More on the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar

by | Mar 10, 2012 | Hurricane

After the Extreme Barhopping post a few days ago, bartender Danny let me know that he's actually been to the Tonga Room/Hurricane Bar and experienced their indoor hurricane. He meant to report back to us about it, but forgot.

Here's what he had to say:

Basically it was a large, dark, tropically decorated space with seating along the edges, and a large fake lake in the middle. In the middle of the fake lake, along the back wall, there was a little hut floating in the water. For the hurricane, they turned on flashing lights, rain machines, and some thunder sound effects as the floating hut floated towards the middle of the lake, closer to the bar area. The band was inside the hut and began playing cover tunes.

Danny_tongaroom

Here's a picture of Danny and his brother enjoying tropical drinks at the bar. Danny said he tried to videotape the "storm," but it was too dark and you couldn't tell what was going on.

However, he searched YouTube for a video and found this one:

Thanks, Danny! If you make it to San Francisco, check the place out and let us know what you think. Our Twitter friend @irishroadman also reported that he's been to this bar, and he said it's decent but expensive. (And he likes us better! Thanks!)

Free State Social: VIP Mermaids

by | May 3, 2010 | Events, Famous Folk, Social Media

Last Thursday the Sandbar participated in the Free State Social community tweetup. We were packed that night with social media types from not only Lawrence, but all over Kansas and even from a few other states.

Every night at 10 p.m. (and other times at the bartender's discretion or the paying public's request) we run our Indoor Hurricane extravaganza. It's a cheesy live show full of mermaids, wind, rain, lightning, music, and dancing on the bar. Thursday night was no exception, and several hurricanes blew through the bar that night.

Three of the keynote speakers at Free State Social agreed (were coerced?) to jump on the bar and pretend to be mermaids: Sarah Evans, Chris Brogan, and Shawna Coronado. Thanks to the handy Christmas present Dave got last year (a Kodak zi8) I was able to record the festivities.

This isn't the only video of the night, and it's definitely not the best- there's more to come. I'm working on putting together a type of "digital scrapbook" with pictures, videos, and comments from the Sandbar tweetup. It will be posted here when it's finished.