by Debbi | Sep 8, 2011 | Around the World, Guest Blogs
Several months ago, we introduced our friends at Team Cocktail and they wrote a guest post about their company. They also graciously provided some tips for our fans about tropical drinks, islands and bars- in case you feel like traveling! Lyndsey wrote this several months ago, so we'll check back in with them to see if these are still Team Cocktail favorites, or if they've discovered new favorites.
Favorite Tropical Drink: It's so hard for us to choose just one because our motto is: Travel Global, Drink Local. So wherever we are, we drink the local beverage of choice, and we love that. But if we had to pick just one…it would probably be the Painkiller from The Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke, a British Virgin Island. It's one of those tropical drinks that has a tendency to sneak up on you after only a couple. It's a delicious mix of rum (lots of it), coconut creme, juices and fresh nutmeg.
Favorite Tropical Island/Bar: Well obviously we love the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke from our answer above. Jost Van Dyke is a secluded island that is untouched by commercial development. Remember Kenny Chesney's song "Somewhere in the Sun," well this is the island he is singing about. Picture perfect white sand, turquoise blue waters, friendly people and a few beach bar/shacks along the beach not a hotel or resort in sight.
A few other favorites are Bikini Beach Bar on Orient Beach in St. Martin, The Boatyard on Barbados and Reggae Beach Bar on St. Kitts. We could list so many more but these top the list!
Where has Team Cocktail traveled, what places are up next? Wow, I don't know that you would even want to read about all of the places we have traveled, nor do I think I could list them all. But let's just say that between all four founders we have been to almost every Caribbean island, Maui, the Mediterranean, the UK, Europe and around the U.S.
You'll be able to read about our upcoming adventures as well as our past travels at http://blog.teamcocktail.com/.
It's probably no surprise that those of us at the Sandbar are jealous of Team Cocktail's travels to tropical locales! If we're ever able to get away from the bar for a tropical vacation, we'll definitely give them a call for tips on where to go and what to drink.
by Debbi | Sep 7, 2011 | Drinking Rules, Guest Blogs
This post was written by long-time Sandbartender Danny and originally appeared on his blog, This Blog Will Waste Your Time. Danny graciously gave us permission to repost it here, in hopes that more people will read it and learn something about proper behavior in the bar.
Hi! Are you a bar customer on a busy night? Do you need a drink? Let's run through some scenarios involving knowledge of the bartender's name to demonstrate some key principles of bar etiquette. Come along and bring your mind's eye for this magical journey!
Situation: You do not know my name and would like a drink.
Appropriate action: Wait patiently. You may not realize it, but in the 2 seconds it took me to glance up, I did see you and I now know you want a drink. I will get to you.
Situation: You want to know my name (for whatever reason)
Appropriate action: When I get around to serving you, you may politely ask my name along with providing your drink order. I will likely make an on-the-spot judgement of you to determine whether or not you're a "yeller". If you seem on the level, I will tell you my name. If not, you'll get a fake name. Something that I can easily ignore. No offense, of course, but I'll still know you want a drink, and it won't make any difference to you.
Situation: You know my name.
Appropriate action: Use my name in situations like "Thanks for the drink, Danny!", or "Nice to meet you, Danny!" or "Congratulations on whatever thing you recently accomplished, Danny!" etc….
Keep in mind that I did not include the phrase "Danny, I would like a drink." Which leads us to…
Situation: You know my name and you want a drink.
Appropriate action: Wait patiently. As before, it won't take me long to see you waiting. Do not yell my name. Since I am already aware you want a drink, this serves only to demonstrate to me that you think you shouldn't have to wait your turn. This also makes me less inclined to want to serve you and may lead to a longer than normal wait for your drink.
Situation: Somebody asks you "What is the bartender's name?"
Appropriate action: Regardless of whether you know my name or not, you should simply say "I don't know." The reason for this is because the question "What is the bartender's name?" is almost without fail followed by "HEY DANNY! CAN I GET A BLAH BLAH BLAH AND COKE?" These people are referred to as "yellers". They are lumped in with the glass-tappers, the money/hand wavers, the bar pounders, and the whistlers. Of this group of very special people, the yellers are perhaps the most annoying, and usually get to wait the longest for service because of their brilliant contribution to my bar atmosphere.
Situation: You are my friend, you know my name, and you want a drink.
Appropriate action: Wait patiently. If you think you're my friend and are under the impression that yelling my name to get a drink faster is appropriate, you're probably not actually my friend. You're at best an acquaintance, and more than likely a random person who just asked the person next to you what my name is. You're also a "yeller". The difference between you and an actual friend of mine is that anybody who is actually friends with me knows not to yell to get my attention. And they probably tip better than you as well.
And you wonder why they always seem to get served before you.
So, there you have it. A veteran bartender's advice on how and when to use his name. Stay tuned for more bar etiquette posts; we've got lots of advice.
by Debbi | Aug 11, 2011 | Guest Blogs, Random Holidays
Last week during Shark Week, we noticed several tweets on our Twitter page from a customer named Sarah. She was very enthusiastic about Shark Week and spent a lot of time at the Sandbar, and she also posted some great pictures, so we asked her to write a guest blog.
My name is Sarah and I am a 2011 KU graduate from Atchison, KS. I absolutely love the Sandbar and have been visiting quite frequently since my 21st birthday. My first drink from the Sandbar was a Shark Attack. After my first shark, I fell in love with them!
