Halley Chambers and Kip Green have been making waves in Brooklyn over the past couple years. Now, the team is planning their first concept in Manhattan, with plans to open Cleo Downtown at 621 Hudson Street in the West Village.
“We’re really excited to get started and we’re really grateful for the opportunity to put down some roots in the city,” Chambers told What Now New York.
The duo opened neighborhood restaurant Margot in Brooklyn in 2023 and followed that project with Montague Diner in Brooklyn Heights in 2024.
“It’s been really interesting to see two very different restaurants and how they interact with their community and their neighborhood,” Chambers said. “This move to Manhattan represents a cohesion between something that is a bit upscale and something that is accessible.”
Cleo Downtown will be an elevated rotisserie concept, featuring whole and half chicken dishes and rotating vegetable sides.
“The idea is to bring something different to the West Village — something that doesn’t really exist there,” Chambers said.
Located in the space previously home to longstanding Italian restaurant Piccolo Angolo, which closed in December, the restaurant will span about 800-900 square feet and will have seating for 40 customers inside, with room to seat 20 outdoors.
Chambers said the concept is inspired by rotisseries in London, Montreal and Paris, and the design will feature old-school European elements, with plenty of brass and wood. They are partnering with Jesse Taylor of architect studio Social Works on the project.
The team plans to start with offering dinner service only and expand to daytime service in the future.
They are planning for a 10-month buildout and are targeting a spring 2026 opening. In the meantime, Chambers and Green are hoping to continue to connect with the West Village community so they can design their concept to suit the needs of the community.
“From a personal perspective, it’s a really exciting evolution for our restaurant group. Kip and I have been considering a move to Manhattan for a long time, but we’ve been waiting for the right time and the right moment,” Chambers said. “We’ve been lucky enough over the past couple weeks to get to know some of the community a bit better, and it really fits into our ethos of grounding our projects into the community in which they sit.”
