The Sandbar...Home of the Indoor Hurricane!

The Mysterious Bartenders at The Sandbar

There was an article in yesterday's campus newspaper about "the secret life of bartenders." It talked about the various roles that bartenders can play, like babysitter, peacekeeper, and even chauffeur; the drama they get to see; and the pros and cons of attending a professional (and expensive) bartending school.

It was a very timely article because when I came home from work yesterday, Dave made a comment about how he's had lots of people walking in lately and asking for a job.

Two girls stopped by and asked for applications, and Dave started to hand them something to write their name and number on, when Joe- yes, Joe!- had the presence of mind to say "You know you have to be 21 to work here."  Score one for the Factor- the girls didn't know, and weren't.

The article mentions how most bartenders in town have worked their way up from other less glamorous jobs in the bar. That's definitely true in some ways at The Sandbar- Dave has never hired someone he's never seen before who walked in and asked for a job. Attending a fancy bartending school doesn't impress him either.  Pretty much everyone who works at The Sandbar was a regular customer first, and a customer who wasn't a pain in the you-know-what.

It was interesting to read about some student bartenders experiences with their jobs. You can read the article here.

I was amused, though, by the author's characterization of bartenders as "mysterious" and "charismatic." 

A Few New Drinks

The Sandbar has a few new drinks to satisfy your thirst, and Dave said it's finally a lineup he likes.

Hava Lava

This is a fruit-punchy type of drink that looks like flaming lava, only it's served ice cold. We're looking for a fun volcano-themed toy to add to this drink but for now, you get whatever we happen to have in stock.

Pink Flamingo

This one isn't new, but it's been tweaked. Dave's mom served us a fun pink drink at Christmas that she called the Pink Panty Pull-down (I have no idea where that name came from, so don't even ask- although this post will probably get spammed until the next century for mentioning the p-word).  Instead of adding a new drink, we just replaced the previous Pink Flamingo recipe with this one. Sorry, Maynards.

Mango-Rita

A  new margarita in honor of owner/founder Peach, whose real name is Rita. She probably wouldn't want that revealed, but it fits the drink. Just what it sounds like, a mango flavored margarita.

Pina Colada

The last new drink is our only frozen drink, replacing the frozen Hurricanes we've had for awhile. It's your typical pina colada and it's delicious. It even has real banana in it. Just kidding, it's creme de banana liqueur, but you'd never know it.

Next time you're in the bar, step out of your comfort zone and try one of the new drinks!

The Sandbar is a Hot Spot

Of course The Sandbar is a hot place to go for an evening of drinks or dancing or fun. But now we have another definition of a hot spot.

You know that area above the beer cooler, where one of the TV's sits? Dave and I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon cleaning and clearing out old wires so we could replace the old router hub with a new one that would allow us to set up a wireless network. And let's just say that area isn't on the regular cleaning list.

It took us awhile to do all of this. We have an old PC sitting up there that our cable modem, webcam, and the monitor above the bar are plugged into. There's also a keyboard and a mouse for the rare moments that we actually need to do something on the computer. This was one of those moments.

While there are many cords and cables connecting all of this stuff, none of them are very long. The computer is up in the corner; the monitor is halfway down the bar. The keyboard and mouse wouldn't reach more than a few feet away from the computer. And all of it sits over my head. Needless to say, we had quite the balancing act going on: standing on a chair in between the computer and monitor, squinting to see the monitor that was still four feet away, and alternating between holding the keyboard and using the mouse on a clipboard-turned-mousepad. Not a very ergonomic way to work on a computer.

But the end result is that we now have a new wireless network in the bar, and we've decided to leave it open for those of you who might want to check your email or surf the web from your laptop or your phone.

There's another reason that we needed to set this up, but I'm saving that big announcement for another day.

But the Women's Shirts Fit Better

It's a Friday night at The Sandbar. Chris is behind the bar sporting a bright and shiny red Sandbar shirt.  Dave stops by to check on things, and Joe takes him aside to whisper in his ear. 

"Don't tell anyone, but I think Chris is wearing a girls shirt."

