What's on your calendar for next Saturday, January 23? Nothing, you say? Well, we've got plans for you.
St. Patrick's Day might seem like a long time away, but the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee is already busy planning events to raise money for this year's chosen charities. Yes, there's a parade, but there's also loads of other events that start this month.
Next Saturday night is the first fundraiser: Casino Night! Here's the details:
Saturday, January 23
Eagles Lodge, 1803 W 6th Street
7 pm to 10 pm
$5 for 50 chips
A BBQ buffet will be open from 6 pm to 8 pm for the low cost of $10.00.
And of course there's prizes! Businesses and individuals from all over Lawrence and Kansas City donate tons of great prizes to the St. Patrick's Day committee every year.
If you're looking for something fun to do on Saturday, consider Casino Night. You'll be helping out a great Lawrence tradition raise money for several great local charities that assist children. Read about them here.
Wow, 2009 is almost over. Where does the time go?!? That means it's time for yet another legendary Sandbar New Year's Eve party! With costumes, of course.
We've got three different events for you to choose from this year.
The Sandbar, Lawrence:
Ring in the new year, white trash style!
Grow out your mullet, dig out your best tank top, or make some Daisy Dukes out of your old favorite pair of jeans.
$10 cover charge at the door, includes snacks, party favors, midnight champagne toast, and prizes for best costumes.
Go bobbin' for cheap beers and enjoy trashcan punch!
The Sandbar, Ottawa:
Frankie Diamond will help us bring in the New Year with all your favorite songs!
$5 cover charge includes party favors, balloon drop, and midnight champagne toast
A rented taxi will provide FREE rides home to everyone! Contact us for more details.
The Lodge of Baldwin City:
The Jay Eudaly Band begins at 8 pm, playing all your favorite dance songs. Come meet Kansas City's Master Guitarist!
$30 per couple/$15 per person includes appetizers, champagne, and party favors
Spend the night! $99 includes the party and a motel room
$150 includes the party and one of our fabulous motel suites.
Reservations requested, contact the Lodge at 785-594-3900
RSVP to the Sandbar events on Facebook (Lawrence or Ottawa) and share them with your friends!
Thanks to all of our loyal friends and customers for another great year at The Sandbar. We couldn't do it without you!
This post was intended to be published yesterday, but it's taken too long to recover from all the fun at our annual Christmas party, so it's late. Sorry.
Where to start?!?
Usually we ask everyone to wear ugly Christmas sweaters, but Dave wanted to kick it up a notch. We requested that all of the staff and their guests dress as their favorite holiday character- and perhaps unsurprisingly, they delivered.
I believe it was Dave who told someone "we like to not be ourselves as much as possible."
This year Dave offered a cash prize for the best costume. As if this crowd needed an incentive. All the participants lined up on the benches, and we narrowed it down to four based on applause from the crowd. The final four were John the Nutcracker, Michele as Mr. Hankie the Christmas Poo, Chris as Cousin Eddie, and me! I was the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story.
John won the contest and Michelle came in second. Excellent costumes, guys.
Of course we had the annual White Elephant/present stealing gift game. Some people bring nice gifts; others bring crap. I'd like to point out the two especially awesome gifts in the pictures above. Thank God someone stole the toilet paper holder from Dave.
We rounded everybody up and had some of the non-costumed folks take some group shots outside the bar. Check out that variety- we had Mary and Joseph, Santas, elves, Scrooge, a couple Cousin Eddie's, Suzy Snowflake….such a creative bunch of people we have.
Towards the end of the night, we decided to do a test run of next year's Santacon. Some smart person chose the Red Lyon as our destination- which while we all love the bar, it's a million blocks away from the Sandbar. Some of us were wearing heels. And some of us- meaning John the Nutcracker- forgot our ID, and the lovely man working the door refused to let him in without it. John walked all the way back to the Sandbar to retrieve it, and all the way back to Red Lyon to have a drink with us.
Successful night. Can't wait to do it again next year.
Our Man on the Street and former bartender Pat turns 40 on Christmas Eve, so we threw him a party last night. Instead of the usual fracas at The Sandbar, though, we took it down the street to The Barrel House, a dueling piano bar that opened earlier this year.
If you haven't visited our neighboring bar yet, you should. It's great for groups and parties, and the piano players are great fun.
Our party was in the Blue Moon Lounge, one of the VIP balcony rooms that overlook the main bar area. We had our own private bartender and lots of space for friends and family.
Pat got called up on stage, where the piano player made fun of him for awhile, forced him to sit atop the piano, and made him chug a beer or two. They sang Happy Birthday, too.
Another highlight of the night was a special performance by the Bar Band, and they played Happy Birthday to Pat also.
The birthday boy has been planning a trip to Key West to celebrate his birthday for months now, and he leaves this week. We all hope he had fun last night! If you see Pat, be sure to wish him a happy birthday.
A few weeks ago, some of the Sandbar crew ventured south to Austin, Texas. It was a rag-tag bunch- managing partner Dave and his lovely wife, our art director Justin and his lovely wife, and our Man on the Street Patrick.
It also happened to be the weekend that KU played the Texas Longhorns in a little game called football, so there were lots of folks we knew down there.
But, the game wasn't actually the reason that Dave and I were there.
We planned the trip for two reasons: to check out the bar scene in Austin and steal borrow some ideas, and to catch a concert at the legendary Gruene Hall, the oldest continuously operating dancehall in Texas.
One of our favorite artists, Roger Creager, played Saturday night. He's played in Lawrence and Kansas City several times, and he's partied with us at the Sandbar after a couple of shows. We weren't about to miss the opportunity to see him at Gruene.
Dave and I had dinner at the restaurant next door to Gruene Hall, the Grist Mill, before the show. All of a sudden, who comes walking past our table but Roger himself. Dave got his attention, he stopped to chat for awhile, and went on his way.
About halfway through the concert later that night, Roger started talking about road trips, and fans, and how it's great that people come from all over to see shows. Then, he said this:
"I even ran into a buddy of mine who's here all the way from The Sandbar in Lawrence, Kansas!"
Clearly nobody's mind was on football, or else they knew we were losing badly, because we didn't get booed by the crowd. Dave and I cheered, and a kid about ten feet away came running over to us.
I won't lie, I had seen this guy earlier in the night and thought he looked familiar. Sure enough, he introduced himself as Andrew, a grad student at KU who had been in the Sandbar less than a week ago.
It's such a small world. It was very cool that our tiny little bar got a shout-out in front of a crowd of maybe a thousand people in Texas.
Coming soon, a post about some of the things we learned from the bars in Austin. I know, I'm slow.
Our Man on the Street, otherwise known as Man Who Will Be Celebrating His 40th Birthday Soon, tipped us off to this event. Or rather he has been pestering us about it with video links and posts on our Facebook pages.
I finally decided to check out what was so important, and I'm glad I did. We are totally doing this in downtown Lawrence next year. We might do a test run at our annual holiday/employee appreciation party next weekend.
How fun would it be to roam around Mass Street with a huge group of Santas, scaring little kids handing out candy canes, and spreading holiday cheer?
