Keeping Your Cool . . . Staying in Town;An Instant Rapport

Swinging from limb to limb alone in Manhattan, I occasionally stop by the upstairs bar at Sardi's, where Joe, the bartender, is my very good host. And there, particularly on summer evenings, I listen to the accents of regional America, whose speakers come to Sardi's or Broadway or the theater district and are delighted to run into a local, indeed a denizen of Times Square, and talk about themselves. For as Elwood P. Dowd once said, "Nobody brings anything small into a bar."

You can simply sit still and let America and the world come to you. For instance: a 20-something fellow walks in, leading a tour of a dozen Europeans. He drifts away from his charges and asks the bartender if he has a bottle of martini.

You know, the kind James Bond drinks," he says. "Shaken, not stirred."

It just so happens that I am drinking a martini, with gin and only a hint of vermouth. I tell him that this is what James Bond drinks. I offer him a taste. He grimaces, but we have developed instant, if temporary, rapport.

He tells me about himself (raised near Zurich, studied business in college, likes American girls) and where his tour group is headed (Washington). He is still confused about martinis, but he loves New York: "Everyone is so friendly."

Then there are Larry and Dana from South Carolina, who have tickets to "Defending the Caveman," which is next door. They have left the children at home for the first time and are planning to drive north to attend a wedding in Larchmont, N.Y., in a few days. How do they get there? Which roads should they take? I tell them.

But a man at the end of the bar says I'm nuts. He insists that they take the Hutchinson River Parkway, but not the Cross County. I argue they must take one to get to the other.

Larry and Dana smile, finish their drinks and pay the tab. The other guy and I continue to debate. He starts in on the Mets and builds up a real head of steam as Larry and Dana slip quietly downstairs and out onto 44th Street.

What luck to have met us! CHARLES STRUM