Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
56
Street, Armitage Avenue, Halsted Street,
and D iversey P arkway also contains
many of Chicago 's most happening
bars, r estaurants, r etail stor es, music
clubs, and off-Loop theaters—includ-
ing the nationally acclaimed S teppen-
wolf Theatre Company.
Lakeview & Wrigleyville
W rigleyville
is the name giv en to the neighborhood
in the vicinity of Wrigley Field—home
of the Chicago Cubs—at Sheffield Ave-
nue and A ddison S treet. M any home-
steaders hav e mo ved into these ar eas
in r ecent y ears, and a sle w of night-
clubs and r estaurants hav e followed in
their wake. M idway up the city 's
North S ide is a one-time blue-collar ,
now mainstr eam middle-class and
bohemian quar ter called Lakevie w. I t
has become the neighborhood of choice
for many gays and lesbians, r ecent col-
lege graduates, and a gr owing number
of residents priced out of Lincoln Park.
The main thor oughfare is B elmont
Avenue, betw een B roadway and S hef-
field Avenue.
Uptown & Andersonville
U ptown,
along the lake and about as far north as
Foster Avenue, is wher e the latest wav e
of immigrants—including internal
lesbian community . You'll find Ann
Sather r estaurant, the S wedish-Ameri-
can Museum, the S wedish Bakery, and
Women and Childr en F irst, a gr eat
bookstore.
Lincoln Square
Families flock to O ld
Town School of F olk M usic's theater
and education center, a beautiful r esto-
ration of a former librar y building, in
this neighborhood w est of Anderson-
ville and slightly to the south, wher e
Lincoln, Western, and Lawr ence av e-
nues intersect. Lincoln S quare was the
home to Chicago 's once-v ast G erman-
American community. Lincoln S quare
is hopping with hot r estaurants and
chic shops as the surrounding leafy resi-
dential streets are now experiencing an
influx of white middle-class families.
Rogers Park
Rogers Park, which begins
at D evon A venue, is on the nor thern
fringes of the city bor dering suburban
Evanston. I ts w estern half has been a
Jewish neighborhood for decades. The
eastern half, dominated by Loyola Uni-
versity's lakefr ont campus, has become
the most cosmopolitan enclav e in the
entire city: Asians, East I ndians, R us-
sian Jews, and G erman Americans liv e
side by side with African Americans and
the ethnically mix ed student popula-
tion drawn to the Catholic univ ersity.
Much of R ogers Park has a neo-hippie
ambience, but the w estern str etch of
Devon Avenue is a M idwestern slice of
Calcutta, settled b y I ndians who 've
transformed the str eet into a v eritable
restaurant row of tandoori chicken and
curry-flavored dishes.
T
HE
W
EST
S
IDE
West Loop
Also kno wn as the N ear
West Side, the neighborhood just across
the Chicago River from the Loop is the
city's newest gentrification target, as old
warehouses and once-v acant lots ar e
transformed into tr endy condos. The
stretch of Randolph S treet just w est of
2
migrants fr om A ppalachia and the
Native American reservations—has set-
tled. Vietnamese and Chinese immi-
grants hav e transformed Argyle S treet
between Broadway and S heridan Road
into a teeming mar ket for fr esh meat,
fish, and all kinds of ex otic vegetables.
Slightly to the north and west is the old
Scandinavian neighborhood of Ander-
sonville, whose main drag is Clar k
Street, between Foster and B ryn Mawr
avenues. This neighborhood is friendly
to families, with the feel of a small Mid-
western village, albeit one with an eclec-
tic mix of M iddle Eastern r estaurants,
a distinct cluster of women-o wned
businesses, and a burgeoning gay and
