by Debbi | Jan 23, 2008 | Newsworthy
Awhile back, I wrote about the possibility that the current restrictions on sidewalk dining in downtown Lawrence could be eased.
We found out on Monday that the issue would be presented at the following day’s city commission meeting. Peach and Dave went to the meeting to get the scoop. According to Dave, Peach got up and spoke at the meeting- she always speaks so eloquently in public.
Nothing happened (yet) that will benefit The Sandbar or other bars downtown, but the commission did make one surprising change. Currently, restaurants downtown must show that at least 70% of their sales come from food (if they have or want to have sidewalk dining). The commission unanimously agreed to loosen that requirement so that food sales only have to account for 55% of sales in order for the place to be eligible for sidewalk dining.
As far as the bars that serve no food, the commissioners indicated that they would consider allowing such places to have sidewalk drinking areas, partly because existing city zoning laws will not allow any new bar-only businesses to open downtown. They requested the city manager’s staff to gather more information about the subject, which means we’ll revisit the issue at a later date.
You can read the brief news article about the meeting here.
by Debbi | Jan 20, 2008 | Good Things, Newsworthy, People
Aimlessly flipping through yesterday’s newspaper, I suddenly saw Peach and Ted’s faces staring up at me.
Peach and Ted are the Baldwin division co-chairs for this year’s United Way of Douglas County campaign. They posed for the picture with students from Baldwin City and Eudora high schools, who participated in the fundraising event with Weigh In for United Way. The students were recognized during halftime of their schools’ football game on October 25.
See the picture here.
by Debbi | Jan 15, 2008 | Newsworthy
Every few months, an interesting story pertaining to alcoholic beverages pops up in the national media.
Yesterday, I learned via FoxNews.com that beer might contain essential cancer-fighting agents. Because you needed yet another reason to imbibe.
In a nutshell, German researchers’ preliminary studies indicate that xanthohumol, which is found in hops, can help inhibit certain enzymes that trigger cancer. They can also help the body detoxify carcinogens.
"It’s very healthy. I think the ingredients in the beer are very good,"
says Dr Werner Back, a brewing technology expert at the Technical
University of Munich.
The researchers claim that it would take 60 regular beers to equal the amount of xanthohumol that they are able to brew in one beer, so scientists are now looking into ways to add more of the antioxidant to beer, as well as other foods like chocolate.
At least the research participants get to have a little bit of fun, right?
by Debbi | Jan 10, 2008 | Newsworthy
Some interesting and scary news out of Missouri yesterday.Okay, okay, no Missouri jokes.
I was hanging out on my couch reading the newspaper and a little story in the corner caught my attention. The suburban St. Louis town of St. Charles is considering putting a law on the books to crack down on the horrific crimes of swearing in bars, profane music, drinking contests (okay, this one should be illegal already), and dancing on tabletops.
Apparently a city councilman thinks laws like this are necessary because the town gets too rowdy at night, and policemen need (more) rules to enforce so that the townsfolk can, well, stay home and do nothing. Let’s hope that our own city commission doesn’t get any crazy ideas like this one.
Here’s a link to the article.
I chose to link you to the article on MSNBC’s website, instead of the LJW’s, because I loved their title for the article. It’s very appropriate for Lawrence:
"But If I Go Outside, I Might Offend The Smokers."
I wish I could be witty like that.
by Debbi | Jan 8, 2008 | Newsworthy, People
In all the holiday/traveling hubbub, I forgot to mention that another one of our bartenders was featured in the Lawrence Journal-World.
Ken has been at The Sandbar for many years now, I don’t even remember how long. He’s been a reliable fixture and can always be counted on to man the bar (both sides), the door, or flirt with the ladies.
Ken has a day job as a PE instructor at a local elementary school that is hoping to add new facilities in the coming years. Our boy Ken was quoted in the article, which you can find here.
We have all kinds of cool people at The Sandbar.
by Debbi | Dec 3, 2007 | Newsworthy, People
Last Saturday, Downtown Lawrence played host to the 15th annual Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade. It’s a pretty cool tradition that brings lots of people downtown to see the horses and carriages.
One of our Friday after-work bartenders, Phil, is a board member for the parade group. Last week he participated in an online chat with the Lawrence Journal-World. Online readers were allowed to submit questions to the moderator, and Phil answered them online.
You can read the transcript here. Phil even managed to get in a hurricane reference towards the end of the chat. He must have had The Sandbar on the brain.
It’s always fun to see Sandbar folks in the news.
Actually, typing this post made me think of something. I’ve been asking questions of our current and former staff and publishing their answers here, in an effort to help the readers get to know them. But I came up with all the questions. Perhaps I should open it up to the readers? Tell you in advance who I’m profiling next, and let you submit questions for that person to answer? Something to ponder.
