last-call-at-elaines-ii-last-call-at-the-magician

Elaine's The Blogger Bar Of Its Time

Rebecca · 04/21/08 01:09PM

If Gay Talese had a blog, he'd be all about promoting Last Call at Elaine's, Brian McDonald's memoir of bartending at the legendary old-school New York intellectual hang-out. Elaine's was to the '60s and '70s what the Magician was to three years ago. That means that McDonald is as connected to old-school media types as you can get without a masthead position at the New York Review of Books. So even though this book appears to be an account of an era only a few dozen people could care about it, it's the right few dozen people. Brian McDonald is Sloane Crosley for The Olds. At a reading last week on the Upper East Side, the book sold out, presumably to its entire audience.