by Debbi | Nov 16, 2007 | Newsworthy
This will surely make all you Jack Daniels drinkers out there angry.
Apparently, because of all those funky liquor laws that we all know and tolerate, a whole bunch of valuable, antique Jack might be dumped down the drain. Authorities think someone was selling the liquor without a license- a big no no- and the law in Tennessee requires that if it can’t be sold legally, it has to be destroyed.
Someone estimated the value of the alcohol, or maybe the bottles themselves, at a million bucks. Some of the bottles are nearly a hundred years old, some with unbroken seals.
I don’t know what’s more amazing to me- the fact that someone has managed to hold on to whiskey for this long without breaking the seal and enjoying it, or that there are people out there who are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a bottle of it to sit on a shelf and collect dust.
I think we need to check out the dungeon basement and see if any ancient bottles of spirits are hiding out down there with our ghost. Any volunteers?
by Debbi | Nov 14, 2007 | Newsworthy
During my random Google-ing of The Sandbar, I found a link that somehow escaped my other searches. This one is funny. It’s an entry on lawrence.com from May, 2006, which evidently was around the time we fired up the wedding chapel upstairs.
Yes, for those of you who didn’t know, we have a wedding chapel upstairs. It’s just about as cheesy as a chapel you might find in Vegas. Which means it’s perfect for The Sandbar, because no one loves cheese more than us. We particularly love cheese dip, but that’s another story.
As unbelievable is it may sound, we have actually had a wedding take place upstairs. And, we had another wedding that took place on the traveling Sandbar, otherwise known as our St. Patrick’s Day float. So, there have really been four people in this world who wanted to get married at The Sandbar.
The blog I found online the other day starts with a review of the Lawrence Farmer’s Market, moves on to a lengthy review of Krause Dining (which, if you’ve never checked out, you should- good people there, and probably excellent food as well, though I haven’t been there yet), and then has a lovely little pitch for The Sandbar.
Not as funny are some of the comments that the etiquette-challenged readers of lawrence.com left about our place; why do people think that just because they’re "anonymous" they can be as mean as they want to be? At least those of you who leave comments here have better manners. {Except the guy who told me a long time ago that this blog was awful. That hurt my feelings. And I know who you are. I have secret internet powers. And your IP address.}
by Debbi | Nov 9, 2007 | Newsworthy
First of all, let me just say that the Lawrence Journal-World should seriously consider paying me a commission for all the times I link you guys up to their website. If anyone from the LJW is out there reading this, what do you say? Surely we can work something out?
In yesterday’s LJW, there was a front page article about how Thursdays are the new "it" night for college students to go out and drink. This is news? I was in college over ten years ago, and Thursdays were the hot night then. Maybe I’m way off-base here, but I’m thinking it wasn’t "new" when I was in college either.
The article starts off with a funny line about how "the best drink specials aren’t confined to Fridays and Saturdays." Maybe other bars have great specials on weekend nights; I’ve never noticed that we had any particularly great specials those nights because, well, people tend to go out drinking anyway. An astute commenter also notes that the best drink specials probably occur earlier in the week, when bars are trying to bring in more customers.
The article goes on to talk about the various psychology professors who have conducted studies that correlate lower Friday classroom attendance with binge drinking on Thursday nights. It’s always the psychology professors who spend the time researching things that are merely common sense to the rest of us. I was a psych major in college, and I’m the first one to make fun of some of the ridiculous research studies. {Of course, they’re probably making more money than me, too. Common sense doesn’t seem to get a person very far in the world of wealth.} Apparently, even the U.S. Surgeon General is blaming universities for students’ Thursday night drunkenness, because they don’t schedule enough classes on Fridays.
And the University of Kansas is jumping on the bandwagon now. The powers-that-be have convened a special task force to study this issue and come up with solutions. I volunteered to serve on this committee, since I am now gainfully employeed on the Hill, and for some crazy reason thought I might actually be able to contribute to this group. Apparently lots of people wanted to serve on this group- maybe they thought they would actually get alcohol?- and so I received a polite email declining my offer to participate and explaining that they had selected staff members "with more professional experience in this area."
