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Well, as I have explained in the Projects section, I am now studying in Loyola Chicago, freshly transfered from Richmond London.
As an Intenational Studies and Anthropology major and minor I am very interested in world cultures and especially their cuisine and traditions.
Now, I hope you can all help me with this. When in London our weekend trips took us to places like Munich, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Zurich, Oslo, Lithuania, Mykonos, etc...and being in Chicago I was a little nostalgic...but then I remembered going to Greektown, Chinatown, and La Villita when I was younger! My roommate, who is from out of state and from a small rural town wants to discover Chicago as much as I do now! Being all over the world, I never really payed attention to what we have here! So I recommended we take, every week, a trip to one or two of Chicago's ethnic neighbourhoods, explore the local culture and finish with having a good authentic (or as close to authentic) as we can get!
First of we went to Greektown, we went to Greek Islands and loved it (I've been going here since I was young, love it) and he liked it as well. he loved the pillars and temples and the statues that surround this Hellenic neighbourhood, as do I, since I've been interested in Greek culture since I was little, ever since watching Saint Seiya (Caballeros del Zodiaco) and have wanted to go to Greece since I was young!
The next week we went to Pilsen to visit the Mexican community there. Being a Mexican myself, I was very interested in this and had only gone to La Villita (Little Village) and wondered if it was the same, with a huge Hacienda Opening and all...but no! It was better, we loved the murals reminding me of the Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, Juan O'Gorman, Orozco, Siqueiros...etc...and that Bohemian feel of the place, with the beautiful church and with our ending in Restaurante Nuevo Leon to get Northern Mexican cuisine in our mouths was spectacular.
This weekend we plan to attend the Chinese New Year's parade and eat there, buy some things and head over to Little Italy for dinner and stroll around Via Taylor and eat Gelato. I'm very excited about this, since we are going in a big group and one of our friends is Chinese (Cantonese) and two of us have Italian in us, my friend is part Napolese and I'm part Veneto on my father's side who migrated to Mexico, so we are very excited.
Now, we are for sure going back to Pilsen and Greektown when it's warmer, to enjoy more of it...so what can you local Chicagoans tell us about these ethnic neighbourhoods? I have been relying on Metromix.com to guide us restaurantwise and tell us the specials and all! I have this list of places of ethnic interest:
Greektown (Greek)
Little Italy (Italian)
Pilsen/Little Village (Mexican)
Chinatown (Chinese/Oriental in general)
Devon (South Asian)
Andersonville (Swedish)
Ukranian Village (Ukranian)
Lincoln Square (German)
Wicker Park (Polonia Triangle)
Little Tuscany (Northern Italian)
Puerto Rican town??? Where is this?
Any other places worth going to or seeing that you guys recommend us explorers? In the places I have mentioned, where would it be good to visit and what to see? Like Museums and landmarks and all that!
I heard Little Italy was not as good and has been overrun with Asian restaurants and all this? Anywhere else I can find Polish culture in Chicago? Other European ethnic enclaves...African??? Other Asian?
Thank you!
{IMG]http://www.fotopanorama.ch/m/usach05m.jpg[/IMG]
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/ab/350px-Little_India.jpg (broken link)
Do not forget about all the Korean places on Lincoln (north of Foster),Foster (in North Park),and Lawrence (in Albany Park). Also, there are many Vietnamese places on Broadway (and on side streets like Argyle) north of Lawrence (Edgewater and Uptown). Also, this area around Broadway used to be called New Chinatown. I believe some Chinese places still exist up there too.
There are a few threads devouted to various cusines on here and food in general. I suggest doing a search of those threads in addition to metromix, etc...
Many Puerto Ricans still live in Humboldt Park. The area just east of it has been gentifying for years. They are being pushed west and north,but if you want what people might call "Puerto Rican Town" go by Division and California.
Time Out Chicago: Taste of Humboldt Park (http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/out-there/15736/taste-of-humboldt-park - broken link)
Last edited by Avengerfire; 02-09-2008 at 05:58 PM..
