Sopo Lounge & Grill

They were evicted and have been closed for awhile now. LOL, BYE!

I don’t know why their rating is so low — I love this place! I went on Monday (I think?) — anyway, it was $ 5 martinis and $ 5 apps.
The chicken quesadilla is amazing, made with a sun-​dried tomato tortilla. Also, the boneless wings we got were wonderful! Mild was hot, but not too hot. I tried the sopo-​tini (like a cosmo), the peartini, and the chocolate martini and all were great!
Their credit card machines weren’t working, but I had cash, so it wasn’t a big deal. I will definitely be back to take advantage of their specials and to try the tomato soup (served with a grilled cheese sandwich — I wish they would always come with tomato soup!)

Don’t think that when I order two pops at the bar that you can ignore my request about how much they are.
Then, when I give you 20 dollars and I watch you input it through the restaurant system instead of the bar system, making a $ 4 tab $ 4.42, don’t think I don’t notice, watching you input it into the system, when you give me 15 dollars back instead of 15 and change.
That would be the thin brunette bartender on the first floor last night at about 11:30 pm with a heavy tan and quite some attitude.
It’s called theft when you do that. Trying to point out the issue in a subtle way, then don’t walk away from me when I request a receipt.
Owner: you should fire that bartender, she’s playing funny with your restaurant computer system.
I’m 33 years old with facial hair. Bouncer checked my ID three times before letting me in. Should I be flattered or think he’s a moron?
My friend decided to have a graduation party there last night, changing venues to SoPo because they’d promised her the upstairs. Then, when we got there, deciding arbitrarily, the bar moved us downstairs. Then as the party showed up, they moved us back upstairs. The result was a lot of hassle over nothing. Hint to owners: when someone brings 30 new people into your bar, you don’t push them around like that. Especially when they are a social node type.
Here’s the kicker. Graduation girl hired a few dancers for upstairs. First one gets on her «box» to dance, and a roach crawls up on it. She freaks out, steps on it and kicks it off.
Thinking it is an isolated incident, I go to the men’s room after I drank the pop without enough change. Roaches crawling on the men’s toilet bowl (I didn’t even know that was possible).
Wow.

I had so much difficulty finding a place in the area that could accept a large brunch party on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, when finally it was Sopo to the rescue!
They were able to accommodate our party and had decent food for a reasonable price. The mimosas were great, and on special. I wish I could have tried the bloody marys, but I’ll leave that for next time. The people there are friendly but not so friendly that it’s like they’re a member of your party. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience on such a hectic day!

Came here post-​bachelorette nails at nail bar on Southport to watch the Derby around 3pm on ⁵⁄₅. Place was moderately full for Cinco and the race.
Music, awesome mix of 80s and 90s, were were doing a lot of singing and booth dancing.
Specials, great! $ 5 margs and tequilla shots and quesidillas.
Service, great! Our waitress was super nice and attentive.
Food, only had a few orders of sweet potato and regular fries, but they were delish!
Owner gave us some free shots for it being my bachlorette party! So nice!
Overall experience was great, only reason I’m not giving it a 5 is because we didn’t experience enough of the bar/​food to really rate it that high. Will be backed based on the first experience here!

I enjoyed my chicken wrap and would most likely only go here when I have no other choices.
They have a patio which was great for my pup and I to take a seat and have a meal.
The menu is very brief and I like to have options. I didn’t feel there was many appealing options. The drinks were just okay nothing special. If anything this grill would be comparable to average.
Our service was extremely slow, though our server was nice, I didn’t feel she came to check on us or let us know a simple wrap and burger would take 30 mins to make.

