by Debbi | Mar 15, 2009 | Newsworthy, St. Patrick's Day
Last week, Dave got a call from a Channel 6 newsguy named Mark, who wanted to come check out our St. Patricks' Day parade float and shoot some video footage of us working on it.
Mark came out on Tuesday with his camera guy, and they hung around for about an hour- filming, asking questions, and even getting a little bit of work in themselves. Mark has a feature every Sunday on the 10 p.m. news called "Mark's on the Move," where he checks out untold or overlooked stories in the community.
A few days after Mark's visit, Dave got another phone call- this time asking if a photographer from the Lawrence Journal-World could come by and take some still pictures for the paper. He stopped by on Friday and took pictures.
In today's LJW, there was an article by Mark about our float-building, along with an extremely cool video clip that included several of us talking and painting. It also included footage from several years' worth of parade floats- the "Grease" car, the Sandbar Showboat, and last year's soggy barn.
The print edition of the paper also included a black and white shot of the float from our alley. Brother Pants made it into the picture, but he conveniently has his head turned away from the camera so you can't tell it's him.
We are excited about all of the publicity for this year's float. I hope that we live up to everyone's expectations…I know that we'll have fun no matter what.
Tonight we are teaching our float dances to all of the float-riders. Tomorrow, look for a preview of our dances.
by Debbi | Feb 27, 2009 | Newsworthy
Imagine my surprise when my Google alerts turned up a new Sandbar story online- and one that featured a semi-interview with Joe.
"Oh no," I said out loud, imagining all the possible things that Joe could have "factored" to a reporter.
The article, courtesy of the campus newspaper was about local bars and their efforts to be more "green," or for those of you who think I'm talking about our lovely lime facade, more environmentally friendly.
I was going to write about this earlier in the month, when another article appeared in the UDK that talked about a new student group that had formed on campus. Students for Bar Recycling aims to, well, encourage local bars to recycle.
After I saw the first article, I asked Dave if the group had contacted him (they haven't) and what he thought about their plan. The Sandbar already recycles cardboard, mainly because the city provides a dumpster for cardboard in the alley right beside the regular trash dumpster. It's easy enough to separate the cardboard from the trash.
However, Dave said it would be a lot harder to try to recycle glass. The Sandbar is small. We don't have room to store bags or bins full of glass and wait for a curbside recycling service to pick them up a few times a week.
We also don't have space to add recycling bins for glass around the bar. And it would be extremely difficult to keep glass bottles separated from all the other trash- plastic cups, straws, napkins- that accumulates in the bar anyway. Even if we did have space for extra bins, do you think most customers would pay attention to what bin they were supposed to put their cup or bottle in? I doubt it- and then the staff would be stuck sorting trash all night.
Dave thought the best hope for more recycling- at least for downtown bars- would be if the city or a private company added glass recycling bins near the existing dumpsters. He would make an effort to recycle the empty liquor bottles; since those are kept behind the bar, it would be fairly easy to keep them separate from the trash and then they could be delivered to the bin outside with the trash and the cardboard.
But back to Joe. He did a fine job answering the reporter's questions about The Sandbar's recycling habits, and even remembered to mention our energy efficient air circulation system.
by Debbi | Feb 12, 2009 | Newsworthy, Sandbar Love Stories
That was the "On the Street" question in the Journal-World last Friday. I was surprised to see that question almost a whole week before the holiday, but I guess they wanted to make sure all the forgetful men of the world knew it was coming.
Of course, our favorite Mass Street wanderer happened to be caught by the reporter again. Former bartender and frequent commenter Pattoo was featured with his very eloquent answer:
"No, because I'm happily divorced, and I kind of enjoy not having plans this time of year."
Ouch. The comments that follow the entry are kind of funny. One commenter even suggests that Pattoo and the divorced young lady featured should be introduced.
Click here to see the LJW piece, complete with pictures.
The Sandbar may not be the first place you think of when you are looking for some place romantic, but lots of love matches have been made here. If you don't have plans on Saturday, perhaps you could find a sweetie at The Sandbar.
by Debbi | Feb 6, 2009 | Newsworthy, St. Patrick's Day
I saw this article online the other day. The economy is apparently so bad that many towns are scaling back, or worse, eliminating their parades!
I think we would cry if Lawrence ever decided not to have the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. It has become the defining event of every spring for us. We spend countless hours brainstorming ideas, building, painting, and dancing in preparation for the couple of hours that we actually stand on the trailer and ride down the street.
Once again, we have a fantastic theme, great songs, and costumes in mind. And of course, it's not the original idea we planned last fall- we always change our mind after the new year. We're excited to start building and planning our dance.
One of my co-workers was unaware of our grand displays every year. She came back to my desk the other day and asked, "So, does The Sandbar have really good floats in the parade or something?" I think I probably gave her a "where have you been" kind of look without meaning to.
Apparently, her son's Boy Scout troop is planning their float, and they must have been throwing out some outlandish ideas because the troop leader said "It's not like we have to compete with The Sandbar!"
Other groups might have bigger or better floats than ours, but nobody has more fun!
by Debbi | Feb 3, 2009 | Newsworthy, Sandbar Subs
Here's a great little article about the recently opened Sandbar Sub Shop, from the Ottawa Herald.
From what we hear, the shop has been super busy ever since it opened. This article says they served more than 400 meals in the first week alone; that's pretty good for a brand new place in a small town.
If you haven't been to visit, you should. Grab your friends and plan a road trip. You can hit the sub shop for some food, smoothies, and arcade games, and then drive a little farther south to the Sandbar #2 for some adult beverages and a hurricane.
by Debbi | Jan 16, 2009 | Drinking Rules, Newsworthy
There was an article in yesterday's campus newspaper about "the secret life of bartenders." It talked about the various roles that bartenders can play, like babysitter, peacekeeper, and even chauffeur; the drama they get to see; and the pros and cons of attending a professional (and expensive) bartending school.
It was a very timely article because when I came home from work yesterday, Dave made a comment about how he's had lots of people walking in lately and asking for a job.
Two girls stopped by and asked for applications, and Dave started to hand them something to write their name and number on, when Joe- yes, Joe!- had the presence of mind to say "You know you have to be 21 to work here." Score one for the Factor- the girls didn't know, and weren't.
The article mentions how most bartenders in town have worked their way up from other less glamorous jobs in the bar. That's definitely true in some ways at The Sandbar- Dave has never hired someone he's never seen before who walked in and asked for a job. Attending a fancy bartending school doesn't impress him either. Pretty much everyone who works at The Sandbar was a regular customer first, and a customer who wasn't a pain in the you-know-what.
It was interesting to read about some student bartenders experiences with their jobs. You can read the article here.
I was amused, though, by the author's characterization of bartenders as "mysterious" and "charismatic."
