Thank you to all of our wonderful customers and friends who celebrated with us, and a huge thank you to Peoples Bank for sponsoring this year’s party.
In case you missed it, we went all out this year with a giant stage, even bigger beer garden and a Grammy-nominated band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds.
And perhaps the best part? The weather was gorgeous—really, we couldn’t have asked for better weather, especially after a long, gray, rainy week. It wasn’t hot like it’s been for all our other block parties; it didn’t rain; but it wasn’t cold, either. Truly perfect.
Very Important People enjoyed a pre-party in the brand new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters right across the street from the bar, where a new Peoples Bank location will be housed as well.
Local band Cowboy Indian Bear opened the show and then the Thunderbirds took the stage. They played until around 10:30, which left plenty of time for party-goers to mingle in the beer garden after the show.
We took a lot of pictures. Watch the slideshow below:
The Sandbar, a downtown beach bar, has been a staple on the Lawrence bar scene since 1989. A little over a decade ago, Sandbar founder Peach started dabbling with the idea of expansion.
“The subs story started when I found out that most downtowns would not allow a bar to go in without food sales,” she said. Overland Park and other similar towns—including Lawrence– have zoning regulations to prevent the same type business.
Longtime bartender and manager David Johanning agreed to take over the responsibility of the Lawrence bar while Peach explored expansion options. This was during the time the Legends shopping center in nearby Kansas City was under construction. “We were asked to participate in the original Legends plan,” Peach said, “but realized we were not experienced enough at that time to handle such volume.”
The small town of Ottawa, close to home, was a great place to test ideas and concepts. Peach opened a second Sandbar location that was a restaurant and bar (click here to read more stories about the Ottawa adventures) and enjoyed it, but she knew it wasn’t quite the right match.
During this time, the Madls became friends with the Zaremba family of Zarco66. The Zarembas had just bought a store in Ottawa, and Scott and his family often came into the restaurant on wing night.
A downtown Ottawa sub shop without table service was the next effort, and boy it worked. It was great fun, Scott came down and enjoyed the food and a partnership was born. We now have three Sandbar Sub Shops inside Zarco66 convenience stores in Lawrence and Ottawa.
The Sandbar Subs World Headquarters is slated to open in August, right across the street from the original Sandbar, along with a new location of Peoples Bank.
Now how did the relationship with Peoples Bank happen?
Peach explains, “Well, back in the old days, banks would sometimes be ‘not nice.’ My husband and I had the opportunity to buy the building the original Sandbar bar was in. However, I was rejected by a bank my accountant referred me to– because ‘you receive the majority of your income from the sale of alcohol and we are a family owned bank.’”
Their regular bank wouldn’t loan money for properties outside of Baldwin City. So one day Ted said, “Hey, I have a cousin who’s a banker, let me call her!”
“That’s when I met Maley Wilkins of Peoples Bank, and she took great care of us.”
Another connection to Peoples Bank comes by way of the Winter family, who are well-known around the Lawrence area.
“When we first got the Crystal Plaza Theater in 2005, it was struggling, “ Peach said. Peoples Bank kept sponsoring events and coming by and supporting us in many ways in Ottawa. The late Wint Winter, Sr., who was chairman of Peoples Inc., was a wonderful man and he is honored at the Plaza Grill and Cinema with a picture on the Wall of LOCAL Stars in the lobby.
As for the new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters/Peoples Bank adventure in downtown Lawrence?
Peach says it came about when Scott and Maley spent time talking instead of listening to speakers at a Chamber event and came up with this wonderful plan.
“And Ted and I said ‘we’re in!’” said Peach.
Usually, this is where they say the rest is history, but in this case, the next chapter is just beginning.
Be sure to join us on August 10 for the big block party bash! Click here for more info.
Our annual St. Patrick's Day parade float wouldn't be possible without the hard work and dedication of a lot of people. Our founder, Peach, her husband, Ted, and our managing partner, Dave, provide the vision, support and patience needed to accomplish this project every year.
A big thank you to Scott Zaremba and Zarco66. Scott gave us a place to build the float (and it was indoors!), provided the trailer for us to build our volcano on and even pulled our float in the parade. Zarco66 also provided breakfast for our float crew on Thursday morning. The biscuits & gravy and breakfast burritos were delicious!
Thanks also to Sandbar Subs (23rd Street location) for providing dinner for our annual pre-parade social with the crew from Kennedy Glass on Wednesday night.
You'll be hearing more about Backdoor Bakery pretty soon. They gave us cupcakes and cookies as a treat after float dance practice- and oh my goodness, their baked goods are amazing. Cupcakes to die for!
Amelia Madl of Premier Mobile Spray Tan came into town on Tuesday before St. Pat's and held a spray tan party upstairs at the Sandbar. Nearly all of the ladies on our float were able to stop by for a quick tan. Thanks to Amelia for hanging around for almost five hours to make sure everyone looked lovely and tan!
And of course, huge thanks to everyone who helped design and build our float or who participated on parade day. We always say that building the float is half the fun, and this year was no exception. Our friends are the best!
Editor's note: Pretty sure I'm forgetting people. If you did something worthy and wish to be publicly thanked, let us know in the comments.
The Lawrence Journal-World featured an article the other day about Lawrence businesses expanding outside of Lawrence. Many prominent businesses were profiled, like Johnny’s, Quinton’s and and Ingredient, who have all taken their concept and opened additional restaurants in Kansas City and other places.
We were surprised to see our name mentioned in the article, too! A long time ago, we talked about opening more Sandbars outside of Lawrence. Peach opened one in Ottawa, but then decided to go in a different direction and open sandwich shops instead, calling them Sandbar Sub Shop.
Since she opened the first one several years ago, she’s begun a partnership with the folks at Zarco66 that has included opening Sub Shops inside their gas stations. So far, two franchise locations are open- one in Lawrence on East 23rd Street and the other in Ottawa- and a third one is set to open on 6th Street in Lawrence soon.
It’s fun and exciting to expand a business and take it in a different direction! But don’t worry, we aren’t changing anything about the original Sandbar in downtown Lawrence. Except maybe adding more stuff to our walls.