I have been to Sopo a couple times now and each was a decent experience… I would actually rate them 3.5.
My first visit was for New Years Eve when a friend had a party in the upstairs area. Overall pretty good experience. It was packed but I was still able to get a drink but then they started running out of certain liquors. Odd — should have been more prepared. The other complaint I had was right before midnight no one was really aware — they didn’t turn on the ball drop (they had sports or something else on the tvs) nor did they do a countdown or anything. Yes these are minor annoyances but worth noting.
I came back again to use a youswoop I had purchased and had a lovely dinner catching up with a friend. The food was better than I was anticipating from a bar. I had the harvest spinach salad with grilled chicken. It was quite tasty. Couple complaints — they turned off the Cubs game in favor of the White Sox game… given the proximity to Wrigley this was a big no-​no and a few people were verbally upset. Also at about 9pm they turned the music up to the point where I felt like I was talking very loudly to my friend across the table. I know I’m at a bar and the music will be on but there was only a few tables in the entire place and the volume of the music seemed unnecessary. Just small complaints and nothing that will stop me from visiting again.

I had no idea there was a dance floor upstairs! Unilocal tells me everything!
But my Sopo experience was just a burger on the patio on burger night. Super cheap burger. $ 3 I believe? Basic, but yummy. The patio is small, nothing special. Service was a-​ok.
I’d come back for a cheap burger, as my friend lives around the corner. I’ll have to try out the dancefloor some time…

I was a regular customer at Sopo for over a year when I scheduled a meeting with the owner, Colin, to help with brunch on Sunday.
He scheduled three different meetings with me. I showed up in business clothes and re-​arranged my schedule for all three meetings. All three times, he wasn’t there. After the third time he ditched me, he didn’t reply to any email.
His actions came off as flaky and disrespectful.
The result? My friends and I are no longer Sopo customers.

Not a huge fan of this place. A group of 4 of us headed there on a Thursday night. We got there pretty early, around 6:30 for dinner, so the place was not crowded at all.
We were told to sit anywhere. Within a few seconds, our waitress appeared and asked if we wanted drinks. We were considering a pitcher of sangria, and told her we needed a minute. Well, that minute turned into 20 of them. Once our drinks came, our waitress hurried off and the same thing happened for our food order — we waited a ton for her to come back. I’d understand if it was busy, but it was not.
I will admit that the white sangria was pretty tasty. The margaritas were not very good though. And the food was under average too. I had the El Sombrero burger. It was on the small-​ish side, and the burgers don’t even come with fries. They come with chips and it’s an additional charge if you want fries. Really?
Finally, the music. As I said, we were there early on a Thursday night. Not midnight on a Saturday. No need for the music to be blaring so loud that I can’t even hear the person sitting next to me.
Overall, I have experienced better at other establishments. Next time, I’ll meet up with the girls at Messner’s or Mystic Celt, both not too far away on Southport.

Our tale begins with a girl named Amanda. See, it was about to be Amanda’s 23^rd birthday and her friends decided to plan her a little party. They all love to dance their little tushes off and were looking for a hot little spot in Lakeview to facilitate this passion of theirs. Along came Sopo. With its offerings of $ 25 drink deals, dance floors, and a sure-​fire good time, Amanda’s friends jumped at the chance to show their birthday girl just how much they cared about making this night a night to remember. Some phone calls were made to Seth, the «party planner’, and, thus, the evening was planned. The group was tingling with anticipation for the night ahead of them.
Ok, enough of that. Cue bad times.
Our group of 20 people got to Sopo, got our wristbands, and walked up to the bar. There were 2 girls behind it and the manager next to it. We inquired about the dance floor upstairs and one of the girls behind the bar, just for the sake of reality we’ll call her Satan, told us with a totally uncalled for, priggish tone that the dance floor would not be accessible that night (it was a Friday by the way). Why a dance floor, which is one of the draws of the bar, would not be open on a Friday night is beyond me. I immediately went outside to call Seth the «party planner» to inquire about this phantom dance floor and, of course, couldn’t get a hold of him.
What tops it all, and I wish I were joking, was when our friend, Ben, got kicked out. He was standing by the bar, apparently in the way of one of the waitresses, and the mananger told him to get out of the way. Ben didn’t hear what he said, only his demeaning tone, and exchanged a few words. The manager then pushed him TO THE GROUND and started yelling in his face. Ben finally got up and the manager pushed him outside where the bouncer started PUNCHING HIM IN THE FACE. Another friend went out to try to break things up and the bouncer started PUNCHING HIM TOO! The rest of the party was pretty clueless to these going’s on because we got unlimited alcohol for 3 hours… so we were pretty oblivous to most things.
I’m giving this place 2 stars for the mere fact that the dj they had there was not only really good, but cool as hell. So Sopo, you suck in every way possible besides your dj… who has amazing talent with no dance floor to romance.
«Amazing white wine sangria & hottie spotting!» — it’s Sopo’s claim to fame… In case you weren’t reading my truthful diatribe.

