CLOSE-UP : Doc Martini

When Joseph Wambaugh decided to get a physical, some friends recommended Tom Cummings, a Pacific Beach family practitioner, albeit with unusual praise: “Wait till you see what a great drink he makes!”

Intrigued, the author went to see Dr. Tom, who, it turns out, bartends one night a week at Good Time Charlie’s, a local watering hole. “About 6 o’clock,” says Wambaugh, “here he comes in, casually dressed, wearing baggy slacks, tennis shoes and a T-shirt. He runs his hand through his hair and I think, ‘This is my doctor?’ ”

Sure is. Cummings, 41, is indulging an old hankering. “My college roommate was a bartender and I always envied his lifestyle,” he recalls. “He’d sleep in, go to the beach and play Frisbee, come back and nap. And he met interesting people.”

So when friend Charlie Somol opened his bar four years ago, Cummings got the chance to fulfill his dream. He’s been known to dispense medical advice along with the scotch, rocks. In fact, Wambaugh got the results of some tests at the bar.

“Dr. Tom is a great doctor,” Wambaugh says. “He actually makes house calls, and puts medicine before money. And,” he adds, “he makes a great vodka martini.”