Topical Guide 410
Mark Dorset
Drinking: Cocktails: Martini
Tonight he’ll be reviewing the Alley View Grill. He knows he shouldn’t arrive in a bad mood. The wise thing to do would be to shower and change his clothes right away. That really would be the wise thing to do. Fresh clothes, a shave — that might change his outlook. Instead he makes a drink, a martini, a Bombay martini.
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 1
Places, Real and Fictional: “Boston,” “The South End”
He has a beautiful view. It was the reason he bought this apartment. His living room looks out over the poorest sections of the city. He knows nothing about these areas at first hand; the newspapers tell him that black people live there, the illiteracy rate is high, children sell crack from their front steps, banks try to avoid writing mortgages there, many of the adults are unemployed or have jobs that don’t pay well — food-service jobs, for instance — but from his living room it looks beautiful. The buildings are old, many of them brick Victorian town houses, and their roofscape is charming, by day or by night, but especially at sunset, when the red sun makes the red brick glow.
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 1
Music: Jazz
His roommates would come home from the library late at night and find him sitting in the dark, in a corner, listening to jazz and brooding. They began to think that he was deeply troubled, possibly dangerous. He enjoyed something like respect for this moodiness. He has brought with him from that period a bittersweet affection for the big, breathy saxophones of Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry, and Ben Webster.
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 1
See also:
Drinking: Cocktails, Cocktail Shakers TG 57; Drinking; Smoking TG 15; Cocktails, Old Fashioned TG 132; Cocktails: The Shirley Temple TG 150
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