10/26/2026
Monday Mornings with Miss Cleo
Week two. Still here. Still long-winded.
Hey Tasters,
It's Monday. I'm in your inbox. I told you I would be and I am, and I'm not going to lie, that felt really good to type. Now, if you're looking at the clock and noticing this didn't land at 8:30 like I said it would, I owe you an explanation for that too, and it's a good one.
At 5:41 this morning I was already up, already nervous about whether week two was going to land the way week one did, and I had a whole different opening written and ready to go. Then Square sent me a notification that a customer had replied to the newsletter. One of you, a Taster from Gary, Indiana, wrote to tell me that she read last week's letter and it lit a fire under her feet. She said she's been on the fence about opening her own restaurant. She already has the building, fully paid for, and everybody loves her cooking, but she's been sitting on it because of the doubt that comes with it. And she said reading "what God has for me is for me" was the thing she needed to hear to keep pushing. She called me her Restaurant Sister. She called me Cuzin. And she ended it with "can't wait until next Monday."
I read it twice, and then I deleted my whole opening and started over, because it meant that much. That's why you're getting this later than I promised. I'd rather be a little late and tell you the truth about my morning than be on time with something that wasn't it.
I sat at my kitchen counter and cried.. of course. Because that is exactly why I came back to this newsletter. Not to sell you a plate. To talk to you. And if one of you is sitting on a building in Gary, Indiana, waiting on permission to go after what God already handed you, then Cuzin, this is your permission. You read it right. It's yours. Go get it.
Okay. Let's get into this week, because a lot happened, and I'm going to tell you about all of it, and then I'm going to tell you what it all has in common.
Monday
By the time most of you were reading last week's letter, I was standing in a church getting ready to say goodbye to Auntie Royce.
Her family asked me to speak. I have never once told that woman no, so I said yes, and then I spent the whole week terrified of it. Not of the room. Of the words. I kept thinking there's no sentence that reaches a grief like that one, and I was going to stand up there and come up short in front of everyone who loved her.
That morning, before I left the house, my friend Jeremy Joyce (you might know him as Joy at First Bite on Instagram, and he and I have been friends since before Cleo's ever opened its doors in 2019) sent me a message. I'm going to share part of it because it's the reason I made it through that morning, and I think some of you need it for whatever you're walking into this week:
"You got this. You have the strength of the Lord. Nervousness only happens when you try to do it in your own strength. Go in the strength of the Lord. BE WEAK. That's how you will do this. 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' 2 Corinthians 12:9."
Be weak. I had never heard it put that way. Stop trying to carry it and let Him carry it. So that's what I did. I walked up there weak, and the words came.
I told that room that there's a difference between being remembered and being missed. Being remembered happens to anybody who ever existed. Being missed is something you earn, because it means you left a hole in people, and that hole has your shape. Auntie Royce didn't live to be remembered. She lived to be missed. And every person in that church already felt the shape she left behind.
I'm not going to replay the whole thing for you here. But I'll tell you what I'm carrying out of that day. She called me Nicey Pooh. She smiled through everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, and that smile didn't just light up a room, it fueled you. You'd walk away from her stronger and not know why. So I'm carrying her into every kitchen, every room, and every smile I give to somebody who needs one, because that's what she gave to me.
None of us are going to dim our light. She never once dimmed hers.
Kentucky, twice
Now let me take you back to September, because I told you I was going to keep you caught up and I meant it.
We did two festivals in Louisville, back to back weekends, at the Kentucky Expo Center. Louder Than Life first, then Bourbon & Beyond. If you don't know those festivals, picture tens of thousands of people, rock music on one weekend and bourbon and country on the next, and a whole lot of folks who have never heard of Cleo's and have no idea who Keith Lee is. This wasn't our crowd. This was a test.
We brought the Fried Catfish (https://www.eatcleos.com/s/order?location=L67VK74G0EDV5 ) , the Baked Mac and Cheese (https://www.eatcleos.com/s/order?location=L67VK74G0EDV5 ) , the Crab Mac and Cheese (https://www.eatcleos.com/s/order?location=L67VK74G0EDV5 ) , the Pineapple Candied Sweet Potatoes (https://www.eatcleos.com/s/order?location=L67VK74G0EDV5 ) , and the 24-Karat Gold Muffins (https://www.eatcleos.com/s/order?location=L67VK74G0EDV5 ) .
