Don’t let the bizarre name fool you, Creepies is anything but… creepy, and once you’ve been here, you’ll feel like you’re in on the inside joke as well. Creepies is the slightly more low-key and brand new French Bistrot-ish offering from the brilliant Anna and David Posey, who have been at the helm of Michelin-starred Elske right next door, for the last ten years. Accolades have been pouring in since opening, and they’re well deserved. We checked out Creepies on Mother’s Day, 2026.

The bright gold and black striped awnings next door to Elske are what mark Creepies, as the only sign of the restaurant is painted on the door. The bistro aesthetic carries inside, where every detail was carefully thought out. I absolutely love the wood and fabric ceiling tiles that dampen the noise here. One tiny note is that I wouldn’t really recommend the bar seating – you are basically seated along the back wall and not at a bar, facing a wall of antiqued mirror tiles. It doesn’t seem very comfortable. That said, I love the casual yet intentional vibe here.

The menu at Creepies is meant to be shared, and it’s virtually impossible to choose what to get, since everything sounds amazing. After about 15-20 minutes of agonizing over the menu, we chose SEVEN items to share between the two of us. We knew it would be way too much, but seriously, it was truly impossible to pick.

We started with the oeuf mayonnaise with caviar, as well as the warm brie gougeres. Wow, talk about rich and flavorful. I would note here that all of the wines on their extensive wine list are natural wines, which normally I would be grossed out by, but honestly, here, the funkiness and acidity of the better-than-usual crafted wines really did a great job offsetting the extreme richness of all of the food. OK, back to the food. The eggs were somewhere between soft and hard boiled, and they were covered in rich mayo sauce, whimsically plated, giving a bit of a circus-y tone to the dish. The espelette pepper gave it all a really nice mild kick, although I did wish there was a bit more caviar to give it more saltiness to offset the mouth-coating mayo.

The gougeres were absolutely astonishing. I’m used to having them with mimolette cheese, making the pastry puffs drier in texture. The Creepies brie gougeres, however, can’t just be popped into your mouth, you really need to eat them with a fork and knife (Creepies uses Sabre utensils – one of my favorite French brands!), because they are simply oozing with warm, gooey, sharp brie cheese. They are topped with the slightest sprinkle of fleur de sel for a perfect balance.

From the middle section of the menu, we ordered the leeks, sweetbread schnitzel, and the Parisian gnocchi with swiss, ham, and egg yolk. First, I have to talk about the leeks, which are braised, yet still extremely firm. They’re stuffed with a ricotta-like cheese, and topped with gobs of almonds and dill. This flavor combo results in a symphony on your palate, and has to be one of my new favorite vegetable dishes of all time. How easy is it to grow leeks in your garden? I’ll have to work on that!

The sweetbread schnitzel was a very large portion, and was not my favorite course of the night. The sweetbread is somehow pieced together to form a filet and then fried. It’s served with a ravigote sauce, which is extremely tangy, traditionally made with mustard, vinegar, and herbs including capers. While the balance of the ultra rich and fried (though not greasy) schnitzel needs a highly acidic sauce in order to avoid being too cloying, I think the sauce was almost too overwhelmingly acidic for the delicately prepared schnitzel. I really don’t love capers, and I think they consume all other flavors on the plate, and that’s what happened for me here.

The Parisian gnocchi was another star amongst many, and of course was also extraordinarily rich. The firm gnocchi were smothered in gooey, salty swiss cheese and egg, and the tiny ham cubes made me dream of sitting at a Parisian cafe, consuming the most delicious croque madame. Exquisite and very filling!

From the third section of the menu, we ordered the roasted chicken with liver and wine sauce as well as the braised greens with escargot and sourdough. We didn’t come close to finishing these, but brought home plenty of delicious leftovers. The chicken was easily the most tender and moist I’ve eaten in a restaurant recently, with crispy skin, melt in your mouth meat, and the most astounding liver and wine sauce to give it a nice of depth of character. I was surprised that the braised greens weren’t bitter greens – mostly spinach and other mild lettuces, with impossibly thinly sliced Publican bread sourdough crisps on top. I actually didn’t taste or see any escargot in there though, which was a slight disappointment.

Can you believe there was more? We absolutely had to try a dessert here. I think Anna Posey is quite possibly one of, if not the best, pastry chef in Chicago, and you can’t skip her desserts, either here or at Elske. We tried the brand-new-to-the-menu strawberry sherbet and meringue cake, and it didn’t disappoint. Sort of like a pavlova in cake form, this sweet slice was a great way to end the meal. Honestly I don’t know how you keep meringue so fresh and flaky when its surrounded by ice cream, but it broke apart as it should. If you can wait, give this dessert a few minutes to warm up a bit before you dive in, you won’t regret it.

Creepies not only wins for most bizarre restaurant name in Chicago, but also for its extraordinarily rich French fare, phenomenal service, and even, dare I say, pretty good natural wines that balance the richness of the food here perfectly. It’s worth the effort to find a reservation, and I hope it’s here to stay for a long time. This reminds me, I need to get back to Elske to update my very old review! Cheers!