The Writing Bartenders of Stanley's

You've heard of the Dancing Waters and the Flying Wallendas, but chances are you don't know that Sherman Oaks is home to the Writing Bartenders.

Kirk Driscoll and Steve DeWinter are master mixologists at restaurant, 13817 Ventura Blvd., just west of Woodman Avenue, where for decades they've been pouring the wine and mixing the margos behind the eatery's popular wraparound bar.

Now they've become authors—and the subjects—of a new e-book about their bartending adventures and misadventures, called Burn the Ice.

"We've seen it all," Driscoll told Sherman Oaks Patch. "I've been here 29 years, ever since Stanley's opening day."

"And I started in 1990," DeWinter added, "so I'm the new guy, with just over 20 years on the clock."

"This bar's always been a mecca for neighbors who simply walk over, for singles during the '80s, and as a meeting spot for the constant stream of diners from all over L.A.," DeWinter said. "Everyone loves the fresh food and the airy atmosphere. And the bar.

"So ... sob stories and celebrations, bar fights and drunks, matches made in heaven or, hell, huge celebs and really rotten reprobates, you name it. Yup, we've seen it all.

"Heck, I even met my wife here, and then, after getting divorced, my current girlfriend!"

Driscoll, whose avocation is as a photographer, related, "One regular Stanley's customer who's a writer used to come in often and talk with us about the wild things that have happened to us around this bar.

"Robert Crane's his name, and he found our job fascinating. Bob finally proposed that we should do a book, and he would help us. That's how Burn the Ice came to be.

"Bob did a series of in-depth interviews with us, since we're not really writers. And, man, he got us talking. We dredged up tons of the crazy stories about what's happened right here at Stanley's over the years."

"He got our recollections and all that spice and scandal into e-book form, and it's now available on Amazon," DeWinter said. "Lots of people who were bartenders in their youth look back and say, 'Hey, that was the best time in my life.' Well, we still get to have that best time every time we come to work.

"We get to have fun, be referees, be sociable, settle battles, stop people from getting killed, and see so many great people."

Added Driscoll, "Our feedback so far is, most people are really kinda blown away by the book. ... 'You really met that person? That really happened?' "

But why the title Burn the Ice?

The guys answered, "I'm sure you've all seen the big pile of ice behind the bar, which we use in all the drinks. It's in either a basin or a bucket or a large bin. Well, if anything falls into that basin—either a stray piece of food, or bits of a broken glass, or a cigarette butt—the ice is immediately dumped. In bartender parlance, we say, 'Burn the ice,' and out it goes.

"Our book is about all the unexpected things at Stanley's that 'fell into the ice,' so to speak."