I completely concur with the other review written re: the best day of the year so far (Sunday, April 10^th) and SOPO totally sucking the life out of it.
A friend was itching for a margarita, and Sopo was the one bar on Southport that wasn’t completely packed (and it was for an obvious reason). It took FOREVER to get everything. The margarita was particularly terrible. I asked for it on the rocks with salt. I got it in a martini glass and salt IN the drink. Yes, the bartender put salt IN the shaker. The waitress didn’t charge me for it because it was «a complete mess»… but served it nonetheless.
Sopo used to be great before it shutdown for a little while. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll NEVER go back.

Always have a good experience here, but it’s true, it does get pretty crowded.
I used to go here every Monday for their $ 2 burgers and fries, but they changed the deal a little bit. I don’t go anymore for this, but I have been told they still do a special for $ 2.50, but I think it’s just the burger. They were quite tasty, so probably worth it. Anyway, their food is generally really good and so are their drinks. I especially enjoy their sangria. They seem to have drinks specials every day, which is also a plus.
Since this place gets real crowded on the weekends, i suggest trying to go in the back and get one of those tables. You can breath back there and still have servers getting you drinks. Always a good time at Sopo, whether you go after work for some food and drinks or you go on a Saturday night for drinks and drinks.

FYI — This place is now under new ownership, and I would say with my first experience, it is NOT for the better!
I used to love the food here — it was always great, reliable and delivered with reasonably fast service. Not so much anymore. The mac and cheese is officially ruined! Not sure what they did to change up the recipe, but it was bland and watery. No cheesy, gooey crust!
We also ordered the hummus to rave reviews of the waitress («oh, our hummus is the best!») only to be later informed that they didn’t have any until Tuesday. We then swapped to the spinach and artichoke dip, which I’ll give a resounding «meh» at best. They are lucky that the white sangria was still up to par, or i would have been an über unhappy camper!
Very upsetting, let’s hope this place gets its act together or I might have to cut it from my regular rotation of summer sports!

Went again last Thursday for dinner with the roomie when it was 88 out ! yea almost summer !
I still stand by their creative martinis and good drink specials, though for dinner I had an Ahi tuna salad, its usually $ 10 though that night all food was $ 5. Still not worth it. Ahi tuna should be seared and rare in the middle this was way over cooked and was a little fishy. I felt bad saying something since it was only $ 5… so I’ll just tell everyone on here !
Great for drinks… maybe not as much food… and there is not alot of seating and it fills up fast so if you are wearing some ouchie stilletos like I usually am I would have a back up plan !!

Upgraded!
March Madness means watching basketball right after work. Holler. After much debate, my friended and I ended up on Southport and we decided to head into SoPo due to the $ 5 martinis.
I was a lil surprised at their extensive martini list, but disapointed that they were out of the acai vodka. (Anti-​oxidant martini has my name written ALL over it.) The super friendly bartender suggested the mango mojito — which was surprisingly REALLY good. It was my fav outta all of them (Spiced Pear + Mango martini).
Lotsa tv’s allowed us to indulge in the basketball madness ensuing, plus it was empty enough that we were all able to just chill at the bar w/​out being bothered. I’m a fan!

