How do you get into Yana’s Speakeasy? Figuring it out is part of the fun

Highland Park business owner Yana Khernburg doesn’t back down from challenges. It wasn’t simple for her to open up her second business, Yana’s Speakeasy, in the city’s Ravinia neighborhood, or her first, which opened as the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

After making it through the pandemic, Khernburg faced challenges from Highland Park’s public-review process and the stress of maintaining one business while building another. But Yana’s Speakeasy opened its doors on Dec. 15, and Khernburg said that running the unique business has been “amazing so far.”

“I’m really happy,” Khernburg said. “It’s beautiful inside. People have been very supportive; they really like it and we’ve done pretty well.”

She said that the toughest part of operating the speakeasy is getting adjusted to having two jobs. Khernburg also owns Yana’s Barber Shop of Ravinia, which is located next door to the speakeasy.

Khernburg’s original vision for the speakeasy was to incorporate a bar into her already-existing barbershop. The plan was proposed to the Highland Park City Council last year, but it did not gain the council’s support at a Jan. 16, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting. Instead, Khernburg decided to open Yana’s Speakeasy as a restaurant and bar, rather than as part of her barbershop. 

“I didn’t know that it would be such a long process,” Khernburg said. “We lost a good six or seven months because of restrictions. But once we started over and reapplied (to the city) as a restaurant everything started to move.”

During that time, Khernburg received a lot of support from the community, including an online petition that received more than 300 signatures.

“We had a great amount of community support,” Khernburg said. “People signed petitions, it was an amazing feeling.”

Community support means a lot to Khernburg. She opened her Ravinia barbershop on March 21, 2020, the day that Gov. JB Pritzker mandated a statewide stay-at-home order amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Khernburg said that during the pandemic, her clients would send her money for “non-existing haircuts,” and her barbershop was busy “right away” once they were allowed to open.

“I’m very lucky with my clientele,” Khernburg said. “We became like a family. They saved me through the pandemic, and they supported me through this difficult time when nobody knew what was going to happen.”

Highland Park resident Ed Kugler was one of the community members who supported Khernburg throughout her application process. Kugler first met Khernburg when he visited her barbershop after COVID-19 to cut his shoulder-length hair. 

“I asked her to cut my hair, and I filmed it because it was a monumental choice in my life at that time because the last time I had shoulder length hair was in college,” Kugler said.

Khernburg said that she had so much fun cutting his hair that she didn’t charge him. 

“She impressed me with her generosity,” Kugler said. “I thought it was quite unique. She is, and has been, a very gracious and good friend of mine from that point on.”

Khernburg actually developed the idea for the speakeasy because of the pandemic, thinking about how alcohol is used to make soaps and hand sanitizers.

“When the next-door space was available, it was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take it,” Khernburg said. 

Although Khernburg’s original intention wasn’t to open Yana’s Speakeasy as a restaurant, she’s having fun developing the menu and planning for future items.

“I don’t want to stick to one menu,” Khernburg said. “It’s kind of boring.”

Many of the current menu items reflect Khernburg’s Russian heritage, except for the steak, which is grilled on a hot steak stone — seeing steaks cooked that way in London inspired her. But she hopes to have a rotating menu in the future that reflects other world cultures.

“The menu will be constant, but there will always be additions,” Khernburg said. 

In the spirit of traditional speakeasies, entering Yana’s Speakeasy isn’t as easy as opening a door. The entrance is through Khernburg’s neighboring barbershop, and she said to “find the antique music organ, and then figure out how to enter” from there.

“The entrance is one of the features of Yana’s creativity,” Kugler said. “She’s spot on with trying to captivate, and make a new way for something to happen. Creating the speakeasy in Highland Park is that. She has a very creative mindset, which is a nice additive to the community of Highland Park.”

Khernburg said that it’s a hidden gem because it’s a small space, but the small space gives her the opportunity to focus more on the details and create a unique atmosphere for the speakeasy. She said that it’s like a “treasure box.”

“As a social gathering, and a place where people can enjoy themselves, it’s a good thing to have in the community,” Kugler said.

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