Two Popular South Side Restaurants Open on the North Side, and an Uptown Building Gets Two New Restaurants

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There are always new restaurants opening in Chicago, but it’s noteworthy to have two open in the same building at the same time – and to have two popular South Side spots expand across this segregated city to the North Side. 

Cleo’s Southern Cuisine 

2826 N. Lincoln Ave.

Cleo’s Southern Cuisine is named after owner Kristen Ashley’s grandmother, and the soul and Creole food is inspired by her grandmother’s Mississippi roots. The original restaurant is in Bronzeville, near where Ashley, a former college basketball player and sports journalist, grew up. Her second location, in the Loop, brought her fame when the TikTok influencer Keith Lee visited and raved about the fried catfish in a video that has over a million likes. Lee is one of the most powerful people in the food world, and the “Keith Lee effect” brings lines out the door for months to a restaurant with his stamp. Ashley has now harnessed that fame to continue her northern migration and open a third location in Lakeview, just up Lincoln Avenue from another well-known Black-owned business, Batter & Berries, bringing her hot fried chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, and waffles to a new neighborhood.

Dat Donut

947 W. Wellington Ave.

Less than half a mile from the new Cleo’s, another Black-owned business, Dat Donut, has traveled even further to open on the North Side: some fifteen miles from its original location in Chatham, which opened in 1994. The Lakeview location is Dat Donut’s first expansion. The sweet shop is best known for its Big DAT, a donut roughly the size of a cake that may as well serve as a life preserver. The original location shares a space with Uncle John’s BBQ, also owned by Darryl and Andrea Townsend; the new location, near the Wellington Brown Line stop, doesn’t, so don’t expect savory food there. 

Piacere Mio

1303 W. Wilson Ave.

Further north, the four-story brick building at the corner of Wilson and Malden Street in Uptown has been home to a number of restaurants, including several vegan ones, from co-owners Andy and Gina Kalish over the past decade. Now the location in the middle of the residential enclave Sheridan Park starts a new chapter with the second location of Piacere Mio, an Italian restaurant from Francisco Perez and chef Jose Marquez that originated in the western suburb of Forest Park in 2023. It features an extensive menu of pastas, risotto, meat mains, and more.

Las Piñatas

1311 W. Wilson Ave

Piacere Mio’s new neighbor, Las Piñatas, has a similarly robust menu covering the sorts of standard Mexican dishes you might expect from a casual spot: tacos, burritos, flautas.