Top of the Morning, July 19, 2024

Bellying up with ...

On Fridays, we’ll spotlight the men and women serving up cold ones and conversation in our neck of the woods. Let us know about your favorite bartender by emailing ltaylor@news-gazette.com .

Sophia Horn had never worked in the service industry before she started at Neil St. Blues. But in the last year, she has climbed her way up to being a lead bartender.

She had been working as a CNA before deciding to try something else part time; she found Neil St. Blues by searching “restaurants near me.”

“I was going through everyone’s reviews, and I wanted to work somewhere fun, I didn’t want to be like, ‘I hate this place.’ I was looking at the pictures, and it’s a lot of people smiling,” Horn said.

Sure enough, Horn ended up loving the work environment, as well as the opportunity to try new foods and get to know the regulars.

She doesn’t miss the pressure of being a CNA.

“It’s just not as stressful. The biggest thing that can go wrong is someone not liking something, but most of the time, it’s a fixable problem,” Horn said.

Learning to make drinks ended up being more fun than Horn expected, as someone who doesn’t drink much herself — she prefers the food over on the restaurant side and recommends the fried chicken, fish, pasta and jambalaya.

Her favorite drinks to fix up are Neil St. Blues’ special peach Kentucky mule or a strawberry lemondrop, which she gets consistent compliments on.

“Realizing that I’m good at it (bartending) obviously was a good feeling. It was rewarding,” Horn said. “When you give something to someone, and their first reaction is, ‘I love it,’ then it’s like, OK, I made at least one person happy.”

Horn also enjoys helping to train newer employees and helping to cater or staff events at the restaurant, like the popular Sunday brunch, which is expanding to Saturdays as well starting this weekend.

Downtown Champaign can get a bad reputation, Horn said. At Neil St. Blues, everyone is just there to have a good time.

“It’s just more like family when you come in here. It’s like you’re coming to your mom’s house,” she said.