by Debbi | Apr 22, 2009 | Stories
The Sandbar has had a presence on Facebook for about six months now, and it's been great fun. We have over 1400 fans online now!
One of the fun (or annoying, depending on your perspective) things about Facebook is the abundance of interaction- things like quizzes, status updates, and other applications that let you know more about your friends than you ever wanted to know.
A quiz that was making the rounds this week called "How Well Do You Know Lawrence" caught my attention. I usually ignore this stuff, especially now after our friend Michelle's computer crashed after she clicked on an application, but this one was pretty good.
Whoever wrote this quiz is clearly a fan of Lawrence nightlife. One of the questions was this:
Lawrence has lots of watering holes. Which bar features an indoor hurricane?
Of course I got that one right! But a few questions later, there was confusion. "What bar does Dave the bartender work at?" And The Sandbar wasn't even one of the options. Apparently there's another famous bartender named Dave who works at either Chili's, Free State, or Replay.
I was more amused yesterday when I checked the referring links for this very blog. Someone had input that exact quiz question- about the indoor hurricane- into Google to find the answer. They obviously don't get out much, but fortunately Google led them straight to the right place.
by Debbi | Apr 19, 2009 | Stories
This weekend was a busy one at The Sandbar! Lots of regulars, lots of old friends, and lots of fun to be had.
Friday night, we played host to two "welcome back" parties- one for Travis and one for Ashley. Naturally the parties converged into one because of our small size, but there was also a lot of overlap among the people who were there to see each of them.
I had to steal some pictures from Facebook- again- because I didn't have any of my own. Luckily everyone else shares their pictures with me. Here are some scenes from Friday night:
Lots of bar dancing! And former bartenders Kay and LeeAnn were there all night too.
The glittery silver microphone that Ken just loves (ask him about it sometime) made an appearance as the doorway turned into the red carpet, thanks to Ashley and Karen. They are apparently trying out a new career in celebrity entertainment reporting.
And we have to give a shout-out to another party, even though it didn't happen at The Sandbar. Megan, another former Sandbar staffer, celebrated her birthday on Friday with a party at her house. Lots of Sandbar friends were there to help her enjoy it.
Saturday night was a great night, too. A sorority pub crawl came through and did exactly what we love- they arrived early, stayed for a little while, and cleared out in time for the late night crowd. Thanks, ladies, for stopping by!
It was one of those nights where everyone sang, no matter what song came on the jukebox. In fact, some were left wondering just what Dave and Tegan were putting in the drinks. Singing, dancing, and general everyone-getting-along made for a fun night for everyone.
If you have pictures of your own to share with us, join our Flickr group and upload them to The Sandbar's pool of pictures! If you aren't a Flickr member, you can still view the Sandbar's photostream.
by Debbi | Mar 12, 2009 | Stories
When we originally created our Facebook profile, it was new territory.
We aren't teenagers, you know, so the inner workings of Facebook
weren't hardwired into our brain. Well, apparently we did it wrong-
businesses are supposed to have a page, and people are supposed to have
a profile. Somehow, we ended up with both.
The profile was a lot more fun and allowed a lot more interaction with
our friends, so we neglected the page- even though there are actually
more fans of the page than there are friends of the profile. Confused
yet? Yeah, we are too.
We apparently aren't the only ones, and Facebook realized this along
the way, because they've now modified their "Pages" to act more like
"Profiles." If you're a fan of our page, you've likely noticed that it
looks different today than it did in the past. Now it looks a lot more
like the profiles that everyone is used to seeing.
So, on that note, we are hoping to migrate all of our "friends" to be
"fans." Sometime in the next few weeks, we will be deactivating the
profile- because, really, it's a duplicate of the page now. If you want
to keep up with The Sandbar, you will need to become a fan of our page.
We'll continue to post updates and pictures and all the other stuff we
do here, it will just be in a different place. And supposedly the stuff
we post on our "Page" will now appear in your newsfeed, so you
shouldn't even notice anything different.
Here is a link to our Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Lawrence-KS/The-Sandbar/6108839789?ref=ts
The page is restricted to users who are 21+.
by Debbi | Feb 8, 2009 | Stories
It was certainly a busy night at The Sandbar last night.
