Help with a Poem about Philippe's (1 Viewer)

[Doct]

I'm trying to find a poem Bukowski wrote about Philippe's. I can't remember if I read it or if I heard it at a reading Bukowski gave at USC in '71.

I seem to recall something about the winos coming in and about how kind the waitresses/sandwich makers were.

Thanks

 

[hoochmonkey9]

there's this in Ham On Rye, pg. 218:

Philippe's was nice too. You could get a cup of coffee for three cents with all the refills you wanted. You could sit in there all day drinking coffee and they never asked you to leave no matter how bad you looked. They just asked the bums not to bring in their wine and drink it there. Places like that gave you hope when there wasn't much hope.

there may be a poem also.

 

[nymark]

There's a poem called "The Bums at Philippe's." I don't see it in the database but I know it's out there. It was reprinted in one of the Black Sparrow books.

 

[mjp]

I don't see that in the new database...could just be missed, or in Continual, which may not be in there yet.

The only poem that mentions it by name in the db is Phillipe's 1950, which is in what matters most and The Pleasures of the Damned.

 

[Ponder]

I don't see that in the new database...could just be missed, or in Continual, which may not be in there yet.

Just checked Continual, it's not in it.

 

[mjp]

Yeah, I can't find any reference to The Bums at Philippe's in the BSP books. But Phillipe's 1950 fits the bill for what Doct describes.

---

(Not so) shocking real world update!

I was ready to head over there with some guys from work today, then we found this.

...we may still go...​

 

[Ponder]

Ah, I just read the poem and I think you're right.

 

[nymark]

I use to have a copy of COLD DOGS with the carbon of "The Bums at Philippe's" stapled in the center and I remember seeing it published in a BSP book. I'll try to dig it up over the weekend.

 

[roni]

Isn't this very website sometimes called 'Philippe's'? Only with the spelling wrong?

 

[mjp]

Indeed! Hammer it down!

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Yes, that's m. j. Phillipe's, to be exact.

 

[mjp]

I'm still depressed that it was shut down and I was denied their sweet meat today. I intend to drive over there tomorrow and grab a handful of beef dips because, hey, it's bound to be cleaner than it ever has been now.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

If they don't permeate the food with chlorine and degreasers.

 

[nervas]

I flooded the toilet at Philippe's when I was about 12 years old! It was after or before a Dodger game, and the poor waitress had to come out and mop the floors while customers ate. I was there with my parents and their friends and the waitress was actually mopping the floor while we raised our feet and ate our pastrami sandwiches! Not really sure how I flooded it, but everyone blamed me, since the flood started immediately after I walked out of the restroom.

 

[mjp]

That's how they roll at Philippe's, not a lot of high-handed luxury. Lift up yer feet, kid, mop coming through.

 

[Digney in Burnaby]

Recent story about Philippe's "patriarch", Bill Binder, who passed away January 28th of this year.

 

[nymark]

I heard from a reliable source that "The Bums at Philippe's" and "Philippes 1950" are actually one in the same. Apparently, Bukowski changed the title between the time he originally wrote it and when it was published by BSP.

 

[roni]

I heard from a reliable source [...]

come on! Do we need to say it: hm,hmmm???