Huh? I guess I see their point. I really have no experience with being a college student and frequenting bars (even, gasp!, as an underage college student) on Thursday nights (and every other night of the week) and subsequently skipping my Friday morning classes. I also have no knowledge from the other side, as an adult who still frequents bars (less frequently now, albeit legally) and observes the college students in all their drunken revelry. And I certainly have no experience with the inner workings of the alcohol industry. No husband who has managed a bar for as long as I’ve know him. No bar that we actually now co-own. Silly me for thinking I could contribute a fresh perspective to the issue.
I almost forgot. To add even more irony- at least in my own little world- the photo that accompanied the article was of a group of girls toasting one of their birthdays at…
The Sandbar.
by Debbi | Nov 4, 2007 | Newsworthy
An interesting new issue has presented itself in Downtown Lawrence.
Currently, restaurants that have at least 70% of their sales in food are allowed to apply to the City Commission for a sidewalk dining permit. Lots of downtown restaurants have done this and we think it’s great. They have little gated-off areas outside their front door where patrons can sit outside while they enjoy their food and the atmosphere of downtown. Alcohol is permitted in these areas.
When the smoking ban arrived several years ago, many of the downtown bars were hoping for an extension of the sidewalk dining permit- one that would allow places like The Sandbar to have a gated outdoor area, especially since we don’t have any way to build an outdoor deck or patio.
The Bourgeois Pig, a coffee shop and bar on 9th street, has had a sidewalk dining permit for years {Apparently coffee is considered food to the City Commission.} They also allow alcohol in this area. However, the Pig doesn’t meet the 70% food sales requirement. They are appealing to the City Commission for a license to keep operating as they have for the past nine years, with alcohol on the sidewalk. And, it appears that the City is inclined to grant this license.
Our very own manager Dave was interviewed for the article in the LJW. And even better, there’s a video clip of him answering three questions from a reporter! You can view the article here, and on the left hand side of the page you’ll find the video clip.
All of us at The Sandbar think this is great and we’re rooting for the Pig to get their license. We’re hoping that this might pave the way for the rest of us to do something similar. Or at the very least, maybe we would at least get permission to put ashtrays on the sidewalk for the smokers to use, because right now we can’t even do that.
by Debbi | Oct 26, 2007 | Newsworthy
About a month ago, we got the Sandbar staff together for a photo opportunity. Being the loving family that we are, we also included a random assortment of regulars and significant others. I think we were only missing one or maybe two staff members.
The product of this gathering became the back page ad for Chalk magazine, a student-produced magazine sponsored by the Lawrence Journal-World. It’s published once per semester and about 15,000 copies are distributed around town. It features a variety of student-friendly articles and advertisements. It’s actually a pretty cool little magazine.
Our ad, of course, was the best part. Here it is in all it’s glory:
We had the photographer take a variety of group shots, and while he was doing his thing we gave our own camera to a friend so we’d have our own pictures to use. One of our favorites was of the front of the building, with all of us hanging out the windows of both floors. It’s a great shot of the building and really captures the spirit of The Sandbar. Of course, the ugly orange traffic cone really makes the picture, don’t you think? But we needed something to keep people from parking in the prime spot right in front of the building. I wish the picture was a little closer so you could see the people better, but you get the idea.
by Debbi | Oct 25, 2007 | Newsworthy
Seen on Page Six of the New York Post:
DON’T mess with Jimmy Buffett and his "Parrotheads." The crooner is going after
Six Flags’ 20 theme parks, including Great Adventure, charging that its
10,000-member "Carrothead Club" for kids who are fans of Bugs Bunny is a
copyright infringement. But Six Flags rep Wendy Goldberg told us: "I’m not sure
how the concept of children in foam carrot hats is going to be confused with
significantly older Hawaiian shirt-wearing, margarita-swilling Parrotheads.
Clearly imitation wasn’t what we had in mind!" She says there are no plans to
discontinue the club.
Geez. What’s next? The Packer fans and their cheeseheads?
{Thanks to frequent contributor Pat for this submission. I should just let him write the blog.}
