Cleo's Restaurant and Bar, a new bar from Silo owner Chris Ellison, was planned to open Thursday night, but due to what Ellison called "crunch time challenges," the public opening was delayed until Friday at 8 p.m.
A private party was thrown Thursday night as an opening for friends and family, though a few event pages were created on Facebook that suggested otherwise.
"We were just planning on a small gathering, but then Facebook and word of mouth just exploded," he said. "There were even pages we didn't create."
Ellison said he decided to open Cleo's after the success of the Silo bus.
"Especially over the summer, we saw 700 to 900 people ride our bus," he said.
The numbers went down when school started, Ellison said, but 500 people still ride the bus each weekend.
He said it was a logical decision to open a location closer to campus.
"It's the Village," he said. "Students are going to walk down there on the weekend."
Ellison said he's not worried about the competition at the new location.
"I'm not knocking [other bars] by any means," he said. "But they have their niche. Dill Street is a dance club, the Locker Room is a sports bar. We're the only upscale bar in the Village."
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