Something you probably don’t see every day: thirty kids, in a bar, without their parents.
That was our day yesterday at the Sandbar.
Our friends at the Lawrence Public Library are hosting Read Across Lawrence, an annual community reading event, and this year’s selection for kids is “Turtle in Paradise.” The book is about a turtle who heads for Key West, and the hurricane of 1935 is featured in the book.
Read Across Lawrence includes educational events to go along with the book, so, naturally, it made sense to hold an event at the Sandbar. Where else in Lawrence can you find a little bit of Key West, and a lot of hurricanes?
So yesterday, about thirty kids got their first taste of the Sandbar as they moved between three educational stations and learned about the science behind hurricanes from UKanTeach students.
After about 45 minutes of learning, the kids got to experience the famous indoor hurricane, complete with the cheesy video and napkins flying through the air.
This might be the cutest thing ever:
Once it was over, the kids got a souvenir strand of beads to take home with them.
A funny thing that happened: as he got his beads, one kid asked Dave “can I have a mustache?”
Dave and I looked at each other in a bit of shock. “How does he know about mustaches?” we wondered.
But we just got the box of mustaches and started handing those out, too.
Thanks, Lawrence Public Library and parents, for letting us be part of Read Across Lawrence!
If you’re like some of us– and I’m talking about some of us who have been around the Sandbar longer than, say, some of our more recently-hired staff members– you have fond memories of drive-in movie theaters from when you were a kid.
Did you know that they’re in danger of disappearing? Since the film industry has gone digital, many theaters can’t afford the $80,000 price tag that the digital upgrade costs.
Honda, the car company, has stepped in to help– they’re going to donate five projectors and the public vote decides which drive in gets them.
Our local Jack Ellena Honda dealership is hosting an event next Friday, Sept. 13, that celebrates this event with fun for the whole family: a pop-up drive-in movie theater.
They’ll host a free screening of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” at 7 p.m. out at their dealership.
What does this have to do with us, and why are we talking about it? Well, we like movies…after all, our founder Peach does own a movie theater down the road in Ottawa.
And, Sandbar Subs is stepping up to help save the drive-ins. They’ll be serving Sandbar Subs beach dogs, chips and cookies at the event. Dogs and cookies are $2; chips are $1. Proceeds will benefit the cause!
If you’d like to help save the Midway Drive-in in Osawatomie, you can text VOTE86 to 444999, click here to make a donation or show up at next Friday’s event.
Help us spread the word, will you? Drive-in theaters are an iconic part of our history and an experience that everyone should get to enjoy as they grow up.
Our new neighbor across the street, the Sandbar Subs World Headquarters, has been open for almost a month now and business seems to be brisk.
If you haven’t stopped by to check it out, you should– it’s not just a sandwich shop (although the sandwiches and wraps are delicious!) but also a place you can stop and get a fountain drink, a cell phone charger or a bottle of Advil.
Remember Round Corner? For you newbies, it was a drugstore on the corner of 8th and Mass, where Italian restaurant Intorno now sits. Round Corner was an old-fashioned drugstore that also housed the Cheese Shoppe, one of Dave’s favorite former restaurants downtown.
Well, personally, the new Sandbar Subs reminds me of a cross between the two. Think convenience store plus quick, quality food.
We aren’t the only ones who think so. Our Twitter friend Mrs. Mass recently paid a visit across the street and wrote about her experience for the Lawrence Journal-World.
Favorite quote:
“Did I say this sub shop is going to do wonders for downtown? … This sub shop is going to do wonders for downtown.”
You can read the full article here. Apologies in advance if you have to answer weird Google survey questions in order to read the story– we promise it’s worth it!
First, though, a little bit of history behind this one.
Our wonderful Lawrence Public Library is gearing up for this year’s Read Across Lawrence, the eleventh edition of the community reading event sponsored by the library, KU Libraries and Friends of the Library. This year’s book is “The Worst Hard Time,” by Timothy Egan.
The book chronicles the stories of a half dozen families during the Dust Bowl and how they survived. Lots of community events are planned for Read Across Lawrence, including book discussions, exhibits and Film Church at Liberty Hall.
Read Across Lawrence Book Night kicks off the month-long event, and this is where the new tropical drink comes in.
