Painting a picture of the vision behind the newly remodeled Sandbar Santa Barbara, CEO Greg Newman waxes poetically of the Riviera Maya–inspired restaurant, bar, and nightlife destination.
“Imagine you’re with your friends, and you go down to Cancun or Barbados, and you guys go kayaking, right? And you’re going to an island, then you get lost, … and you pull up your kayaks, and then you go kind of into the jungle, and then there’s a waterfall, and you go under the waterfall, and you think you might be lost. Then, all of a sudden, it’s like wow!” He proudly points to an expansive new bar area, designed to feel like a hidden tropical coastline retreat. An impressive array of spirits gleam from the shelves, and 20 beer taps are ready to roll.
“The whole idea here is to try to get people an escape from reality,” says Newman, as he walks photographer Ingrid Bostrom and I through the spacious new interior for an exclusive early look at the redesigned space before it opens to the public on June 18.