Lennon’s
By Naperville Magazine
November 2025 View more Table for Two
By Phil Vettel
This three-story eatery offers an eclectic menu
When I heard that the 16 N. Jefferson St. space was opening as a three-level, three-experience restaurant concept, skepticism ran rampant. The location, you might recall, was previously home to AltaVida, a pan-Latin restaurant with downstairs dining, midlevel live entertainment, and a third-floor private dining room. It opened in summer ’24 and was gone before the year ended.
Lennon’s, also a three-headed concept, might have a longer future ahead of it. The food is solid, the young kitchen is operating efficiently, and owner Jeremy Stolberg is an industry veteran who runs a hospitality consultancy, among other things.
You’d figure that Lennon’s was named for somebody, and you’d be right—just not anybody you know.
“My business partner’s daughter, who was born shortly after we decided to this, is named Lennon,” Stolberg says. “I have two daughters, but I’ve used their names a multitude of times in businesses. Really, what we wanted was a one-word name that looked great on the logo and didn’t necessarily imply any specific ethnicity or specific type of cuisine.”
That makes sense, given Lennon’s eclectic menu that hops from comfort food to Middle Eastern mezzo to Norwegian salmon done Asian-style.
The main menu, which is served on the first floor, is dominated by appetizers, making it easy to try lots of tastes. I might start with the mezze platter, a trio of Middle Eastern spreads (za’atar-seasoned hummus, baba ghanoush, sweet pea) served with warm pita triangles and crudités. Also worth your attention is shrimp ceviche, over avocado-tomatillo salsa and a handful of tortilla chips. Nicely batter-fried calamari picks up spicy notes from cherry and banana peppers, balanced by a lemony aïoli dip; baked goat cheese arrives as an island surrounded by arrabiatta sauce (arrabiatta is an “angry” tomato sauce, but fear not; this version is merely annoyed).
Asian accents support a dish of roasted cauliflower and chicken bites over jasmine rice and a sweet Thai-chile glaze (the chicken can be omitted, making the dish vegetarian), served atop a large banana leaf.
Meatier options include the skewered beef-tenderloin cubes and mushrooms, served with a side plate of fried onions, as well as large, harissa-spiced lamb meatballs, topped with tzatziki sauce and chopped pistachios and served over a zesty tomato sauce.
Three main courses are highlighted. The Lennon’s Big Burger is as hefty as advertised, enhanced by bacon, brisket, Herkimer cheddar, and barbecue sauce; the surf and turf is very good, the steak topped with well-seasoned shrimp and placed over blistered corn niblets.
The best visual presentation belongs to the fried chicken, the pieces stacked high and surrounded by purple-cabbage slaw, fried and bread-and-butter pickles, hot honey, and pimento cheese biscuits. (I tried to see if the honey paired better with the chicken or the biscuits, and declared it a tie.)
A good-size dessert list includes banana-chocolate bread pudding, hot-fudge sundae, crème brûlée, as well as a DIY s’mores plate of marshmallows, graham crackers, strawberries, and fondue forks, with a small, screen-protected hot pot for toasting.
A recently launched brunch menu is available Saturdays and Sundays; the chicken is served over waffles and a poached egg, and there’s a nice assortment of egg dishes, French toast, and the like.
More intriguing is Lennon’s tea menu, a list of high-quality, not-the-usual suspects was sourced from the renowned Rare Tea Cellar in Chicago. “One of the things we’ll be launching will be an afternoon tea,” Stolberg says. “Not stuffy hotel fancy but more approachable and fun.”
The second floor, which hosts entertainment events, has a separate bar-bites menu including street tacos, mango-habanero chicken wings, burger sliders, and a veggie burger.
The third floor, under construction, will focus on steaks, but not in the model of most steakhouses. “The concept behind the third floor is simplicity,” Stolberg says. “Three courses in a prix-fixe format. Choose between two salads, a dessert cart of homemade cakes, and three entrees—a chef-driven vegetable dish, a fish, which will change once a month, and a rotating specialty-steak cut.”
As for the downtown Naperville location? “I kinda fell in love with this town,” says Stolberg, whose home is in Deerfield. “People have been so warm and welcoming. I’m used to me being the one who thanks guests as they leave; here, people have been coming up to me and thanking me for bringing this [restaurant] here.”
Photos: Lennon’s; Phil Vettel (fried chicken); Jen Banowetz (interior and desserts)
