Monday, February 28, 2005

And the beat goes on......

It's Monday evening and as I look out the window, can't help but to chuckle at the nervous New Yorkers scurrying home like roaches in a lit room. Some things never change. In any case, here's the weekend recap:

My rockstar porter is apparently on a world tour b/c he didn't show up again on Sunday (and today as a matter of fact). I am guessing that this is a subtle way of him saying "I'm done with you little people, I must party with my fans...." In any case, it put me in a bind b/c I got stuck having to do his work both days. A thankless job, i'll tell ya. I won't stress about it here b/c what's done is done. We move on. Perhaps we'll see him on Mexican Idol or something someday.

I had a couple stop by last night; They were from England and to say they were DOA (drunk on arrival), would have been an understatement. It seems (from what I could decipher), that they were at Desmond's Tavern where they were "held hostage" by IRA extremists for several hours and forced to get drunk under duress. They kept repeating the same story over and over again until I had to load them into a cab and send them off to their hotel, at which point they could be heard saying "God Save the Queen" and "Bless that Damn Bartender!"

Our favorite patron (you know whooo) spent Sunday with the NASCAR regulars. Not quite sure of what was transpiring on the TV screen, it really didn't matter much as she carried on with the perennial laughter throughout the day and into the night. Customers came/Customers went, yet there she was (aside from the occasional trip to the loo and to Carl's Steak for the obliglatory cheesesteak sandwich)...from opening to close. A few observations on this: 1)It seems she has taken on the rather nasty habit of picking her nose openly, playing with the contents and wiping them on a napkin. Instead of concealing the napkin (or the nosepicking for that matter), she leaves the napkin on the bar for all to see.
2)It should be noted that she was a bit put-off by the fact that I didn't offer her a buy-back. First of all, I have a theory about buy-backs. New Yorkers seem to feel that it is obliglatory that a bartender gives a buy-back to every customer in the bar. People, the fact of the matter is (get out your pencils and write this down): Buy-backs are given at the discretion of the bartender. If he/she feels that you have been doing right by the bar and the bartender, then he/she will have no problem with offering a buy-back. If you are ordering four or five drinks a pop and haven't done the right thing by the bartender, your chances of a buy-back is about as good as Star Jones wearing a size 2 Carolina Herrera...it ain't happenin'. The bartender is NEVER obligated to give a buy-back. The WORST thing a customer could do is to demand a buy-back....not only will you not get one, chances are pretty good that you will be ignored the rest of the evening. Just a little trade secret....
Now where was I? Oh yes, our "friend" and the lack of a buyback. Folks, I gotta be honest here. For the amount of time that she spent in the bar and the number of beers that she had, any other day I would have had no problem giving doll baby another beer. But the fact of the matter was that everytime I looked in her direction and saw her digging for gold up her nose, it simply put me off. Call it what you want, it was just too much for me to deal with. Bless her heart.

One of our customers is a former commercial star (what product I won't divulge here). She loves to tell stories about herself and some of those stories indeed fall into the "R" rated category. She is intriguing in the fact that you can't help but to wonder what's true and what's fiction...but in a way, I think she likes it that way. She is definately a hoot to listen to!

I ran an Oscar Picks Pool....got about 10 people to enter. I came in second. I suck. Nuff said on that. I did win the weekly NASCAR pool which was nice. It's embarassing that a black man won a NASCAR pool. WTF? By the way, I had a couple of nice young ladies come in for a bit during the Oscar telecast. It turns out that one of them recently moved into the neighborhood. They were very nice and it was fun having them around during the Red Carpet ceremony. They were doing their own critique of the celebs as they were being interviewed by Star Jones. And speaking of which...is it just me or does that floating eye of hers bother you?

Well, today is the last day of February. That means there's about three weeks left of winter. Thank god! March Madness is coming and so is St. Patrick's Day. Ironically, they both fall on the same day. Hmmmm....

Thanks again for the feedback and keep them coming!

NUFF SAID