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A restaurant specializing in Central African cuisine is slated to open on Brown Street on Oct. 17.

Owner Joceline Lesso and her husband, General Manager Patric Lombo, aim to open the 90-seat Chez Biso at 11 Brown St. The space formerly housed Tokyo Sushi Ramen.

Lesso used to run a restaurant in the Congo, and also operated a catering business out of a commissary kitchen in Maine, according to Heritier Nosso, business advisor to Lesso and Lombo. Nosso said after Lesso ended her catering business, clients urged her to open a restaurant.

“Because many African people, not just from the Congo, but from Angola, Rwanda-Burundi, and Central Africa, they love Congolese dishes,” Nosso said. “It’s so difficult to find these dishes (locally), so she decided to open an African restaurant.”

Chez Biso’s menu will include specialties like fumbwa (wild spinach stew), liboke ya mbisi (fish steamed in banana leaves) and pork feet simmered in beans. They’ll also offer stateside classics like smashburgers, fish and chips, spicy wings and lobster rolls.

Chez Biso means “at our home” in Lingala. “She wants people not to feel like they’re at a restaurant, but like they’re eating from their home, food made by somebody who cares about your health and wants to make sure you’re satisfied,” Nasso said.

Nasso noted that a former Washington Avenue restaurant named Chez Biso na Biso had different ownership and is unrelated to Lesso and Lambo’s venue.

Chez Biso will be open seven days from noon until 10 p.m.