Humboldt Park eh!!! Nice! I will be sure to visit that neighbourhood and try the food there!
And Sari City on Devon...the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola is like a block away from that! So it's on our list, just waiting for it to get warmer!
Thanks a lot! Any other suggestions would be great!
What is Bronzeville or Bronze village?
There is a Polish museum in Chicago which is supposed to be fantastic. And if you ride the Belmont ave bus west from Halsted you will go through blocks and blocks where you seee nothing but Polish signage and a German area too. Perhaps the locals know what these neighborhoods are called. Have fun!
Now, we are for sure going back to Pilsen and Greektown when it's warmer, to enjoy more of it...so what can you local Chicagoans tell us about these ethnic neighbourhoods? I have been relying on Metromix.com to guide us restaurantwise and tell us the specials and all! I have this list of places of ethnic interest:
Greektown (Greek)
Little Italy (Italian)
Pilsen/Little Village (Mexican)
Chinatown (Chinese/Oriental in general)
Devon (South Asian)
Andersonville (Swedish)
Ukranian Village (Ukranian)
Lincoln Square (German)
Wicker Park (Polonia Triangle)
Little Tuscany (Northern Italian)
Puerto Rican town??? Where is this?
Any other places worth going to or seeing that you guys recommend us explorers? In the places I have mentioned, where would it be good to visit and what to see? Like Museums and landmarks and all that!
I heard Little Italy was not as good and has been overrun with Asian restaurants and all this? Anywhere else I can find Polish culture in Chicago? Other European ethnic enclaves...African??? Other Asian?
Thank you!
Well, Greektown and Pilsen are awesome places for the most authentic ethnic neighborhoods in Chicago.
Little Italy is really a fraction of what it used to be before my time. The Italians where mostly displaced to the far NW and suburbs when UIC waas built back in the 60s. Many neighborhoods and suburbs south of O'Hare such as Dunning, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park, Franklin Park, etc. are still heavily Itailan American
Theres virtually no German community left in Chicago anymore, except for a few old-timers I suppose running a few restaurants on the north side. Which makes sense really. Germany has been a prosperous, peaceful nation for over 50 years now. Germans haven't had a reason to leave Germany for a long time. When that happens American ethnic enclaves start to become fully integrated into American society. Same goes for Sweden. Just a few bakeries, etc left.
Polish culture. Theres still LOTS of new Polish culture but it really hasn't been around Wicker Park for a long time. Most of the Polish culture is on the far NW side and scattered all around in the NW suburbs (and far SW side/SWsuburbs to a lesser extent). Wicker Park went into decline for a while, then got gentrified within the last 10-15 years or so, and is now a haven for the artsy, hip young crowd.
Humboldt Park is the center of Puerto Rican culture, but unfortunately its still not that safe. Visiting is fine, I wouldn't live there.
Chinatown is awesome, but people from California and even Houston, TX have commented that it is kind of small.
Greektown/West Loop, Pilsen for Mexican (and other areas scattered across NE Illinois), Chinatown, Devon Ave for Indian culture, Argyle St. for Indochina, North shore suburbs for Jewish, far NW side and NW suburbs for Polish and Italian culture (and various Asian) is probably your best bet to experience Chicagos diversity.
DuPage County and the north shore suburbs tend to be your more WASPish areas but thats changing. The south suburbs are areas where people roots are more rural midwestern and southern.
As far as African?
I blelieve there is a growing Nigerian population in Chicago. And of course lots of great barbeque and soul food places in black-American areas in the city and in the south suburbs.
A couple other areas you might want to check out are Czech and Lithuanian areas close to Midway airport.
Other Eastern European enclaves found on the NW side of the city are Serbian and Ukrainian.
Again because the effect that Communism had on Eastern Europe, those countries still have limited opportunities for people so there is more of a reason to immigrate to the U.S.
