad bartender can make three people…

Novato’s Maker Wine shakes up wine industry one can at a time

“When we were getting started what we heard a lot was that people would walk into a store and look at a shelf of wines and…

How we see the world is often how the world sees us

I would call the two of them older. But they were probably my age or younger. And aren’t we always kinder to ourselves when we judge…

Dharma bums and karmic cocktails

We were having a cocktail party. Not a large group but about ten friends for light snacks, cocktails, and conversation.   When one works in the hospitality…

Promises made are not the same as promises kept

The sun had already set, dimming the lights on the evening naturally. The electronic timers on the restaurant lighting did the rest. I’m not sure why…

Is “dry” by any other name still as sweet? That all depends on your definition of dry

 There is a saying that suggests that New Year’s Resolutions are merely a To-Do list for the first week of January. And if there has been…

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here

25 minutes until closing- The three women sat at the bar. Who knew what they were doing, but one look at the meticulous make-up, high heeled…