by Debbi | May 3, 2011 | Events, Jukebox, Pub Crawl, Stories
The buses were loaded and we were off to Power & Light!
After what seemed like an extremely short trip- most of which was spent, at least on bus #2, trying to get the sound system working so we could listen to Sandbar music, and also dodging the slow-to-move Ktag gates at the tollbooth on I70- we arrived at the Kansas City Power & Light District.
As soon as everyone could hop off the buses, our Sandbar crew disappeared into the throngs of parrotheads. Grand Boulevard was closed for a block or two, and there were some random booths set up in the street, but the real party was in the KC Live area. A tropical band was playing and there were parrotheads everywhere.
We realized quickly while walking through the crowds that a lot of people had heard of the Sandbar. Many people in our group had on our commemorative concert T-shirts, and everywhere we went we heard "Hey, Sandbar!" or "It's Dave from Sandbar!"
Surprisingly, it didn't take long to find people we knew in the huge crowds. Brit and Megan, a pair of former bartenders who met at the Sandbar while working together on Saturday nights and are now married, met up with us at Johnny's Tavern:
We traveled from bar to bar, which is easy to do in the P&L with its open arrangement and lax Missouri liquor laws. We started at Johnny's Tavern, where we also found our man on the street Pat, and wandered back to the tropical-themed Shark Bar, which Dave has never visited. At Shark Bar, we ran into a couple who love the Sandbar so much that when they got married last year, they stopped at the bar with their wedding party before going to their reception:
And finally, after realizing Shark Bar can never be as cool as our own tropical bar, we moved downstairs to Pizza Bar, where we ran into some more familiar faces. Stay tuned for stories about our fun at Pizza Bar, because they're good ones.
by Debbi | May 2, 2011 | Events, Jukebox, Pub Crawl, Stories
The event the Sandbar crew has waited for for years happened last weekend: Jimmy Buffett's return to Kansas City with the "Welcome to Fin Land" tour.
The party started early Saturday afternoon at the Sandbar. We had a pre-party with boat drinks, parrothead hat-making supplies and Ted cooking beer brauts on a grill outside. The bar was full of partiers by 2 p.m.- most of them were parrotheads with spots on our party bus to the show, but teams on a local charity pub crawl taking place downtown also detoured from their route and stopped by.
Peach had fun making a party hat for the concert, and bartender Andrew and his girlfriend Jamie decorated their brand-new commemorative concert shirts.
Our two party buses pulled up at 4 p.m. We had nearly 80 people signed up for a fun ride to the Power & Light District! Passengers ranged from staff and regulars to hard-core Parrotheads of all ages. We loaded up our buses and headed for Kansas City.
It was such a beautiful day in downtown Lawrence to be on our patio! If you were there, we'd love to see your pictures. You can email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com, or upload them to our Facebook page.
More stories to come…
by Debbi | Apr 26, 2011 | Cool Stuff, Events, Pub Crawl
Jimmy Buffett returns to Kansas City this weekend!
We reserved a party bus to take us to the show, and our seats sold out before we could even advertise them. There's still been a lot of interest in our bus, so we decided to rent another one. But we've only got a few spots left, so if you want one, you better hurry.
Now, our first bus is a "luxury coachline" according to Peach. Our second one is not. But it will still get you to the show, and it will still be fun.
Here's the details:
- $25 per person
- Bus leaves the Sandbar at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday
- Bus returns after the show
- BYOB allowed on the bus (small coolers, please)
If you signed up on the first bus, there's no need to sign up again. Also, if you've already signed up on the first list, don't worry, you'll be on the "luxury" bus.
A sign-up sheet is available at the bar. Payment is required to reserve your spot. You can sign up in person or call the bar and pay over the phone.
We'll have a Buffett pre-party at the bar that day, too. Food, boat drinks and parrothead hat-making supplies will be available, so even if you're not riding our bus, come by for some fun!
(People on our e-mail list were notified about the second party bus first. If you want to get our news before the rest of the world, sign up for our email list.)
by Debbi | Jan 25, 2011 | Events, Jukebox
No, not the country, although that could be an interesting trip.
Jimmy Buffett is finally returning to Kansas City after a long break and playing the Sprint Center on April 30 as part of the "Welcome to Fin Land" tour. He last played in Kansas City in 1997.
Lots of years ago, the Sandbar crew took a bus trip to Denver to see Jimmy Buffett. It was before my time, but I've heard lots of stories and seen the pictures. And there were certainly stories. I'm hoping to corner a few of the trip's participants and grill them about what they remember so I can share it here.
Back in the late 90's, we took another bus trip to Buffett, this time to St. Louis. It rained almost the entire show but we had a blast.
And now, we'll see him in Kansas City. The Sprint Center won't be quite the same as an outdoor amphitheater with large parking lots suited for tailgating, but we'll make it work.
It certainly was a fiasco to get tickets. Dave was on the phone and I was online right at 10 a.m., and we spent a lot of frustrating time with Ticketmaster. I finally managed to get a few pairs online, and then Dave had the best idea ever: go to the Ticketmaster outlet at HyVee. Genius! He got tickets with no problems at all.
We don't have any official plans for the concert yet. We've talked about taking a bus from Lawrence to the concert; we've also thought about renting hotel rooms and spending the night near Power & Light. Once we have a Sandbar party plan, we'll be sure to let you know.
Who else was lucky enough to score some tickets?
by Debbi | Jun 23, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Off the Wall
If you love Jimmy Buffett or the Sandbar, you'll love this.
We celebrated former staff member Erick's birthday last weekend at a party at his parent's house. (His parents are very cool Sandbar friends, too.) The family members are huge Buffett fans and have traveled to many concerts over the years and collected lots of memorabilia.
Where do they display it? Why, the bathroom of course.
A friend of theirs who owned a display company (I think) gave them a lighted palm tree. There's grass skirts and coconut bras on the walls. Flamingos and margarita and parrot images are everywhere. A huge frame above the counter has pictures from every Buffett concert they've been to (with Erick in the same Hawaiian shirt every time!) and sharks on top of it. We even gave them a Sandbar tabletop frame advertising Landshark.
And there's a fish tank. With real fish.
Who can top this?