But before I tell you how the food did, I have to tell you about the oven. Because this is where faith came into play, and I want you to really hear this one.
We rented a convection oven for the two weekends, because we obviously can't cook the majority of our menu without one. The oven shows up, and the power cord has no plug on it. I'm not exaggerating. It was bare wiring. And when we called the rental company, they told us it was on us to get an electrician out there to add a plug. Nobody had told me that. So now we're standing in a tent in Louisville, Kentucky, the night before the festival, with the one piece of equipment we cannot operate without, and it can't be turned on.
Our point of contact with the festival took a picture and sent it to the power crew. But this is a festival with hundreds of vendors, and whether they were going to get to our little problem before we needed to start cooking was completely up in the air. About an hour later the rental company called back and said they'd send their own technician out. He gets there, looks at it, and that's when we hit the next snag. The oven they sent me was a double convection oven. I did not know that. And a double oven pulls way more power than that tent was ever going to give us. So the rental company made a decision right there: they were going to build me another oven, that day, and bring it out themselves, because the double was just not going to work.
Needless to say, we could not prep a single piece of hot food that night.
Here's what we did. We did everything that was in our control. We prepped everything that didn't need heat. We got the station set. We organized the coolers. And then I stopped, and I said out loud, "Lord, I know you're going to handle this. All I'm asking is that we have a hot oven by 7:30 Thursday morning." That was it. That was the whole prayer.
Tasters, when I tell you we pulled onto those grounds Thursday morning and that oven was hot. It was there. It was plugged in. We were cooking by 7:30. I don't have another explanation for you and I'm not going to pretend I do.
Do what's in your control. Surrender the rest. He is faithful. That's the whole lesson and I've needed it more than once since.
Now, the food. Y'all. The catfish. Person after person told us it was some of the best catfish they had ever had, and I need you to understand that a lot of these people were from the South. Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama. Catfish people. They know. And the Crab Mac and Cheese, I'm not going to lie, people lost their minds. They would come back to the booth just to tell us about it. The 24-karat gold muffins were gone constantly.
And for anyone keeping score from last week, the catfish lesson from New Orleans held. I lost seven cases total across two festivals instead of a truckload, and even those seven I'd have sold through if it hadn't been 100 degrees at Louder Than Life. I had people standing at the booth saying "man, I want some of that catfish, but I'm going to wait until it cools down a little." It never did lol.
Here's what I learned in Kentucky. Good food translates to everyone. It doesn't matter if you came for rock, for bourbon, for Keith Lee, or because you were walking by and smelled it. Good is good. That's just a fact, and now I've seen it with my own eyes in a crowd that had no reason to show up for us.
BET came to Lakeview
Last Thursday morning, a crew from BET walked into our Lakeview restaurant with cameras.
If you've been following along for a while, you know our relationship with Dilla has opened doors we could never have knocked on ourselves. He's the reason the BBC came over from London and included us in their special on America's 250th birthday. And now, through that same relationship, he connected us with the good people at BET, who are putting together a piece about the food that Chicago people love, ahead of the Soul Train Awards.
And if you didn't know, the Soul Train Awards are coming back after three years away, and for the first time ever they're taping right here in Chicago, where Don Cornelius started the whole thing more than fifty years ago. It airs Friday, November 27 on BET, and for the first time it'll be on CBS too. Our piece is going to air sometime during the show.
Amber, Ed, Jasmine and the whole Lakeview team were there with me that morning. We did the interview, they shot the food, and then they sat down and ate, and I'm not going to pretend I didn't just stand there and watch them. There's nothing like watching somebody take their first bite. One of the producers emailed me the next day and said something I'm going to keep: "staff reflects the energy of the owner." Thursday was one of those days I was proud of the energy in that room, and I was proud of every person who put it there.
I love sharing these moments with my team. I don't want to do any of this by myself, and I don't have to.
