Cleo's, the family-run Southern and Creole spot from chef-owner Kristen Ashley, has quietly turned up the heat on Lincoln Avenue with a new Lakeview outpost, the restaurant's third in Chicago. The North Side location brings the brand's greatest hits, including fried catfish, wings and a flashy 24-karat corn muffin, all built on recipes Ashley credits to her grandmother, Cleodell "Cleo" Harper. At the center of it all is The Ten, a loaded catfish-and-sides platter built around the fried fish that put Cleo's on the map.
The Lakeview location sits at 2826 N. Lincoln Ave., according to Eater Chicago, and it also appears in the Lakeview Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce business directory. Eater slotted Cleo's into its December openings roundup and called out the fried chicken, catfish and crab macaroni in particular. The chamber listing rounds out the basics, including a local phone number and a link to the restaurant's website.
Chef Kristen Ashley says the Lakeview menu leans hard into family recipes with a sense of humor. She told the Chicago Tribune that the "Purple Rain" drink nods to both Prince and her grandmother's grape Kool-Aid, and the stacked sharing plates riff on familiar Creole flavors. The Tribune also highlighted small flexes like a gold-sauced muffin that pops up across Cleo's menus.
Keith Lee Buzz and The Ten
The food has not just stayed local. Cleo's leans into viral attention with The Ten, a meal named for a TikTok review in which critic Keith Lee gave the catfish a perfect 10 out of 10. The restaurant features that score across its ordering platforms, and third-party menus such as Uber Eats list The Ten alongside other signatures like the 24-karat muffin and the Flyover platter. Those menu staples continue to draw strong response from customers scrolling for comfort food.
Patio Plans and Practical Details
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Lakeview dining room seats about 50 guests, with a seasonal, dog-friendly patio for roughly another 50 planned to debut in spring. The Lakeview chamber directory lists the restaurant's contact number as (773) 799-8509 and points diners to Cleo's website for menus and current hours. Reservations and walk-ins are expected to ebb and flow as the neighborhood gets used to having a new catfish destination.
What This Means For Lakeview
Cleo's move from its Bronzeville flagship to a weekday Loop spot and now into Lakeview tracks with Kristen Ashley's rising profile and Chicago's enduring appetite for hearty, family-rooted Southern cooking, as chronicled by Time Out. For North Siders, the new address adds another late-night and weekend option, with Cleo's settling in as a South Side favorite that finally crossed the river.
