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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
A straight-up account of masculinity, maturity and memory that leaves a smile on the face and an ache in the heart. [15 Jul 2005, p. 779]
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Jan Brue Enright
ust like at Cheers, everybody knew your name at Publicans. They also knew your cousin's name, your grade point average, and the best Frank Sinatra song to mend a broken heart. [1 Sep 2005, p. 142]
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Donna Rifkind
An aching torch song of a memoir. [11 Sep 2005, p. R8]
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Outstanding
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New York Observer Alexandra Jacobs
The Tender Bar is quite simply... wunderbar! [29 Aug 2005, p. 18]
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Outstanding
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Booklist Keir Graff
Funny, honest, and insightful, The Tender Bar finds universal themes in an unusual upbringing and declares a real love of barroom life without romanticizing it too much. [Aug 2005, p. 1969]
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Outstanding
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
[Moehringer]'s the best memoirist of his kind since Mary Karr wrote "The Liars' Club." [His] book is a doozy.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Jonathan Miles
A melancholy romance between a boy and a corner saloon that's as smoky and heart-crackling as a Sinatra 78.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling
Moehringer has hours and hours of stories that any bar hound worth his stool would bend both ears to drink in. Thankfully, the writer has opted to put them down on paper
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Brad Tyer
Hard to tell if [this is] a mislabeled novel or a misleading memoir, but in the end it hardly matters. The sheer worry that's gone into buffing the gloss is impressive.
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly Terry Golway
More than anything else, Moehringer's book is a homage to the culture of the local pub. [27 Jun 2005, p. 50]
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Michael Jaime-Becerra
Throughout his memoir, Moehringer's depictions of the bar and the culture that thrives there are always vivid, and his affection for his subjects is tangible.
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Favorable
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USA Today Bob Minzesheimer
Alternately heartbreaking and hilarious.
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Favorable
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Washington Post Bob Ivry
The book ends up being funny, vivid and clever, peppered with self-deprecation and populated by larger-than-life lugs.
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Favorable
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Chicago Tribune Art Winslow
Phrase by phrase, Moehringer's writing is consistently strong, but it quickly becomes apparent that his anecdotes unerringly dovetail to some epiphany or literary stroke. In the best interpretation, that represents clever shaping of fortuitous material; in the worst, it suggests a sort of barroom latitude in telling the tale. [27 Nov. 2005, p. C1]
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Lawrence Norfolk
The Tender Bar is a memoir, but has the texture of a novel. Some of the incidents stretch credulity... and some of the minutely-reported speech, recalled or researched decades later, does too.
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Mixed
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The New Yorker
Perhaps as a result of his reverence for the [bar]--and despite his assurances that he can accurately recall drunken conversations long past--scenes there often feel contrived and mawkish.
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