About 28 years ago, the College Hill Social Club was close to going out of business. The manager was fired and a call was put out for a new one. A 25 year-old bartender named Matt Harris applied and got the job.
“It was exciting and it was a challenge,” said Harris, who has been the manager since then.
This year the social club has gone through some changes. Renovations were done and the new live entertainment sound system was put in. After saving the club from debt all those years ago, Harris said the challenge of his job will remain, but so will the reward of making a living out of something he enjoys.
“At my age it’s a fun job and at 25 it was a dream job,” he said.
Harris graduated from St. Thomas University, where he majored in psychology. As manager of S Club he has a hand in everything that’s done at the bar. He takes photographs, makes drinks, meets with advertisers and the university, even busses tables when they need to be bussed. He said he can do anything but DJ.
“You’d get too much country music.”
Harris said his favorite aspect of working at S Club is the customers, because he relates to them.
“I am no different than any customer that’s in this place,” he said. “Except I get to run the bar, and that is fun.”
Still, the biggest challenge to him is figuring out from year to year what the customers want.
The biggest change this year is the addition of live entertainment, which apparently wasn’t part of the plan.
When The Cellar, a bar in the same building, announced they will hosting less live bands, Harris took that as a cue.
“When that door was opened, we moved in on it and put a sound system in there.”
Harris said if he had to boil down the club’s premise it would be to try to keep the pricing low.
“That doesn’t mean we try to make customers drink excessively,” he said. “It means we’re accommodating student budgets.”
To him this also means all profit made goes right back into the improvement of the bar.
Harris also said he cares about the safety of his clientele. A few weeks ago he drove a person home because he couldn’t get a cab during the last big snowstorm and walked him to his room.
“That’s part of what this bar is,” he said.
Outside of managing the club, Harris enjoys horseback riding. He said if he wasn’t doing this, he would own a commercial stable.
When asked why he said: “Go ride one, then you wouldn’t have to ask me that question.”
After signing some payroll checks, Harris walked through the crowded bar where everyone greeted him. It was someone’s birthday, and he made After Eight shots for the whole group. He took photos with one of their phones from behind the bar.
You can tell he is most comfortable in this environment.
“Good kids, good people, I’m lucky.”