I decided to make it my goal to get 100 sharks from the Sandbar before I graduated. 100 sharks in 2 years? I could do it. After about 15 sharks, I realized that I needed to do something with my sharks. I now hang them on the wall next to my bed- my favorite decoration in my room. In this picture, I have about 40-some sharks. Every time I had a friend come visit from out of town, I always made them visit the Sandbar and buy them a Shark Attack.
(now that's a dedicated Shark Attack fan!)
Soon after my 21st birthday, Shark Week on the Discovery Channel was getting ready to start and I knew I had to do something for it. Although I was busy with summer school, I managed to make it to Sandbar for a night to celebrate Shark Week.
This year I decided to take it to the next level- T-shirts! My roommates and I made shirts and gave ourselves nicknames. I chose the name of my favorite shark, Bruce, from Finding Nemo. My roomates and I went almost every night of Shark Week to get Shark Attacks and to watch Shark Week (we don't have cable.) This year I added about 10 sharks to my collection. I'll have to put my Shark Week shirt away until next year, but hopefully we can do something more for next year.
The Sandbar has always been my favorite bar and feels like home. I've spent my last two birthday there and plan on spending many more at Sandbar. I love the Sandbar and I love the Shark Attacks! I may not have met my goal, but I will continue to collect my sharks.
Thanks for contributing to our blog, Sarah! For her effort, we gave her a gift: a Sandbar Shark Fest 2011 T-shirt. Appropriate, no?
by Debbi | Jul 27, 2011 | Guest Blogs, Stories
After posting our recent story about ladies locking themselves in the bathroom, long-time regular customer Lisa posted a comment with her favorite Sandbar bathroom memory.
One of my favorite memories there is a bathroom one too! This really drunk girl kept pushing and pushing on the bathroom door and looked rather flustered when it wouldn't open. I pointed out that someone was probably in there and the door was locked. She swore up and down to me that there were stalls in the bathroom and more than one person could go in there and that the door must be stuck.
Finally the girl who had been inside opened the door and came out, and the drunk girl looked totally amazed that indeed there was only one toilet in the women's bathroom (I of course was dying inside from not laughing in her face at this point). She goes into the restroom to do her business and I start telling my friends, who are sitting at the tables by the bathroom, about her.
I reenact her pushing on the door, when to my surprise the door flies open to her sitting on the toilet. After she finished and came out she told me she couldn't lock the door because the lock didn't work. Forget that it had been locked previously, she clearly was also trying to use the wrong lock!
Love this.
by Debbi | May 30, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Guest Blogs, Web/Tech
Last January, we stumbled across a pretty hilarious webpage dedicated to our little bar. We blogged about it here, and it opened up a dialog with the young creators of the website. They recently noticed the demise of our webcam (which we've had for many, many years now) and wrote to let us know of their disappointment.
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this totally original letter on behalf of the good hosts over at the White Noise internet podcast (any resemblance to another email is purely coincidental). You may perhaps remember a post on the Sandbar blog from January 8th of this year detailing a rather curious cause of site traffic- specifically, this podcast that dedicated a segment of its show to your webcam and the mystical rites found therein. Since that time, White Noise has continued to do its best to maintain its mainstays of being fiendishly unreliable in its scheduling and marginally less than unsuccessful in its attempts at humor. However, on fleeting, rare moments, such as when the planets achieve syzygy or the Houston Astros make it to the fifth inning without completely blowing it, a new episode is released, and you can be sure that the Sandbar Update- now complete even with its own theme music! -is one of the dearest and most-anticipated segments.
Therefore, you may understand my dismay to find that your webcam is seemingly inoperable. It is in that dismay that I send this message with these goals: that I may inquire as to the circumstances that led to this misfortune, encourage the rehabilitation of the aforementioned equipment, and alert you to the appreciation that the hosts and I hold for everything you do. Certainly, I hope that all is well and I shall continue to consider you and your establishment with great fondness, even in the absence of our magical digital portal.
With Whimsy Unwavering and Sniftitude in Spades,
Kyle Sullivan
White Noise Listener and the one who wrote this letter. Really.
We laughed. We recently hooked our webcam back up and it was functional for a brief time, and then it died. For good this time. So, while we definitely plan to replace it, we don't know when that will be. We'll be sure to let everyone know when you can tune in to our "magical digital portal" once again.
by Debbi | May 27, 2011 | Door Diaries, Guest Blogs, Stories
This is a guest blog from Heather, one of our Friday night bartenders on the early shift. This particular event happened on Friday the 13th, which may or may not explain both the customer's bizarre behavior and Heather's reaction to it.
Now we all have our pet peeves in life and bartenders are no exception. Sometimes, we get cranky. It happens to all of us now and again. A recent Friday night event made me a bit more than cranky as I actually yelled at someone.
This guy was in on a busy and crowded Friday night with his buddies. He starts making facial expressions like he is going to be sick. Then he starts making full body motions like he is going to throw up on the guy next to him. He was close to the door, so I in turn yelled “Get out, take it outside†while pointing to the door. We certainly didn't have time to clean up vomit on this busy night.
He puffs out his chest and peacocks on over to the bar saying “What? Couldn’t you tell I was joking?†as he made the same apparently fake vomiting motions towards me. No, I couldn’t and I didn’t want to have to clean it up either. Yuck.
I get that sometimes people just don’t know any better but come on! Besides, it is never a good idea to intentionally make the bartender mad- or to throw up in the bar.