What all of that has in common
Okay. Here's the part I've been building up to.
I posted something on Instagram last week and I want to say it again here, because it belongs in this letter more than it belonged on a feed.
Social media can trick you into thinking you aren't good enough, you aren't moving fast enough, and you aren't doing enough. But know God got you, and you are right where you are supposed to be. God is faithful.
I posted that after a week where, from the outside, everything looked incredible. BET cameras in the restaurant. Two festivals in Kentucky. Chicago Magazine. If you only saw the feed you'd think I had it all figured out.
What the feed didn't show you was an oven with no plug the night before the biggest festival of our year. A hundred-degree day watching catfish sit. A friend having to text me scripture at 7 in the morning because I was too scared to walk into a church. A newsletter that went quiet for five months because I was drowning and didn't know how to say it.
That's what I mean when I say social media can trick you. You're comparing your Tuesday to everybody else's highlight. You're looking at somebody's BET moment without seeing their no-plug moment. And every one of us has a no-plug moment. Mine just happened to come with a camera crew a few weeks later.
So if you're in the middle of yours right now, I need you to hear this from somebody who's got the receipts: you are right where you're supposed to be. Do what's in your control. Surrender the rest. He is faithful. I've watched Him be faithful in a tent in Kentucky, in a church on Monday, and in a reply from Gary, Indiana at 5:41 this morning.
Come see me Saturday. In person. In color, not black and white haha.
Which is exactly why I want you in the room with me this weekend.
Here's the thing about everything I just told you. The camera can't capture it. A feed can't carry it. The only place the real version of Cleo's exists is in the restaurant, face to face, with a plate in front of you. So this Saturday, Halloween, I'm going to be at Lakeview in the afternoon, and I want you there with me.
A Sinners Saturday with Saturday, October 31, 3–7 PM
Cleo's Lakeview, 2826 N Lincoln Ave (https://www.eatcleos.com/locations)
If you read the Chicago Magazine piece, you know Shanikky. She's a lover of Cleo's, she's the reason there's a dish on our menu called The Shanikky, and Sinners is one of her favorite movies. So we're doing a whole afternoon around it. Shanikky will be in the house from 3 to 5:30, and so will I.
Candy for the kids starting at 11a when we open. Costume contest with winners crowned at 5p, one adult and one kid. Spooky trivia on Sinners, Black horror and the roots of soul food. Full menu served all day.
And here's why this one is close to my heart. Sinners was set in Clarksdale, Mississippi. That's my grandmother's hometown. Every bit of what we cook at Cleo's started in that kitchen, in that town, so an afternoon built around a movie set in Clarksdale is not a gimmick to me. It's family.
If you've never had The Shanikky, it's 3 wings and 3 pieces of catfish topped with lump crab and remoulade, and on Saturday between 3p and 7p at Lakeview, ordering it gets you 10% off your meal. But come for the room, not the ten percent. Come put on a costume and win something. Come let your kids get candy from me and the team. Come stand in the real thing for an afternoon.
I'll be the one at the door.
See you next Monday
Thank you for reading every word again. Thank you for writing back. Thank you for being the reason I'm up at 5 a.m. on a Monday checking my phone.
To my Restaurant Sister in Gary: open the doors. I'll come eat!
See you Saturday at Lakeview. See you next Monday in your inbox. Same me.
Love you Tasters! Miss Cleo
Drop The Info
The Loop
190 North Wells
Chicago, IL 60606
OPEN Monday - Friday 11a to 6p
CLOSED Saturday & Sunday
312-285-2140
Last order taken 15 minutes before closing.
Limited seating. 16 seats.
Bronzeville
4248 South Cottage Grove
Chicago, IL 60653
OPEN Friday & Saturday 12p to 8p
OPEN Sunday 12p to 6p
CLOSED Monday - Thursday
773-633-2757
Last order taken 35 minutes before closing.
Limited seating. 12 seats.
Lakeview
2826 North Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
OPEN Thursday - Sunday 11a to 8p
CLOSED Monday - Wednesday
773-799-8509
Last order taken 15 minutes before closing.
Lots of seating. 50 seats (indoor) + 50 seats (outdoor patio).
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