Head on out to Sopo Mo Fo! I went on a Thursday night ($ 5 food night) with moderate expectations.
I was impressed by the décor, which included dim (candle) light, nice chandlers, and classic brick walls. The food falls into the category of relatively inexpensive slightly above average bar food. I had a buffalo chicken sandwich, it was pretty good, nothing I’d travel across the city for, but it hit the spot. For whatever reason, I was craving something sweet that night and while I’m not one to order desert at a bar, my sugar craving got the best of me. Much to my surprise the lava cake was not only good it was quite frankly delicious. The chocolate cake was rich (without being too rich) and the chocolate sauce around it was an amazing complement. I will go back at least one more time for the cake.
Overall, if you’re looking for a slight upgrade from the standard Southport bars and/​or a place that nice enough for a casual date, give Sopo a try.

Awww… Sopo. An old favorite. Some of the fun of bachelorette parties is revisiting the old faves.
And while I feel MUCH older not much has changed about Sopo over the past 5 years. It’s still absolutely packed with a group of early to mid 20 somethings, they play fun music and getting a table/​drink can be nearly impossible. We were lucky enough to score a table last weekend, but I gave up on that drink after trying to flag down a waitress a few times. Apparently I had more patience 5 years ago…

Not sure how I feel about this place. So I’ve decided to write an «A-​OK vs. Meh, I’ve experienced better.» list to try to sort out my feelings. Here I go:
A-​OK: 1) The food was actually pretty good. I ordered the nachos which had fresh pico de gallo and didn’t have a low quality «movie nachos» taste. They tasted very fresh and were actually pretty tasty. I also ordered the «Parmesan flat bread» –which was basically pizza. I thought it would maybe be a thick or unusual bread with a more solid cheese and fresh veggies. But it was just pizza (it was good anyway). 2) I liked the upstairs seating area. We got there early and beat the crowd, so we had a little couch all to ourselves before the birthday girl arrived. It was nice to sit on a comfortable couch and drink and catch up with my friends. 3) The staff upstairs was so nice, especially Reggie the bartender, who was so accommodating and was always friendly and joked around.
Meh, I’ve experienced Better: 1) THE NOISE! OK, I’ll admit it –I’m «old» by barhopping standards, I suppose. But isn’t the point of going out to actually socialize with your friends? Initially, it was OK (we were admittedly 3 of about 7 people there. However, as the night went on, and more and more obnoxious «preppy» college kids showed up, it became pretty unbearable. Which leads me to 2) The ANNOYING PEOPLE: These were the type of people who scared me away from going away to school (I went to a local private school instead –thank god.) Maybe I was this annoying at 21 –I don’t know. But these kids were really, really loud, obnoxious and annoying. They should have lowered or cut off the music, given that it was so noisy anyway. We left at about 11:30 because I was about to go postal at that point!
So, in conclusion –I would say if you could organize several parties with your own crowd and monopolize the room by yourself, it is a really nice place with good food and drinks and a friendly staff. However, don’t plan on socializing with anyone beside the person right next to you (group conversations would be difficult) or meeting anyone intelligent over the age of 18 there –oh wait –maybe they were 21 years old. Funny, I couldn’t tell by there alarming lack of maturity and frat house antics. (Some people ARRIVED drunk by 9pm!)
I hate to give bad reviews, but I would never go back so I have to rate it a «Meh…» for this one. Sorry Reggie –you are so sweet!
Proceed with caution my friends…

I’m maintaining my two star review. This is why:
1. I came by SoPo for a private party. Yeah… not so private. Management booked 5 separate private parties in the upstairs room! On the same night! It was packed tighter than Ron Jeremy in a pair of Speedos.
2. The music was questionable. Wang Chung? Really?
3. Due to the cramped quarters and oodles of bodies, I felt like I was in a college bar. Or Lincoln Park. Take your pick.
I would forewarn people looking to set up a private party at SoPo that you probably won’t have the upstairs exclusively for your party.
Funny side note: My friend who had the birthday told me she complained to the manager a bunch of times about the overbooking and he kept feeding her free shots to «probably shut me up.» $ 20 says she pukes tonight.