The Sandbar...Home of the Indoor Hurricane!

Open for Thanksgiving

The Sandbar will be open on Thanksgiving.

I think the only day of the year we're completely closed is Christmas Eve. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas often can be quite busy with displaced Lawrencians back in town for a visit. After all the food and family, sometimes you just need a bit of a break. And a beer.

Coleen will be tending bar and Andrew will be at the door. They'll probably be open around 8 p.m., so come on out for some holiday cheer.

Tell us what you're thankful for in the comments.

That's Why We Have a Jukebox

I was hanging around the bar on a Monday afternoon, watching Dave scurry around cleaning and stocking and doing whatever it is he does, and planning for St. Patrick's Day with Peach. Yes, we start planning our float early; in fact, we're a little behind schedule right now. But don't worry, we have a great idea in development.

Anyway, doorguy John and regular patron Emerson stopped by for awhile, and they told me a funny story from Sunday night.

Sunday nights aren't usually very busy, with bartender Joe and a few regulars making up the majority of the sparse crowd for most of the night. On this night, however, a small group of college students stopped in for some drinks.

Apparently this little group didn't like the selection on the jukebox. (I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that before; usually our jukebox gets rave reviews from practically everyone). But on this particular night, one of the girls wanted to hear Stevie Nicks, who unfortunately isn't in our library, and she demanded that Joe hook up her iPod to the sound system.

Joe, bless him, declined. We may be in the business of customer service, but that service doesn't extend to taking responsibility for a complete stranger's electronic gadget and plugging it into our system so that they can hear whatever song they want, whenever they want. And of course, with the Factor in charge, it's highly likely that hooking up her iPod would have wreaked havoc on the world.

The girl was obviously not accustomed to being told "no," and she continued to yell at Joe and demand that he play her music. And she now wanted rap music. Somebody must have forgotten to tell her they were in The Sandbar. Home of cheesy tropical tunes, cryin' country, and sing-along songs.

Joe refused to cave in to her demands, and eventually the group gave up and left. Perhaps next time they'll bring along some quarters and use the jukebox, like everyone else.

Wall Decor: A Gift from Friends

Much of the stuff that graces the walls of The Sandbar was gifted by customers. Many times, graduating seniors who are getting ready to leave Lawrence will leave something behind for us to remember them by; other times they aren't necessarily leaving but just want a piece of themselves on the wall of their favorite bar.

This framed picture hangs high on the wall just to the right of the jukebox. It was presented by three lovely ladies- Lauren, Lindsay, and Elizabeth- who were  regular patrons from 2004-2006. Each of them signed the photo, and the frame reads "Thanks for the nights we don't remember, at a bar we'll never forget!"

Thanks, ladies, for the gift.

The Scooter Whisperer

Sandbar friend and regular Devin- fondly known to us as Devo- graduated and left town last summer. But before she moved away, she wrote this poem for Dave.

Scooter Whisperer

He moves through the door
Like a calm cool breeze
The bar responds with a roar.
His gentle presence brings us ease.

He's got some new deal,
Some project he's been working on.
He'll listen to your spiel,
Even if it's a total bomb.

"Hey- how tall is that guy?"
Some drunk broad asks.
He doesn't come to work in a tie,
In height glory he basks.

In only a minute he'll fix your scooter.
If you're a butthead, he won't be ruder.

We're all lucky to know the Big Wave.
He might throw you out, if you misbehave.

He gets real psyched for a hurricane.
When he's tending bar the tips rain.

On your birthday he makes you feel glorious,
When you work with him, it's never laborious.

I'll never forget my times at Sandbar-
Okay, well some of 'em.
Those are the best by far,
And it's totally because of him.

I don't think even I could have written such a nice poem about Dave. Thanks, Devo. We miss you.

Door Diaries 9/1/06

Caught middle age girls stealing t-shirts upstairs.

Bar band was good.

--David

(at least he still thinks of the middle-aged women as "girls.")

Chris and Joe's Excellent Adventures in Cycling

The Sandbar scooter gang is alive and well, even though it's getting cold outside, and we've allowed Chris to be a member even though he has a motorcycle instead of a cool scooter.

