by Debbi | Jan 30, 2010 | KU Basketball, People, Specials, Stories
Once upon a time, long before he mixed fruity concoctions or danced on bars or poured towering glasses of shots, Dave played basketball. His long, winding road through the land of college basketball eventually brought him to Lawrence and the Kansas Jayhawks.
(If you missed the fantastic story this fall about his path from backboards to surfboards, you can find it here.)
Anyway.
The KU-KSU Sunflower Showdown is always a heated rivalry, and Dave's playing years were no exception.
When his team traveled west to beat down the purple kitty-cats one year, Dave came home with more than a win. I've heard that Greg Gurley was talking about this on the radio yesterday, and it's been mentioned on the KUsports.com message boards, but I'm the only one with the exclusive story from Dave himself!
"I can't remember if it was '91 or '92, but I think it was my junior year ('91). We won the game, and afterwards the students started throwing crap at the court. I got hit on the forehead with something- to this day I don't know what it was. Maybe a quarter, a piece of ice…who knows.
Anyway, my forehead had a bleeding gash on it, and Coach Williams actually told the trainer not to fix it up right away. He wanted the media and everyone else to see the blood on my face so they wouldn't minimize the whole incident.
Of course the trainer fixed it before too long, but at least there were a few pictures of it, to prove I really did get hit. There's still a small scar on my forehead from it.
I think someone else, maybe Rex Walters, got hit with something the next year."
This picture was taken shortly after the game before Dave's head was fixed. Doesn't he look young? (And skinny?!?)
The adorable little girl? His cousin Mariya, who has since graduated from KSU, is working on her master's degree and teaching, and recently got married. That makes Dave (and me) feel really old.
The KSU fans are still throwing things from the stands. Recently, their projectile of choice has been rubber chickens, which is particularly amusing to us at the Sandbar. If you've seen our hurricane videos, you know that rubber chickens play a prominent part.
Let's hope that everyone can stay classy today and that no one gets hurt.
If you're looking for a place to watch the game, we're giving away free chili dogs at both Sandbar Lawrence & Ottawa locations during the game. We may not have big-screen TV's, but our chili dogs can't be beat!
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
by Debbi | Jan 10, 2010 | Around the World, Cool Stuff, Stories
Yesterday I wrote a little bit about our visit to Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. Today, some fun stories and pictures.
First up, Daddy's Grill and Bar. We didn't actually go inside this place, but we had to take a picture of the sign. Ken, long time bartender at The Sandbar who fills in occasionally these days, was nicknamed "Daddy" by the guys. There's a story there, but I won't go into it here.
On to the Thirsty Nickel. We stumbled into this place with some other KU football fans from Lawrence that we ran into at another bar. The place was pretty empty- it was late afternoon, after all- but we enjoyed a few drinks and shots with the bartender.
We were delighted to see this little sign hanging behind the bar:
Of course that sparked a conversation. Their bar is much longer and much wider than ours. The bartender said they don't love for people to dance on their bar, because there's nothing for wobbly dancers to grab onto. Dave described the metal awning that he built over our bar, and explained how it's great for dancers to lean against or grab if they need a helping hand. The ceilings in the Thirsty Nickel were way high, but it could still be done.
We also found this sign in the Thirsty Nickel. Perhaps we'll hang a similar one underneath our bar?!? Of course we posed with it, but the picture's on someone else's camera and I don't have a copy.
Check THIS out! I can't remember the name of this bar, and I can't find it online, but it was something tropical-like. However, when we went inside, this was about the closest thing to tropical about the place. Look familiar?
These were some of our favorite sights on Sixth Street. I've still got a few more things to share about Austin and the bars and restaurants and other interesting things we encountered there. Stay tuned.
by Debbi | Jan 9, 2010 | Around the World, KU Football, Stories
Some of the Sandbar crew visited Austin, Texas, right before Thanksgiving. It seems like a million years ago after all the holiday hoopla, but I still wanted to share some of the fun stuff we saw at Austin bars. I'm going to break this up into several posts, because there's a lot to share. So, check back later this week for more.
Everyone always talks about Sixth Street as "the place to go" in Austin. And maybe it is, but not until 11 p.m. - even on weekends with home football games, apparently. Several of the bar employees we talked to confirmed that they rarely get busy until late at night.
Dave and I stayed at a hotel in downtown Austin about two blocks from Sixth Street, and on our first day there we spent the afternoon walking around the area. We noticed right away that it's very different than Mass Street in Lawrence. We're used to seeing people in Downtown Lawrence all the time- morning, afternoon, and late into the night- but the Sixth Street area was practically deserted. In fact, most of the other people walking around were sporting KU attire just like us; other tourists there for the football game who had been directed to Sixth Street as the place to be.
We found a somewhat-tropical looking place to grab some food, the Paradise Cafe & Bar. This was a research trip, after all! It was a cool old building that had been restored, and the staff was super friendly. Probably because there were several of them, and only a couple of us. We asked the bartender to whip up her best tropical concoction (the name escapes me), and it was pretty tasty. The staff even bought us tequila shots. In the middle of the afternoon,ugh.
