I've discovered that there are many other Sandbar's all over the country, and it's fun to see the events and specials they have. This one, in particular, caught my eye: a Snuggie pub crawl!
This pub crawl started at The Sandbar in Scottsdale. This Sandbar is talked about a lot online and especially on Twitter. Apparently it's popular with the Iowa Hawkeye fans in Phoenix. Anyway, the crawl was a charity event supporting the Phoenix Fraternal Order of Police.
It sounded like a pretty good deal- tickets were $15-$20, and each ticket included a Snuggie! It also included a starting & ending drink at the Sandbar and one raffle ticket, but who cares about that when it includes a Snuggie!
They even had prizes for the best Snuggie, sexiest Snuggie, and probably others that weren't listed in the event page on Yelp. Most likely the prize winners brought their own personally created Snuggies instead of wearing the ones that came free with the ticket.
Just this weekend, I discovered that a Snuggie party will take place in Kansas City– this one is an Oscars Watch Party planned by a group of young professionals and will also help raise money for charity.
Who thinks this sounds like fun? If we planned one, would you be there? More importantly, would you wear a Snuggie?
I daydreamed about Sandbar logo-d Snuggies before Christmas, but after finding out the price, and more importantly how many we would have to order, it just won't work out anytime soon. Unless I buy an embroidery machine and do it myself. Unfortunately I don't think screenprinting on fleece will work very well…but we could try it.
We’re still super excited over our “Favorite Places” window decal from Google, and we wanted to find out more about this awesome surprise.
According to the Official Google Blog, the company sent 100,000 decals to local business in the United States. They chose the businesses that were the most sought out and researched on Google and Google Maps. These “Favorite Places” are located in over 9000 towns and in all 50 states.
Another FAQ section that Google provided states that the selected businesses represent less than 1% of the 28 million businesses in the country. Exciting!
The reason behind it? It’s part of an overall effort to help provide people with the best local business results when trying to figure out where to go. They also plan to send out new waves of window decals to qualifying businesses. Apparently we were in the first round!
You can see a sample of Favorite Places in 20 of the largest U.S. cities here.
We haven’t hung the decal in the window yet, because we’re still trying to find a good spot that’s visible, but not so accessible that someone would steal it. And, I’m still trying to figure out how to scan the QR code- I downloaded the QuickMark app that the article recommended, but I haven’t had any luck getting the scan to work. Supposedly, once a clear scan is picked up, the app will bring up a page that has business info, hours, and reviews.
Google has a fun (and kind of cheesy) little video that shows how all this works.
We've long since forgotten about Halloween with all the other holidays and costumes that have occupied us since October. Until the other night, when customer Devin told Dave about his Halloween costume last year.
Devin and his friend dressed up in the ultimate Sandbar fan costumes: a Shark Attack and a Bahama Mama! Devin kindly sent us pictures of their attire and gave us permission to post here for the world to see.
The guys took vinyl sharks and rubber duck toys from actual Sandbar drinks and attached them to their shirts, complete with "blood" for the Shark Attack costume. Grass skirts and hats and beads rounded out the costumes.
Great job and kudos for your creativity! Thanks for sharing!
Peach surprised me with some very special mail the other day.
Google Maps (yes that Google!) sent us a letter congratulating us on being named a "Favorite Place on Google." According to the letter, their users found our business listing on Google 3731 times and requested driving directions or other information 269 times- all between July 1 and September 30 last year!
And, they included a super cool window decal that we can hang up! The tech-savvy sticker even includes a special bar code that people can scan with cameras on their phones, which apparently allows them to see our business listing on Google. I'm not really sure how that works, but maybe one of you will enlighten me.
(Perhaps Google sends letters and stickers to every business in an effort to encourage them to create/update their Google business listing, I don't know. But if that's the case, I don't want to know. I'd like to keep thinking we were popular enough to catch their attention. So don't burst my bubble, okay?)
First up, Daddy's Grill and Bar. We didn't actually go inside this place, but we had to take a picture of the sign. Ken, long time bartender at The Sandbar who fills in occasionally these days, was nicknamed "Daddy" by the guys. There's a story there, but I won't go into it here.
On to the Thirsty Nickel. We stumbled into this place with some other KU football fans from Lawrence that we ran into at another bar. The place was pretty empty- it was late afternoon, after all- but we enjoyed a few drinks and shots with the bartender.
We were delighted to see this little sign hanging behind the bar:
Of course that sparked a conversation. Their bar is much longer and much wider than ours. The bartender said they don't love for people to dance on their bar, because there's nothing for wobbly dancers to grab onto. Dave described the metal awning that he built over our bar, and explained how it's great for dancers to lean against or grab if they need a helping hand. The ceilings in the Thirsty Nickel were way high, but it could still be done.
We also found this sign in the Thirsty Nickel. Perhaps we'll hang a similar one underneath our bar?!? Of course we posed with it, but the picture's on someone else's camera and I don't have a copy.
Check THIS out! I can't remember the name of this bar, and I can't find it online, but it was something tropical-like. However, when we went inside, this was about the closest thing to tropical about the place. Look familiar?
These were some of our favorite sights on Sixth Street. I've still got a few more things to share about Austin and the bars and restaurants and other interesting things we encountered there. Stay tuned.
Goodbye 2009, hello 2010! All of us at The Sandbar wish you a wonderful new year!
Tonight, the last night of 2009, features not only a full moon but also a blue moon. What's a blue moon? Well, according to my fine sources (Wikipedia!):
A blue moon is a full moon
that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have
twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to
those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an
excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year. The extra
days accumulate, so that every two or three years (7 times in the
19-year Metonic cycle),
there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon."
Different definitions place the "extra" moon at different times.
What does this mean, really? Well, the moon won't be blue. It's just a second full moon in December. (Great. Please don't tell Dave this. He already believes that full moons bring out the crazies, and he might hide in the basement if he knows it's another full moon tonight.)
According to CNN, the last time a blue moon happened on New Year's Eve was 1990. It's pretty cool that it's happening at the end of a decade this time.
Have a blast tonight, whether you celebrate with us in Lawrence or Ottawa or choose to do something else. And be safe!
Don't forget, if you're in Lawrence, you can call 842-TAXI or send a text message to TAB4CAB and Tipsy Taxi will give you a free ride home. However, we also advise that you have alternate plans in place in case Tipsy Taxi is really busy and can't pick you up when you're ready to go home.
Update:
I forgot to mention our specials tonight!
Since it's Thursday, we'll still be running our normal "Tropical Thursday" special, but with a slight change. The special includes all of our specialty tropical drinks (minus the Shark Attack, sorry!), and tonight will also include Trashcan Punch.
Tropical drinks are $3 tonight. Buy your limited edition New Year's Eve pint glass for $3, or bring back one you already have.
Also tonight, we will have $2 Blue Moon shots, in honor of tonight's blue moon.
