Passing along a fun link that Chad found…
Entertainment Weekly magazine recently selected their "best and worst of 2008." One section of this feature highlighted one of our favorite things of the year too: Rock Band.
If you haven't played on our fancy stage upstairs at The Sandbar, check with the bartenders next time you visit. Unless it's ten o'clock on a Friday or Saturday night, chances are good that they'll hook you up. And then you, too, can be a rock star.
Another interesting find while perusing the internet the other day…this one, however, just made me sad.
You might remember Sammy the Shark, former occupant of the giant fish tank in the front of the bar. Which reminds me, I never finished the story of what happened to Sammy. He's no longer at The Sandbar, but he has a happy new home.
Anyway, I saw an article online that was describing how hundreds of millions of sharks are being harvested every year for their fins- which are then used to make "upscale" shark fin soup. Chinese people apparently will pay over $100 for a bowl of this stuff. It used to be reserved for the very wealthy class, but the explosion of middle-class has caused a dramatic rise in the demand for what is said to be a flavorless, chewy delicacy.
It's amazing how you can slap a huge price tag on something and instantly it's considered upscale and exclusive and in-demand.
Perhaps it was a good thing we did, rescuing Sammy when he was just a baby shark out in the ocean. He led a seemingly happy life in Lawrence and later Ottawa before ending up at Predator World.
I'm convinced that every other website on the internet is some type of interactive, review-your-favorite-place type of website. Every few months I find a new one, usually when someone has reviewed The Sandbar and it shows up in my Google alerts. Here's one, here's another.
And today, yet another. This one's called "Insider Pages," and there isn't much different about it from the others except maybe the page design. Our address, phone number, website and a map are posted, and last month someone left a review!
Katie P. says:
She only gave four out of five stars, but it was a pretty accurate review.
This is a little late, but our very own Pattoo was the "Man on the Street" for the Lawrence Journal-World last week.
He's had this honor a lot. I think he hangs around on Mass Street and stalks the reporter so he can be in the newspaper. He also got to star as the "Man on the Street" in our very first hurricane video. One of these days I'll find it and upload it to the internet so you can see it. It was a good one.
This time, Pat's question was: "How do you feel now that Obama has won the election?"
And his answer was very politically correct, in my opinion: “I’m kind of excited and anxious. I hope that he can do the things he
promised and bring about the change that people are looking for.â€Â
You can go here to see his picture.
Imagine my surprise when I opened up today's LJW to a front page article covering the "night consultants" for the local Fire Department, better known to us as the fire marshals and the reason we have a line most nights.
If you didn't read the post from a few days ago, it was about a young gentleman who tried to name-drop his way into the bar ahead of a waiting line. I've explained before why we have a line, and it's well described in the LJW article too: every indoor area where people can gather has a limit on how many people it can hold, and that limit is set by the fire department. The purpose is to make sure all the people can get out safely if there's an emergency.
So whether you agree with their policies or not, the occupancy limit is still a rule we have to follow, and now you know we aren't making this stuff up. Check out the sidebar list in the article of other bars' violations and take note of the fines some places have had to pay. We don't want to have to do that, which is why you're waiting in line.
Ironic that they published this article today; now I promise we won't talk about lines again for at least a month. Unless, of course, something funny happens at the door again.
Some people around our fair city might scoff at the idea of The Sandbar being a part of the local tourism industry, but we sure get a lot of press in a variety of outlets.
Last June, the Ironman Kansas 70.3 debuted in Lawrence. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a triathlon that consists of a 1.2 mile swim, followed by a 56 mile bike ride, followed by a 13.1 mile run. In other words, nothing you will ever see me do.
Triathlete Magazine covered this event in their September 2008 issue, beginning with the story of Jim Ryun, one of the state's most famous runners and then briefly making mention of several hotspots in downtown Lawrence- including, of course, The Sandbar.
While we only got one sentence in the article- which was still cool because the only other businesses mentioned were Java Break, Astrokitty, the Raven, and the Replay- we were thrilled with the enormous full-color, center-spread photo of our beautiful, bright building.
Just doing our part to help promote tourism in Lawrence.