by Debbi | May 26, 2011 | Events, Graduation, Off the Wall
Last Sunday, doorboy/bartender Andrew graduated from college.
Some of us have known him since he was knee-high and mopping the bar's floors. He pretty much grew up at the bar, and he started working the door the minute he turned 18. It's hard to believe he's 21(almost 22!) and a college graduate.
Thanks to my photo organizational skills and his own Illustrator skills, Dave was able to put together a creative, thoughtful and often funny collage of our favorite pictures of Andrew through the years. I wish I had a better picture of the banner to share, but this is it:
The big picture in the middle? That's always been our favorite. On the night of Andrew's senior prom, Dave enlarged that one and hung it in the upstairs office at the bar, knowing Andrew and his friends would be stopping by to drop stuff off.
There's several pictures from our Orange Bowl trip in 2008, the one where Dave and I were "chaperones" for Andrew and his buddy Matt. There's float pictures, from the one of Andrew dressed as a sheik and riding a camel, to the Love Boat float where his fourteen-year-old mouth was full of braces, to this year's float where he wore a gorilla costume in sweltering heat.
Pictures with his mom and dad, and pictures with his girlfriend. The banner is a great representation of photos of Andrew's life.
We hung the banner at the bar on Sunday after graduation, for Andrew's first party. Later that night, another party took place at his parents' house with a band, food and family, and the banner hung on the house.
Congratulations, Andrew. Our little boy is all grown up!
by Debbi | May 12, 2011 | Off the Wall
This poor license plate was an unfortunate casualty of a fender-bender right outside our doors.
It fell off the car- and in fact, a little part of the bumper is still attached to the license plate. The owner brought it into the bar shortly after the accident, signed it and donated it to our display.
Dave hung it near the front of the bar with some other license plates.
by Debbi | May 7, 2011 | Downtown, Events, Off the Wall, Pub Crawl
Last Saturday was ridiculously busy; in fact, it was one of our best sales days in a long time. Along with the Jimmy Buffett pre-party crowd and passengers on our party buses, a charity pub crawl was happening in downtown Lawrence. Even though we don't participate in the pub crawl, many of the teams stop by the Sandbar in between their official stops.
One of the teams, Team Brewhawks according to the message they so politely left ON OUR BUILDING, apparently had a little more time to play than the others.
When we got back from Jimmy Buffett later that night, we found this graffiti scrawled outside in between our windows.
So, Team Brewhawks, thanks very much. It's one thing to write on a bathroom wall (which we still don't love), but it's another to write on the outside of our building. Please, people, don't do this. Dave's already painted over it, but believe me he had plenty of other things to do without spending time on this.
by Debbi | Apr 25, 2011 | Off the Wall, On the Patio, Stories
Spotted on Dave's Facebook page, in the wee hours of the morning after the downtown shot put event:
Dear smart guys, not the brightest move to try and steal the Red Stripe table. Running with a table is a lot slower than without one. Hope you had a good night in jail.
Lots of comments and likes on that one. That night was like a full moon without the full moon.
Here's the story.
Two guys came in the bar to meet some friends. Later that night, out of the corner of his eye, Dave saw one of the guys hop over the patio railing and another guy lifted the patio table over the rail to him.
Dave yelled at doorguy John to get the table.
John and about five customers took off after the guys. One by one, the thieves peeled away from each other- eventually leaving just one poor shmuck hauling the table by himself. This table's not light, either.
Our crew of table-rescuers eventually caught up to the guy and knocked the table out of his grip. As luck would have it, a police officer was parked half a block away. He came over, cuffed the guy and took him away.
Dave feels sort of bad- all he wanted was the table. But hopefully these kids- and anyone else reading this- learned a lesson. Don't steal stuff, people! Just because you're drunk and you think it's a harmless prank, that's no excuse. (And also, your real friends wouldn't let you take the fall all by yourself.)
The kid came in the next day and apologized for "the incident." Kudos to him for stepping up and making the apology, we appreciate it.
by Debbi | Apr 10, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Off the Wall
We've got new wooden signs!
Our favorite crafty guy around town recently dropped off some more clever surprises for us:
There were a couple more, but they were a little more risque than usual. This is a family blog, after all.
The new signs will hang with the others on the wall near the women's bathroom. Be sure to check them out next time you're in the bar!
by Debbi | Mar 30, 2011 | Off the Wall, People
We have tons of stuff all over our walls, and much of it was donated by our customers.
Our latest gift is from someone who shall remain nameless, who formerly worked for a local company that will also remain nameless. However, many of you will recognize this sign and the company.
The sign now holds a special place of honor in the men's room, at the request of the person who donated it:
We're big fans of this company's employees. They affectionately refer to us as their "southwest conference room," and many "meetings" have taken place at our tables.
A celebration party for one of their soon-to-be-former staff members who has a new job will be held here Thursday. We're excited to see what they think of our new wall decor!