We weren't really sure what to expect for a game day- sometimes we get crowds before and after basketball games, but it's very unpredictable. There wasn't much of a crowd during the afternoon yesterday although several fun groups of people stopped by.
I met a third cousin I didn't know I had:
We've actually met before and never knew we were related. Yesterday, though, we got into a conversation about where we went to high school, do you know so-and-so, and lo and behold we discovered that our grandfathers were cousins. Oh, and it was his birthday yesterday, too. Happy Birthday Jeff.
A little later in the evening, Brittany's parents arrived, followed by Erin's, to set up the birthday party snacks upstairs. Guests started to arrive and eventually the birthday girls showed up too. By about 7:30 the bar was pretty full. A lot of their party guests got stuck in line because they didn't pay attention to the warning on the invitation: get there early.
Brittany and Erin celebrated with the customary hurricane and danced on the bar with Dave. At one point, a couple girls from out of town hopped on the bar with them. They didn't know the dance, but they didn't seem to care. Brother Pants befriended the ladies earlier in the night and discovered they were from Iola, had heard Lawrence was a fun town, and drove up for a girls' night out.
Apparently a bachelorette party had called earlier in the day and asked Coleen if they could reserve the bar for the evening or reserve spots or something. They had to wait in line with about a thousand other people last night. If you can't tell, this picture was taken of people who were standing halfway down the block, waiting to get into The Sandbar.
There were other shenanigans last night, too, but I'm saving those for another post. I got enough material yesterday over a period of about ten hours at the bar to keep this blog up for at least another month.
by Debbi | Jan 24, 2009 | Stories
Several months ago, I set up a Facebook page for The Sandbar, and so far it's been a hit. I've been trying to figure out some more fun things to do with the page, and was inspired by the popular "Larryville" application that Lawrencians use to send virtual pieces of Lawrence to their friends.
So, I'm excited to announce that fans of The Sandbar can now send trinkets, drinks, and pieces of the bar to your friends! I used Gift Creator and created "My Sandbar," a virtual collection of all your favorite things. As you send more gifts to your friends, you'll unlock even bigger gifts. I think I have a great selection of the most popular things at the bar, but if you have a special request, leave a comment on the application's wall.
Since this application includes references to alcohol, it is restricted to users who are 21 and over. Which, ironically, means you can't send pieces of The Sandbar TO The Sandbar, and we can't use our own application to send things to our friends! The bar doesn't turn 21 until next year, so until then, you'll have to collect virtual toys from your other friends.
UPDATED: I thought it was silly that The Sandbar couldn't send gifts. There's really no reason to have an actual birthday on Facebook since we're a business, so I took it out. Now we can participate in the fun, too.
If you're a member of Facebook, head over to My Sandbar and start sending gifts!
by Debbi | Nov 17, 2008 | Stories
The Sandbar scooter gang is alive and well, even though it's getting cold outside, and we've allowed Chris to be a member even though he has a motorcycle instead of a cool scooter.
A few weeks ago, Chris was lazy or something and left his motorcycle parked downtown for what seemed like days. He didn't seem to be concerned about it's welfare at all. Dave and Joe moved the bike around to a couple different parking places over the weekend, and Chris didn't even notice.
Finally, the Factor said, "We should put the bike inside the bar!"
To which Dave replied, "That's a great idea!"
So they picked up Chris' bike and moved it into the back room of The Sandbar. Yes, you read that correctly- inside the bar. They thought Chris would surely be downtown on Monday, looking for his bike. But he wasn't.
Chris had no idea any of these shenanigans were even happening until he arrived at work that Monday night and found his bike in the back room.
Which brings me to Joe's adventure.
Joe left The Matador, a.k.a. his little red barely-moving scooter, in a downtown parking space over the weekend. Yes, he should have picked it up long before he did, and he certainly should owe the City of Lawrence plenty of little yellow envelopes stuffed with wrinkled dollar bills.
What he did not deserve, however, was the sight that greeted him when he finally got out of lazy mode and went to get the Matador: the scooter, lying on its side, in a handicapped parking space next to the space where it was originally parked, and with a $100 ticket.
Someone apparently was looking for a parking place downtown and his scooter was an easy target. But as easy as it is to simply pick up and move into a planter, they didn't do that; they simply shoved it from one parking space into another one that was much more expensive.
It could only happen to Joe.