Our library does a great job planning events that appeal to a wide variety of people, and they’ve certainly tapped into the bar scene. On Friday, Aug. 30, during Final Fridays in downtown Lawrence, library staff will be wandering around Mass St. handing out copies of “The Worst Hard Time” and library tattoos (of the temporary kind).
What’s in it for you? Well, showing your library tattoo or a copy of the book will unlock secret drink specials at several Lawrence establishments, including ours!
We did some quick research to find out what types of drinks were popular in the Dust Bowl era, and we found that the list included punches. So, we found a great recipe for Planter’s Punch, a rum-based drink that we like to think of as a vintage version of our tropical drinks.
Stop by Friday night to try our Planter’s Punch, and if you show a copy of the RAL book or your library tattoo, it’s only $2.50!
Our new neighbor, Sandbar Sub Shop, is also participating in the book night and offering $1 fountain drinks. See the full list of drink specials here. And, stay tuned for news about the kids’ version of Read Across Lawrence- we’re involved in that, too!
Lawrence’s favorite weird and fun-for-the-whole-family downtown festival, the Lawrence Busker Fest, is back this weekend for its fifth year.
Wondering what a busker is? You must not be a townie. Just this week, I had the pleasure of explaining to an out-of-town friend what I meant when I offhandedly referred to the “busker fest.”
You know the freaks, geeks, artists and musicians that hang out on the streets downtown and perform for tips? They’re buskers. (I hope you aren’t offended by the description. I took that straight off the Lawrence Busker Fest website.)
The difference is, with the festival, there’s an organized schedule of some of the most talented performers around. There’s also facepainters, statues and balloon artists spread around downtown to entertain the whole family.
The festival kicks off Thursday night with Busker Ball at the Granada, and the buskers will perform on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Click here for a schedule.
And, for the adults out there, you can enjoy a cold beverage outside! That’s right—8th street in front of the bar will be closed to traffic and we’ll be selling drinks outside on Friday and Saturday evening.
So, bring the kids downtown for some of the most unusual entertainment you’ll find in Lawrence this weekend!
Thank you to all of our wonderful customers and friends who celebrated with us, and a huge thank you to Peoples Bank for sponsoring this year’s party.
In case you missed it, we went all out this year with a giant stage, even bigger beer garden and a Grammy-nominated band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
And perhaps the best part? The weather was gorgeous—really, we couldn’t have asked for better weather, especially after a long, gray, rainy week. It wasn’t hot like it’s been for all our other block parties; it didn’t rain; but it wasn’t cold, either. Truly perfect.
Very Important People enjoyed a pre-party in the brand new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters right across the street from the bar, where a new Peoples Bank location will be housed as well.
Local band Cowboy Indian Bear opened the show and then the Thunderbirds took the stage. They played until around 10:30, which left plenty of time for party-goers to mingle in the beer garden after the show.
We took a lot of pictures. Watch the slideshow below:
Sandbar customer Emily (and my day-job coworker) spent some time in the bar this weekend. Nothing unusual about that. She shared with us the cool compliment she got from someone.
Some random guy handed her this card. Wasn’t that nice?! Of course, it would be awesome to pay it forward and pass the card on to the next attractive person…but it’s also fun to hang the card in your cubicle so you can see it every day.
There’s a QR code on the back that you can scan to see where all the other attractive people who received cards are located. We tried it, but the website was too busy to tell us anything. Must be a lot of attractive people out there.
We’ve never run a contest on Facebook before– Facebook’s terms of service make it just too darn difficult.
(All those contests you see asking you to “like” or “share” a status or a photo in order to enter to win something? Yep, those are against Facebook’s TOS. Most people either don’t know or don’t care, but Facebook can shut down your page without warning if you violate their rules. I don’t want to take that risk.)
In order to run a legitimate contest on Facebook, you pretty much have to use a third-party application. Which either means you need to have mad development skills to create your own (I don’t) or spend money to use an app that someone else has already created.
So, that’s what we’re doing.
Announcing the Best Sandbar Pictures of All Time contest.
You can enter on Facebook (click here to enter or vote), or you can also enter a photo on Twitter or Instagram by using hashtag #sbparty13. The app claims that entries with the hashtag will automatically be entered, but if for some reason it doesn’t work, we’re not responsible.
You can enter pictures and vote until August 5.
