Sand Trap’s new managers preserve bar’s old charm while introducing new draws
The Sand Trap business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, pose for a portrait Friday, Dec. 2, 2016, at the Sand Trap in Ogden. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different since they've taken ownership.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden on Friday, Dec. 2, 2016. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different. Renovations are still underway.
OGDEN — The Sand Trap’s has new management has already brought a lot more green to the popular downtown watering hole.
Business partners Art Gruber and Christine Guimond officially took charge last month, and they’re walking a fine line between preserving some of the bar’s assets while introducing some new draws. That balancing act has its challenges — both Gruber and Guimond admit the old place looked a little rough around the edges when they decided to take on their management role.
But between Gruber’s vision and Guimond’s knack for sprucing things up, the bar’s been raised.
“I’ve been doing property management for years, so I have a good sense of looking beyond dirt. That’s why I felt good about it,” Gruber said Friday afternoon amid knocks from workers repairing the roof. “Obviously, it’s a thriving bar because of the regulars. It just needed work.”
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
Sand Trap regulars, from left, Kenny Church, Gordon Hartmann and Ray Anderson sit together Friday, Dec. 2, 2016, at the Sand Trap. The three have a combined 88 years of coming to The Sand Trap in Ogden.
Signs of the Sand Trap’s colorful past still decorate its walls. There are the news clippings from the 1980s and a photo wall of happy patrons from the aughts. There’s old wood paneling rumored to be from the Ben Lomond Hotel and black and white photos from the 1930s when place operated as Bob’s Bar-B-Q. The building became the Sand Trap club in the early 1970s, and some of its first patrons still sidle up there.
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Not much had been done to update the place in the decades since. Guimond and Gruber figure they’ve put 150 hours into improving the establishment in the past few weeks. They painted the old walls, which Guimond described as a “tobacco smoke yellow,” with a vibrant red. They replaced the carpet and the old, torn seats.
“On Thanksgiving we spent the whole day here while bar was closed. We were here until 10:30 at night just cleaning,” Guimond said.
“That’s how dedicated we are to making this bar the best it can be,” Gruber said. “It’s also selfish — we want to make a little money off it.”
But the bar’s biggest change so far is hard to miss. Gruber and Guimond added a stage to the back, complete with an improved sound system. As front man of local cover band E.Z. Money, music is important to Gruber, and he hopes to make it an important fixture at the Sand Trap, located at 2851 Washington Blvd.
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different.
“We’re not going into the bar business; we’re going into the entertainment business,” he said. “Music, comedy is what we want to do. That’s why we built the stage.”
And of course, there will be karaoke — one of the Sand Trap’s longtime hooks for the downtown Ogden barhopping crowd. Professional and amateur vocalists can belt out their favorite popular songs at the venue on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Other past staples new management plans on preserving include 50 cent wings on Sundays and $5 steak on Mondays. Tuesdays nights mean tacos and Texas hold ’em.
Saturdays are “jam night,” and Gruber said there will be a big focus on local bands.
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
The Sand Trap has gotten a facelift since business partners Art Gruber, of Sunset, and Christine Guimond, of Syracuse, took over the business in Ogden. New chairs, paint, carpet, a stage and a new pool table are visibly different.
The new managers said they want the changes to keep attracting old regulars and some newcomers, too.
“This place has great bones, great potential to become even more than what it is,” Gruber said.
Some of those natural assets include the Sand Trap’s downtown location, its colorful past and its people, he said. So far, Gruber said they’ve only heard positive feedback from patrons.
“Change is hard, but they’re adapting to it,” he said. “They thank us all the time for fixing it up — you know this this place has a lot of history.”
Contact Reporter Leia Larsen at 801-625-4289 or llarsen@standard.net. Follow her on Facebook.com/leiaoutside or on Twitter @LeiaLarsen.
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