A few weeks ago, Chris was lazy or something and left his motorcycle parked downtown for what seemed like days. He didn't seem to be concerned about it's welfare at all. Dave and Joe moved the bike around to a couple different parking places over the weekend, and Chris didn't even notice.

Finally, the Factor said, "We should put the bike inside the bar!"

To which Dave replied, "That's a great idea!"

So they picked up Chris' bike and moved it into the back room of The Sandbar. Yes, you read that correctly- inside the bar. They thought Chris would surely be downtown on Monday, looking for his bike. But he wasn't.

Chris had no idea any of these shenanigans were even happening until he arrived at work that Monday night and found his bike in the back room.

Which brings me to Joe's adventure.

Joe left The Matador, a.k.a. his little red barely-moving scooter, in a downtown parking space over the weekend. Yes, he should have picked it up long before he did, and he certainly should owe the City of Lawrence plenty of little yellow envelopes stuffed with wrinkled dollar bills.

What he did not deserve, however, was the sight that greeted him when he finally got out of lazy mode and went to get the Matador: the scooter, lying on its side, in a handicapped parking space next to the space where it was originally parked, and with a $100 ticket.

Someone apparently was looking for a parking place downtown and his scooter was an easy target. But as easy as it is to simply pick up and move into a planter, they didn't do that; they simply shoved it from one parking space into another one that was much more expensive.

It could only happen to Joe.

Odell IPA, Now on Tap

You might notice a new elephant peeking out from the row of tap handles at The Sandbar.

We recently replaced New Belgium's seasonal Skinny Dip brew with Odell Brewing Company's IPA. It's won some stuff, and our former staffer Matt recommended it, so now it's on tap.

The company's website says it is a "sustainable, green micro-brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, with a tap room for beer tasting; brewing handcrafted and small batch beers that include pale ales, stouts, pilsners and porters."  It seems like a cool company, and you can read about their history here.

Stop by and enjoy one, and let us know what you think of it.

Man on the Street

This is a little late, but our very own Pattoo was the "Man on the Street" for the Lawrence Journal-World last week.

He's had this honor a lot. I think he hangs around on Mass Street and stalks the reporter so he can be in the newspaper. He also got to star as the "Man on the Street" in our very first hurricane video. One of these days I'll find it and upload it to the internet so you can see it. It was a good one.

This time, Pat's question was: "How do you feel now that Obama has won the election?"

And his answer was very politically correct, in my opinion: “I’m kind of excited and anxious. I hope that he can do the things he promised and bring about the change that people are looking for.”

You can go here to see his picture.

Blog Stuff: October 2008

Can you believe it's November already? It's time to start planning our St. Patrick's Day float!

The blog stayed fairly busy last month. There were 863 visits, which is more than the 689 last year during October, and a few more than last month's 804. Average number of visits every day was almost 28. At least I'm not losing people.

One of my favorite parts of the statistics page for the blog is the referral page- or the silly things people type into Google that lead them here. 

makingjelloshots.blogspot.com

• I was surprised to see this show up one day. I clicked on the link and found myself on a blog dedicated to exactly that- making jello shots. I was also surprised to see that the owner of the blog had pretty much cut and pasted my entire post about our jello-fish shots onto their blog. Not cool. 

gmailblog.blogspot.com

• So, when I wrote about Gmail's new feature, Mail Goggles, I had no idea that Google apparently has a magic feature that automatically adds a link to anything that links to them (I know, I should have known better, it's Google after all). Within minutes of posting, the Sandbar blog was inundated with what seemed like five thousand visitors from Google.

hurricane famouses

• I don't know about hurricanes, but I can tell you where to go to learn adjectives and proper placement of them.

what do mermaids have for fashion

• why, green sequins and bras, of course! 

And, my favorite search phrase of all time....

how do you dress up as a hurricane for Halloween

I don't have an answer for that one.

New License Plates for the Wall

The Sandbar got a surprise in the mail last week!

A former patron from over ten years ago, Christie in Kirkland, WA, mailed three of her old license plates to us. They're from three different states, Colorado, Washington and Oregon, and all of them are Jayhawk-related vanity plates. She wanted to have them hang on the walls of The Sandbar. I'm assuming that she spent many happy nights here back in 1996.

Christie, if you happen to read this, thank you for the gift! We will happily hang these up, and we hope you come in for a visit sometime!