Telling your story from beyond the grave is a bitch. You’ve gotta sign scrolls of release forms, and be put through an infernal vetting process that culminates with a hellish (it’s really the only word I can think of) interview with Beelzebub himself. “We musn’t meddle with the order of things,” he told me. No idea what he meant, but his serpentine voice repulsed me, so I nodded my head and million-dollar-smiled him, and here I am at my old job, in one final performance, to tell you how I lost my life to this shitty economy (and alcohol).

Glimpse the city as it was before fauxhawks, metrosexuality, and that internets thing.

1. The Campbell Apartment at Grand Central (Midtown East) - Former private office hidden in GCT with flapper-clad staff delivering expert shakers.
2. Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle Hotel (Upper East Side) - Named after Madeline creator Ludwig, whose murals enliven one of Manhattan’s classiest drinking experiences.
3. Ear Inn (Soho) - Geek-boy film crews and UPS workers in their fly brown shorts both agree on super- old, super-dark tavern.

Graydon Carter -- editor of Vanity Fair and owner/savior/matchbook-maker at the Waverly Inn -- has come to the rescue of yet another beleaguered New York restaurant. Word has leaked that Carter, along with a pair of partners, has purchased the Monkey Bar in the Hotel Elysée.