This month marks 11 years of working in New York's service industry. It's changed a lot. As an Irish lad, I grew up on Cheers and in my first gig in New York, I found my solace at Molly Pitcher's Ale House—a popular joint where the regulars could have been characters on that show. Now, Molly Pitcher's is no more, Cheers is no more, and the characters are no more. In my first gig, a month in, I had learned that the bar corner seat was Rosie's, an 80-something iconic regular. When Rosie entered, she imperiously claimed her throne and...