North/Halsted area: is it a neighborhood? (Chicago, Lincoln: apartment, homes)

[randomguymike]

I live at Belmont/Racine right now and absolutely love it. The only thing I don't like it the place I live in now is a huge ripoff ($1175 for 460 'vintage' sq ft). I did some apartment searching yesterday and found a great place on North & Halsted (about the same price but perfect inside and about double the sq ft). Red line is right there, but I'd rather be able to just walk places like I do now. I mean, within 7 blocks I have Rocks, Wills, Coopers, Schoolyard, Southport Lanes, and about 6 other places I love. My schtick is going to places with great food/beer specials and a slightly older crowd than college age(like $5 wings at schoolyard on football saturdays or $3 pints of Lienis at Wills). Does the immediate area around North/Clybourne/Halsted have any of this? It seemed like eveything was a bit more high end when I did my walk, but know that first impressions can be deceiving.

Also, is there foot traffic in the neighborhoods on Dayton and the surrounding area? When I walked through yesterday, there was nobody outside except shoppers. I like being able to pass 15 other people walking their dog when I take mine out.

Basically, if it weren't for the fact this place is my dream interior for an amazing price, I'd have written it off and would just stick to what I know, but I figure this place is worth learning about the area some.

Any thoughts on that area?

BTW, sorry I can't spell Halsted for the life of me. I've wanted to put an 'a' in it ever since I've been here. If I move, writing my return address may be the hardest part to train myself on .

[Lookout Kid]

If you go north on Halsted, the area has much more of a "neighborhood" feel--especially near Armitage and Halsted. There are certainly a lot of DePaul students in this western section of Lincoln Park, but they tend to be concentrated further north, and most of the buildings south of Armitage have actually been converted into single-family homes. I'd say it's kind of a "family" area that's just a quite a bit richer than Southport. I lived near Fremont and Armitage with my girlfriend (now wife) when I was 27, and we were actually some of the youngest people on our block. There are still plenty of "low-rent" businesses around there, but we never got into any of the bars in the area and generally had to go to other neighborhoods to find nightlife we were comfortable with. I'm not a McGee's kind of guy.

[Avengerfire]

Joe's
940 W Weed St
Joe's Bar

Hogs & Honeys
901 W. Weed Street
http://www.hogsandhoneys.com/

Kincade's‎
950 W Armitage Ave
http://www.kincadesbar.com/kincades/home.asp

Weed's Restaurant & Lounge
1555 N. Dayton

Local Option
1102 W. Webster

Lincoln Station
2432 N. Lincoln
http://www.lincolnstation.com/

Landmark Grill
1633 N. Halsted
http://www.landmarkgrill.net/



The main strip of bars is on Lincoln...
There are a few bars, clubs and restaurants (and an OTB),etc... on and around Weed and Kingsbury.

[soulful]

Lot's of folks live around North and Halsted. There is a Whole Foods on North just west by a couple of blocks. And if you walk north up Halsted it starts getting really pretty within about 2 blocks. You can easily walk up to Halsted and Armitage in 10 minutes time and Armitage and Halsted both have tons of shops and restaurants in that area.

[ajolotl]

Only Peet's Coffee in Chicago is in the mall with the Whole Foods. I love that spot. Unfortunately I've come to dread my once a week trip up there (to go to Language Stars) because traffic has gotten so unbelievably bad around those few blocks that it's almost intolerable.

[randomguymike]

Spent some time walking around today and I just don't know if I like the immediate hood. I love the Armitage area, but walking the dog closer to North & Halsted, there's no grass or local pubs or anything on Fremont, Dayton, etc. just giant homes. That four blocks to Armitage seems like an eternity.
Sounds like the area is going through some transition right now, especially to the south, which could present more opportunity. Most of the bars linked to by A-fire sound a little more fratty/high end than I'm going for (I should have stated target bar age range is 27-32), although Weeds sounds good and the Sully's place that I saw on Yelp sounds promising.

I'm gonna think about it, especially as the three places I saw around southport today all were very 'vintage' (BTW, I love how that is a local phrase for s***hole) and were about $300-500/mo more.

[Avengerfire]

So you pay $1175 for a 1 bedroom right now and the places around Southport you saw today were $1500 to $1700!?
What area intersections with Southport you were looking at?

Originally Posted by randomguymike

...Most of the bars linked to by A-fire sound a little more fratty/high end than I'm going for (I should have stated target bar age range is 27-32), although Weeds sounds good and the Sully's place that I saw on Yelp sounds promising...

The River Shannon on Armitage might be what you are looking for. ( No food though ) I used to go there years ago often. I do not think it has changed much.

http://chicago.metromix.com/bars-and...134691/content