Working the door at The Sandbar can be lots of things- really busy, fun, boring, or awful, depending on who you ask and what night they work.
One of the hardest parts of the job is checking id’s at the door. The Sandbar has had a fairly sophisticated system for quite some time now- a video camera rigged by the door captures everyone who comes inside, and the same camera system is also used to film every driver’s license. A separate machine is used to scan the magnetic strip on the license and read the birthdate. The age of the license-holder appears on a screen. The door guy also visually checks the license, comparing the picture to the person and looking for anything suspicious. Many times a potential customer is asked for another form of identification. If you can’t tell, we’re pretty serious at The Sandbar about following the law.
Several years ago, we started keeping a notebook by the door. The purpose of the notebook was so that the door guy/girl, or any other employee, could use it to record anything that was noteworthy. A way to keep track of how many fake id’s were turned away; people who tried to pull the "I know the owner" line; people who were too drunk and got cut off by the bartenders; anything sort of "out of the ordinary."
The notebook evolved into sort of a diary of The Sandbar. Funny stories were recorded with each writer trying to top the last one. We were surprised to discover that many of the employees were rather gifted storytellers.
We thought it might be fun to post some of those stories here to share with the world, or at least our (small) population of readers. We’re currently sorting through the pile of notebooks and compiling some of the best, funniest, most outrageous stories that have been told about The Sandbar, it’s employees, and it’s customers. You never know who might turn up in one of these stories.
So, be sure to come back for our first installment of "Door Diaries."