Encourage your friends and family to vote for your picture; the entry with the most votes will win a pair of VIP passes to the beer garden at our August 10 block party!
You must be 21 to enter the contest and redeem the prize; we’ll ask for two forms of ID to verify.
So start digging out your best Sandbar pictures and enter our contest!
The Sandbar, a downtown beach bar, has been a staple on the Lawrence bar scene since 1989. A little over a decade ago, Sandbar founder Peach started dabbling with the idea of expansion.
“The subs story started when I found out that most downtowns would not allow a bar to go in without food sales,” she said. Overland Park and other similar towns—including Lawrence– have zoning regulations to prevent the same type business.
Longtime bartender and manager David Johanning agreed to take over the responsibility of the Lawrence bar while Peach explored expansion options. This was during the time the Legends shopping center in nearby Kansas City was under construction. “We were asked to participate in the original Legends plan,” Peach said, “but realized we were not experienced enough at that time to handle such volume.”
The small town of Ottawa, close to home, was a great place to test ideas and concepts. Peach opened a second Sandbar location that was a restaurant and bar (click here to read more stories about the Ottawa adventures) and enjoyed it, but she knew it wasn’t quite the right match.
During this time, the Madls became friends with the Zaremba family of Zarco66. The Zarembas had just bought a store in Ottawa, and Scott and his family often came into the restaurant on wing night.
A downtown Ottawa sub shop without table service was the next effort, and boy it worked. It was great fun, Scott came down and enjoyed the food and a partnership was born. We now have three Sandbar Sub Shops inside Zarco66 convenience stores in Lawrence and Ottawa.
The Sandbar Subs World Headquarters is slated to open in August, right across the street from the original Sandbar, along with a new location of Peoples Bank.
Now how did the relationship with Peoples Bank happen?
Peach explains, “Well, back in the old days, banks would sometimes be ‘not nice.’ My husband and I had the opportunity to buy the building the original Sandbar bar was in. However, I was rejected by a bank my accountant referred me to– because ‘you receive the majority of your income from the sale of alcohol and we are a family owned bank.’”
Their regular bank wouldn’t loan money for properties outside of Baldwin City. So one day Ted said, “Hey, I have a cousin who’s a banker, let me call her!”
“That’s when I met Maley Wilkins of Peoples Bank, and she took great care of us.”
Another connection to Peoples Bank comes by way of the Winter family, who are well-known around the Lawrence area.
“When we first got the Crystal Plaza Theater in 2005, it was struggling, “ Peach said. Peoples Bank kept sponsoring events and coming by and supporting us in many ways in Ottawa. The late Wint Winter, Sr., who was chairman of Peoples Inc., was a wonderful man and he is honored at the Plaza Grill and Cinema with a picture on the Wall of LOCAL Stars in the lobby.
As for the new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters/Peoples Bank adventure in downtown Lawrence?
Peach says it came about when Scott and Maley spent time talking instead of listening to speakers at a Chamber event and came up with this wonderful plan.
“And Ted and I said ‘we’re in!’” said Peach.
Usually, this is where they say the rest is history, but in this case, the next chapter is just beginning.
Be sure to join us on August 10 for the big block party bash! Click here for more info.
For our inaugural block party five years ago, the one that celebrated our 20th birthday, we put together an epic slideshow of pictures from those first twenty years.
And when I say epic, I mean it was like twenty minutes long.
We went through all our old photos; we scanned photos from our walls; and we requested photos from our customers and friends.
In the end, we ended up with some 800 pictures in that slideshow.
Last year, we put together another slideshow, and again we asked for your photos. Most of the pictures in that slideshow were newer, and this show was significantly shorter with only around 200 pictures.
We recently resurrected those slideshows and started running them on the TV’s in the bar—in between music videos by 90’s boy bands.
And now, it’s time for another one. We know you all take lots of pictures in the Sandbar—we see them on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. So if you have a favorite (or two or five!) that you’d like us to include in the slideshow, send them our way. You can email them to sandbar@thesandbar.com and we’ll do our best to make sure it gets in this year’s version of our photo album.
Some random guy handed her this card. Wasn’t that nice?! Of course, it would be awesome to pay it forward and pass the card on to the next attractive person…but it’s also fun to hang the card in your cubicle so you can see it every day.