"Hey Chris, what size is this shirt?" Dave asks as he pulls the tag out to check for himself.

"Extra-large!!" Chris responds rather proudly.

Fast forward to later in the night. Andrew arrives for his shift. As he walks through the bar towards the back room, Chris makes a comment about how Andrew looks like he's in high school when he wears his hat backwards.  Andrew doesn't hear him. 

"Hey Andrew, did you hear that? Chris said you look like a high school kid with your hat on backwards!" Dave yells across the bar, ever the instigator and setting Chris up perfectly for what would come next.

Andrew stops and looks at Chris.

"Oh yeah? Well at least I'm not wearing a girl's shirt."

It's just a like a locker room around here sometimes.

Take A Virtual Tour of The Sandbar

I was checking The Sandbar's Facebook page the other day, going through the friend requests, when one of them caught my eye. First, there were no "mutual friends," which I thought was odd, because usually the friend requests tend to come from someone who's already friends with eight of our friends.

The other odd thing was the name- it sounded more like a business than a person, and a business I'd never heard of. My first thought was that it was one of those entertainment/promotion companies that seem to have overtaken MySpace with their spammy bulletins. I hesitated to approve the friend request (sorry, Tim, if you're reading this!) because I didn't want to turn the Facebook page into a place for other companies to constantly try to promote another bar or event.

In the end, though, I approved the person. And now I'm glad I did- almost immediately, a link was posted on our page to The Sandbar's little space on Roundus, a cool little website that offers virtual tours of, well, everywhere.  Roundus is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and they aim to build a virtual tour of the world by starting in the Midwest and eventually expanding across the globe.

You can go here to see 360-degree views of The Sandbar from six different vantage points, even outside. Although it's not near-real-time like our webcam, it's a very clear (and bright!) picture of everything you love about The Sandbar.

Dave was a little surprised when I asked him if he knew there was a virtual tour of the bar online, and not one we created.  Apparently the bartender on duty failed to inform Dave of the activity that was taking place. Fortunately, said bartender appears in the video so we can properly flog him later. 

The Year of Rock Band

Passing along a fun link that Chad found...

Entertainment Weekly magazine recently selected their "best and worst of 2008." One section of this feature highlighted one of our favorite things of the year too: Rock Band.

If you haven't played on our fancy stage upstairs at The Sandbar, check with the bartenders next time you visit. Unless it's ten o'clock on a Friday or Saturday night, chances are good that they'll hook you up. And then you, too, can be a rock star.

Door Diaries 1/11/08

Good night. 5-gong night. (5 gong night= great; 1 gong night= terrible). Lot of students back. No good looking girls at all.

--Andrew

Out with 2008, In with 2009!

Happy New Year to everyone!

The Sandbar had another great new year's eve celebration last night. It's always an interesting night- not a lot of regulars, but lots of other people who maybe don't go out that much. There's hardly any turnover all night, and because of that there's almost never a line; the people who show up after the bar is full know they'll spend an hour in line hoping for someone to leave.

Hayley tended bar during the early shift, which actually got pretty busy with people coming in to watch the Insight Bowl game. Chris and Danny took over at 9 p.m.; don't they look like they're working in this picture?  And check out the new addition to Danny's face.

We started charging a $10 cover during the last part of the game. A lot higher than normal, but since there's almost no turnover and surprisingly people really don't drink like fish, and it's a holiday, it seemed justified. We heard there were places in town charging $25 and up just to get in, not even including any food.

Speaking of food, Dave put out a spread of hot dogs, meatballs with marinara, nachos, and little smokies. All the great bar food we all love. The entire bar made a champagne toast at midnight and welcomed the new year.

Overall it was a pretty good night. No scuffles, no super-drunk people who needed to be escorted outside (well, except the lady in the funky tights who had to leave really early), and everyone was in a really good mood.

We hope you had fun, too, wherever you were!

Photos from the celebration have been uploaded to The Sandbar's Flickr photostream.  If you're a Flickr member, you can join The Sandbar group and upload your favorite Sandbar photos to share with members.