Serve a Drink, Save a Life: This Is Restaurant Work!

LIFE: THE BEST DESSERT OF ALL –

Aug. 16, 2023 – Kevin Foehrkolb was tending bar on a routine Saturday night last September at Kent House Irish Pub in Towson, Md., when he heard a commotion from the corner booth where a group of regular customers were playing the card game Magic: The Gathering.

“They were the type to drink beer, not get rowdy or do shots,” he said.

When he ran over, he saw that one man’s face had turned yellow and his eyes had rolled back in his head. He was overdosing.

From behind the bar, Mr. Foehrkolb grabbed a dose of Narcan — a nasal-spray version of naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdose — that had recently been provided to the bar by the nonprofit Love in the Trenches. He tilted the man’s head back and pushed the plunger to release the dose. The customer woke up and was taken to the hospital. Mr. Foehrkolb, still jarred from the experience, returned to his shift.

“I thought it would be something that happens at the club next door,” he said. “Not so much at a quiet place where people are just playing games in a corner, casually drinking.”