Most of Sixth Street was populated with bars and restaurants, with a few random businesses or offices sprinkled in. Not like Downtown Lawrence, where you can buy practically anything. We also noticed that a majority of the bars seemed to offer some type of food. Another one we liked was the Jackalope– awesome burgers and a surprisingly delicious spicy Guiness Bloody Mary.
One of the few stores that we saw along Sixth Street that was actually open and busy was Wild About Music. As music fans, we spent quite a bit of time in there. It was a neat gift shop that I would compare to a combination of Hobb's/The Palace/Etc. Shop.
While we had a great time on Sixth Street, we decided that Lawrence is lucky to have a downtown area like we do- an area that is vibrant almost any time of the day, with office workers, shoppers, diners, and bar hoppers all sharing the space. It wouldn't be nearly as great if Mass Street activity shut down at 5 pm, or if it didn't get busy until late at night.
by Debbi | Dec 30, 2009 | People, Stories
A group of Sandbar friends and regulars meet every Monday for lunch at Tres Mexicanos for half price chimichangas. I sort of feel like I'm cheating on La Familia, but the chimis are so good and so cheap. We've been doing this for almost a year now, and it's a revolving door of faces each week.
This week, Chris, a doorguy from a loooong time ago brought his family to lunch. His adorable four year old boy entertained us with play-doh donut creations and flirtatious smiles. Oh, and his thoughts on bartenders.
"What does a bartender do?" someone asked him.
"Pour BEER!" he yelled with a devilish grin.
When he got a lot of laughs for that, he did what all kids do- kept right on going.
"Beertender!" he repeated over and over.
"How old do you have to be to drink beer?" his mother asked.
"TWELVE!" he shouted.
"NO!" mom said, laughing (perhaps nervously).
"Thirteen! Eighteen!" he said. At this point he was loving the attention.
I think we might have finally convinced him that he has to be thirty before he can have beer.
by Debbi | Dec 16, 2009 | Cool Stuff, Events, Famous Folk, KU Football, Stories
A few weeks ago, some of the Sandbar crew ventured south to Austin, Texas. It was a rag-tag bunch- managing partner Dave and his lovely wife, our art director Justin and his lovely wife, and our Man on the Street Patrick.
It also happened to be the weekend that KU played the Texas Longhorns in a little game called football, so there were lots of folks we knew down there.
But, the game wasn't actually the reason that Dave and I were there.
We planned the trip for two reasons: to check out the bar scene in Austin and steal borrow some ideas, and to catch a concert at the legendary Gruene Hall, the oldest continuously operating dancehall in Texas.
One of our favorite artists, Roger Creager, played Saturday night. He's played in Lawrence and Kansas City several times, and he's partied with us at the Sandbar after a couple of shows. We weren't about to miss the opportunity to see him at Gruene.
Dave and I had dinner at the restaurant next door to Gruene Hall, the Grist Mill, before the show. All of a sudden, who comes walking past our table but Roger himself. Dave got his attention, he stopped to chat for awhile, and went on his way.
About halfway through the concert later that night, Roger started talking about road trips, and fans, and how it's great that people come from all over to see shows. Then, he said this:
"I even ran into a buddy of mine who's here all the way from The Sandbar in Lawrence, Kansas!"
Clearly nobody's mind was on football, or else they knew we were losing badly, because we didn't get booed by the crowd. Dave and I cheered, and a kid about ten feet away came running over to us.
I won't lie, I had seen this guy earlier in the night and thought he looked familiar. Sure enough, he introduced himself as Andrew, a grad student at KU who had been in the Sandbar less than a week ago.
It's such a small world. It was very cool that our tiny little bar got a shout-out in front of a crowd of maybe a thousand people in Texas.
Coming soon, a post about some of the things we learned from the bars in Austin. I know, I'm slow.
by Debbi | Oct 1, 2009 | Stories, Web/Tech
Do you have story ideas for us? Interested in writing a guest post? Want to submit a picture? Tell us what you want to read about. Is there something you are dying to know about the Sandbar?
We're looking for your ideas!
Many times the best stories about The Sandbar come from you- and your comments often lead to the best blog posts. Maybe you told one of us that you met your spouse here. Perhaps something funny happened while you were waiting in line. Or maybe you celebrated your birthday/bachelorette/engagement/graduation/whatever party here.
If you have a great idea for a story, email us at sandbar@thesandbar.com. You can even take it one step further and write up a guest post- be a published author on our blog. Of course, any submissions might be edited- we can't have stories that might be slanderous or illegal or otherwise inappropriate, but surely you wouldn't submit something like that anyway, right?
If you want to play but can't figure out how, here's a tip: find your favorite Sandbar picture, and just tell a story about why it was your favorite.
Looking forward to hearing your stories!
