When I made my first “big bucks,” I took my friends out to a restaurant. We ordered Martini vermouth and Grand Piano vodka—the crème de la crème! I wanted to feel the weight of the glass in my hand, imagine that I was one of the beautiful people. We lit up our Marlboros. Everything was just like we’d read about in Remarque. For a long time, we modeled ourselves after those images. New stores, new restaurants…They were like stage sets from a different life…
