Siren Song

Having grown up in the restaurant business, Khailing Neoh ’17 knew what the job demanded. Long hours, ceaseless work, unpredictable pay.

She also knew the rewards, including the pride that comes with creating a community center. This year, the siren song of her past proved too strong to resist. The Case-trained chemical engineer opened Sum Bar, a traditional Chinese restaurant, in her new home in Greenville, North Carolina.

Her venture caused a stir in a staid southern city. Neoh is being heralded in the local press as one of the young entrepreneurs adding new flavors to Greenville. Her downtown restaurant specializes in dim sum, small plates of Cantonese-style cuisine.

But one audience is not so bemused. Neoh’s parents, immigrants from China, worked in restaurants so she could attend an elite engineering school not far from their home in Mansfield, Ohio.

“My parents were very distraught over the idea of me, not only quitting my full-time job, but specifically opening a restaurant,” she told 7News, the CBS affiliate in nearby Spartanburg.

Still, they may be warming to the idea, especially after nearly 2,000 people attended her opening in February.

“All I want to do is make them proud. And I really think this will make them proud — even if they don’t see it yet,” she told a local food podcast.

To become a restaurateur, Neoh left Parker Hannifin, where she was a VMI specialist and a territory manager. It’s through that job that she met her husband, who is also an engineer, and realized what she really wanted to do.

To be able pivot is a privilege, she told the Greenville News: “It was the right time, right place, and right idea.”