The Tender Bar
The Publicans was a popular restaurant and bar located in Manhasset, Long Island, where J.R. Moehringer spent much of his late teens and early adult life. His uncle Charlie, who lived in the same house as J.R., tended bar at the Publicans, and always gave his nephew special privileges there as well as free drinks.
Uncle Charlie was often a replacement for J.R.’s father, who had left home shortly after his son was born. During his adolescent years, J.R.’s only contact with his father was recognizing his voice on a radio talk show. The father never paid any child support, and except for several brief visits, stayed out of his son’s life. So J.R.’s mother became his only parent during his adolescent years.
Most of J.R.’s closest friends in his memoir were people he met and drank with at the bar. Uncle Charlie believed that a person is what he drinks. He classified people "by their cocktails." His nephew didn’t disagree, but learned that "misery loves company." He felt that the Publicans acted as a distraction from his wasted romance with Sidney and his problems at Yale University.
But the bar began to go down hill when its owner, Steve, suddenly died. J.R. and his bar friends all attended the funeral. Later, while his friends were finding a new bar, J.R. gave up drinking and moved to Denver as an author and a reporter.
The Tender Bar gives a vivid picture of the good and bad effects of a continuous bar life. The Publicans becomes almost a home, a way of life for the author. But other than his relationship with his father and his concern for his working mother, there is little suspense in the story.
The Tender Bar was published in 2006.