by Debbi | Aug 10, 2010 | Birthday Party, Sandbar Stuff
It's almost here! Just a few more days until our 21st birthday bash. Like last year, we ordered commemorative shirts.
Bartender Joe drew the original artwork (first published here) and then we turned it over to the fine folks at Hasty Awards in Ottawa to work their magic.
Here's our new design:
Do you love it? We do!
The shirts will be available at our block party on Saturday. If you can't make it to the party, we're happy to take email orders. Just send us an email at sandbar@thesandbar.com and let us know what size you need, and we can work out payment arrangements.
Shirts come in sizes small through double extra large, and they'll be $15 each.
by Debbi | Aug 31, 2009 | Birthday Party, Events, Ottawa
Last Friday night, our second Sandbar location down the road in Ottawa celebrated it's fifth year of business. Several people at the party commented that it didn't seem like five years had passed already. To me, it seems like it's been open a lot longer.
Five years ago, shortly after it opened, our Ottawa location played host to part of the Sandbar's fifteen year anniversary celebration. We rented a bus, took reservations, and road-tripped to Baldwin City for dinner at The Lodge (another one of Peach and Ted's ventures, or should I say ad-ventures!), and then on to Ottawa so everyone could check out the brand-new Sandbar. That night seems like ages ago.
Friday's party gave us another opportunity to use the fabulous stage that Dave & company built for our downtown Lawrence block party. It was parked out by the sand volleyball courts, and the night was perfect (again!) for an outdoor party. Our friend Frankie Diamond took the stage at 7 pm, followed by the Ottawa band Big Deal at 9 pm. Frankie plays at the Ottawa Sandbar on a regular basis, so make sure to check him out another time if you missed this party. If you're really nice, he might even dedicate a song to you!
There might not have been as big of a crowd for this party as there was in Lawrence, but it was still a lot of fun. Several friends from Lawrence made the trip, and there were lots of Ottawa Sandbar regulars there.
Peach, Coleen, and Dave took advantage of one of the band's breaks to hop up on the ship's back balcony and perform our favorite Sandbar dancing tunes.
I tried a new experiment with this party- my new friend Jenn introduced me to a website called Whrrl, which is basically a site where anyone with an account can create or join "stories." The stories can be updated on-the-go with pictures and notes, and they can also be integrated into Facebook and Twitter.
Check out the Whrrl story from the Sandbar party here.
by Debbi | Aug 25, 2009 | Birthday Party, Events
We had so much fun at our birthday party earlier this month, we’re doing it again!
A fact that got lost in the excitement of The Sandbar turning 20: our second location in Ottawa turns 5 this year! It seems like yesterday we were cleaning and painting the old Taco Tico and turning into a beach-themed oasis south of Lawrence.
We’re getting a second use out of the fantastic pirate ship stage that we used in Lawrence- the kind folks at Zarco66 let us keep the trailer for an extra month and haul it to Ottawa to host a second band.
Join us this Friday, August 28, at The Sandbar in Ottawa to help them celebrate five years in business! The show starts at 7 pm and features the band “Big Deal,” along with a special guest, Frankie Diamond.
If you’re on Facebook, RSVP to the party and share it with your friends.
If you had fun at our block party, you won’t want to miss this. And if you haven’t checked out our Ottawa location yet, this is a perfect opportunity!
For those of you in Lawrence who are interested in car-pooling, meet us at the Lawrence Sandbar by 5:30 p.m. on Friday and follow us down.
Get party updates this week and during the event: if you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow us (@thesandbar) and use the #sbar hashtag so your tweets show up here!
by Debbi | Aug 11, 2009 | Birthday Party, Events
One of the best parts of our birthday party was our mini-Sandbar show at 10:30. Since the party was all about celebrating the Sandbar, of course we had to include our famous float dances!
A few weeks before the party, Peach and I put together a list of float songs from the past. We quickly narrowed the list down to six songs that we wanted to feature at the party. It was easy to pick songs because none of us could remember most of our float dances, and only the songs from the last couple of years were recorded on video. So, by default, these are the ones we chose:
- Car Wash
- Locomotion
- Proud Mary
- Love Train
- Shake Your Tailfeathers
- The Sandbar Song
We rounded up a group of expert float dancers and had a quick practice a few days before the party. Several of these songs we can do in our sleep; the others came back to us in no time at all.
Peach and Coleen both found/made great pirate costumes; the rest of the dancers aren't quite as talented and also wanted costumes that were easy to change in and out of. On the big night, we gathered around 10 pm to change into our costumes and run through our set one last time before performing it for the masses.
It was just like St. Patrick's Day, only dark outside! One of our very favorite things about the annual St. Patrick's Day parade is rolling down Massachusetts Street, singing and dancing, and watching all the people- kids and grandparents and everyone in between- dancing along with us. This was pretty much the same- there was a crowd of people right in front of the stage, following along with us and singing and dancing. It was so much fun to watch.
After performing our very own original Sandbar song, Peach grabbed the microphone to tell the story of how the Sandbar hurricane came to be. And then, we had one final treat for the crowd.
This is something that usually happens late, late at night, when the bartenders are getting a little slap-happy, and they want to goof around a little. I've seen Dave, Tegan, and Andrew all behind the bar at the same time doing this dance. I've also seen a huge line dance of people in the middle of the bar dancing along. It's kind of crazy.
Dave got to take center stage for "Apache." The rest of us just kind of stood back and watched, danced a little, and laughed.
After he was finished, Peach thanked everyone again for celebrating our birthday with us.
I hope to have the video edited and uploaded soon. Thanks to Brother Pants for sacrificing his arm and filming the entire show for us. Thanks also to Pat Paulsen, who took the pictures used in this post. He has lots of good ones and we'll share some soon.
by Debbi | Aug 9, 2009 | Birthday Party, Events, Social Media
After the Bar Band warmed up the crowd, we had a quick break before Mark Valentine took the stage with his band. Valentine and the Ones played for the rest of the night and entertained the crowd with lots of Sandbar favorites and other great tunes for dancing and singing along.
Our good friend and photographer Pat took a million great pictures of the entire event. Here are a couple that give an idea of just how many people were at our party:
It was great to see so many families, kids, and teenagers out in the street dancing and singing. We really wanted this event to be a "thank you" party for all of our friends and customers throughout the year, and we wanted everyone to feel welcome to attend.
It was also fun to see quite a few people dressed up in costume- Peach found a fantastic pirate costume, and there were a number of other pirates in attendance at the party. Elvis even made an appearance. So did three brides- although we're pretty sure these weren't costumes but actual wedding dresses!
We're starting to see our friends sharing their own pictures on Facebook. If you have pictures from the event, we'd really love to see them! There are several ways you can share your Sandbar pictures:
- Upload them to Flickr and add them to the Sandbar Flickr group. Only group members can view the pictures.
- Add them to the Fan Photos on our Facebook page. It's a little tricky to figure this out- at least it was for me- so I've posted detailed instructions about how to do this.
- If you don't have a Flickr or Facebook account, you can still share your pictures. Email them to sandbar{at}thesandbar{dot}com and we might feature them on the blog or post them on our wall in the bar.
We've still got a few more things to share about last week's party. The highlight of our night was performing several of our favorite Sandbar float songs for the crowd. We also have several videos to share with you. Check back this week for more Sandbar party memories!
