Late Night Stragglers I looked at the clock on the wall, only ten minutes till closing, and that took into account that the clock is 10 minutes fast, a little trick that keeps waiting customers semi-placated, when their tables are running late. And on this particular night all the tables had been running late. It had been a long bruising night. Hundreds of people, hundreds of drinks, I could feel the weight of fatigue causing my shoulders to slump. The holidays were over, but the crowds were still coming. They might not be spending as much as previous years, but they were making up for a lack of financial reserves by compensating with cheaper product, in volume. Meaning that twice as much work was needed to make the same amount of money. But I'm not complaining, I'm just happy that I work in a business that is at least partly recession proof. I checked in with the equally tired manager manning the front door to see if there were any straggling guests. Nope, all clear. We both breathed a sigh of relief. I had just prepared myself to go home when the phone rang. "No, we close in a few minutes," said the closing manager, to the person on the other end. "What? Oh, I see," he said. "Yes that'll be no problem," he said. "It looks like we're staying open late," he said to no one in particular. "That was Carlos Santana," the manager said. "He is bringing a special guest in and we're going to stay open for them." Celebrities really do receive special treatment, I thought, as I headed back to the bar for who knew how long. I thought of another night many years ago when another manager, myself, and the guitarist and drummer from one of the world's pre-eminent heavy metal bands hung around until almost three in morning at a local nightclub. Sure we locked the doors at 2 a.m. but the drummer was having relationship issues and was in no hurry to go home and we weren't about to kick him out. So there we sat until he was good and ready to go. Legally speaking we were breaking the law, but when the opportunity comes to hang out with your rock and roll heroes you might just take a few liberties too. Mr. Santana arrived in one of the nicest muted brown suits that I have ever seen. Decades of success can produce financial security, even in a down economy. I have waited on him before and have found him to be polite, charming if a little ethereal. His dinner guest was none other than Narada Michael Walden, the record producer who has a string of number one hits with several different artists. Mr. Walden had on a fur lined overcoat and what appeared to be a velvet bowler style hat. It dawned on me that I had never seen the both of them dressed quite so well. They are both local boys and I have seen them at several local watering holes but they tonight they were dressed as if they were going to accept Grammies. They also didn't appear to be in any hurry to sit down. Which was odd considering that we had technically closed 15 minutes earlier. It had all the markings of another late night. I poured them two glasses of wine and continued cleaning up. I moved slowly figuring that I now had at least an extra hour to get things done. I also had plenty of question answering to be done down at the other end of the bar. "Is that who I think it is?" asked each customer in turn as I came near, sometimes referring to Mr. Santana and sometimes referring to Mr. Walden. Music Royalty can inspire awe, especially at the local watering hole. Suddenly, both men stood up quickly, almost deferentially, when the front door opened. Here were two men who on their own generated quite a lot of public interest. Together that interest increased exponentially. But our latest arriving guest pushed that interest to another level entirely. Mr. Quincy Jones and entourage had just entered the building. Apparently he had been at a local book signing promoting his new book The Complete Quincy Jones which details his work with the likes of Sinatra, Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey amongst others. A murmur went through the few remaining patrons; the electricity in the air was palpable. 27 Grammies will do that. Ironically the song "Feed the World," a holiday music straggler, began to play on the speakers. I smiled remembering that Jones had produced the copycat American version of that song, "We are the World." I wondered if he noticed. I also wondered if we might be seeing the beginning of a new collaboration, one with a decidedly more local tilt to it. The next hour involved wining and dining the little group in the mostly empty dining room. When I finally left the restaurant nearly two hours after our regular closing time I realized one salient truth about the restaurant business, and a new truth about Mr. Santana and Mr. Jones. 1) Sometimes the very last people to enter a restaurant-the stragglers if you will- are also by far the most interesting. 2) Carlos likes his red wine, "Strong and Sweet." 3) Quincy likes to add a touch of his own fruit juice concoction to his top of the line Pinot Noir