If you ask someone versed in how the internet works, they’ll tell you about the importance of the headline. When you’re endlessly scrolling through thousands of posts each day, it’s the headline and the thumbnail photo that stop your thumb and earn the click.
I mention this as an analogy for restaurants. By one count, there are roughly 6,000 restaurants throughout Chicagoland, and the names of these establishments (so-and-so’s diner, something cafe, XYZ bar and grill) all become wallpaper, with nothing to distinguish one from another.
Even if it weren’t a good restaurant, Creepies, located at 1360 W. Randolph St., would get your attention. What a weird name. What a great name. A name that demands your attention.
Creepies is a French bistro from the wife-and-husband team Anna and David Posey. They’ve run Elske in the West Loop to great acclaim (I’ve been admiring the Poseys since they cooked at Blackbird).
With a name like Creepies, you know it’s a place with more levity than seriousness. Sweetbread (a more marketable name than thymus gland) is pounded flat and turned into a schnitzel, served with a giardiniera-like assortment of peppers.
Oeuf mayonnaise, the classic bistro offering of eggs dressed in mayo, is rendered through a funhouse mirror, with paintball streaks of green and orange mayo from chives and Espelette peppers. Soft serve comes in baguette flavor.
Its chef de cuisine is Tayler Ploshehanski, who has had a notable 2026. She landed the cover of Chicago magazine, and Creepies was named one of the 50 best restaurants of the year by The New York Times. (Disclosure: I was a contributor to that feature.)
Dining and Cooking