Humboldt Park eh!!! Nice! I will be sure to visit that neighbourhood and try the food there!
And Sari City on Devon...the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola is like a block away from that! So it's on our list, just waiting for it to get warmer!
Thanks a lot! Any other suggestions would be great!
What is Bronzeville or Bronze village?
Welcome to Bronzeville! - Tour Information & Past Tours (http://www.bronzevilleonline.com/tour.htm - broken link)
Bronzeville has great history as a large number of residents from the south lived here in the 20's-50's.
Bronzeville has a long and involved history with Chicago and is one of the areas of the city that, IMHO, brought Chicago to the world in the early 1900's and is what helped sustain the city through The Depression and The Civil Rights movement. Bronzeville community leaders have demonstrated commitment, integrity, relentlessness, and unwaivering empathy and faith. I'd list the almost innumerable resources that I've come across that stand in testament to the legacy and value of Bronzeville, but I truly believe that this is a 'discover-on-your-own' type thing for you (you seem sooo anxious to go find things... this one will have you busy for days!! ). Several museum campuses and miles of park call Bronzeville home, not to mention historic districts and landmarks. And it is such a commuter friendly area with the red-line and CTA bus service.
WOW! Thanks a lot you guys! That's really helpful!
So sad that gentification has taken it's toll on most of these neighbourhoods, it happens everywhere.
Yeah, Chinatown is not as big as the ones in San Fransisco or say New York but it's still beautiful, even though we went to this cool hip restaurant in Chinatown Plaza called Yummy Yee or something, great place but the food got me sick and couldn't sleep last night, I was vomiting the whole night...sorry for that! But it still didn't stop it from transporting me out of Chicago and into Shanghai or somewhere in China!
Humboldt Park is dangerous? Well I guess we'll go visit in the daytime! Because I would love to go get some good Boricua food...so I'll check on that! But thanx for the Head's Up!
Speaking of dangerous, many of my friends tell me of some bad experiences they've had in Little Italy. Things like baseball bats in the face, being chaced by groups of wannabe "guidos" and things like that...is it still bad? I remember driving there with some friends one night and there were like, no joke, 15 cops on Taylor St. What is going on here? Others tell me it's a good time to go when it's warmer and walk around to Arragio Park and visit the statue, go get a Gelato or Italian Ice and enjoy it on Piazza di Maggio and have a great dinner in any of the restaurants and enjoy the wines and buy salames.
Pilsen is great, I really loved it, but I think in the warmer season will be nicer, and I would love to walk from Pilsen to Little Village one day...how far would it be? And as far as DuPage...West Chicago is a Mexican Enclave, which I can compare to Pilsen, for the community there has worked to make this a great place and is generating new bussinesses, especially Mexican one...where in Aurora and Elgin in Kane County, where the Mexican and other Latino populations have been struggling much, which I guess I can compare with La Villita in forms of education, crime among other things.
Argyle St. is Indochina??? NICE Will check it out for sure!
And suburbs like Skokie I know are very Jewish...but closer to the city or in the city where we can see a great Ashkenazi or Sephardic culture??? I would really love to go to those places and feast on their great food (Which is why I chose a northern Mexican restaurant in Pilsen, cause the northern mexican cuisine is basically jewish cuisine...look up culture from Monterrey and their jewish past!)
So that place from Belmont to Halstead is basically Polish town, is the Polish Museum there? I hear the museum is impressing and the stories are great!
I guess we're going to do a tour of what were the neighbourhoods where the old enclaves were (Germans in Lincoln Square and Swedes in Andersonville, etc...)
I hear Beverly is a great example of the South Side Irish and they keep pride in it and have a great St. Patrick's Day parade and have many pubs and all in very Irish style and some buildings remind us of Ireland...and a castle! How can I get there? Does the El Train take us there?
Brozville sounds great as well...is it an African-American neighbourhood?
I guess that being in the largest Polish ciy outside of Poland I would expect there to be a great Polishtown or something, but I guess I'm wrong, they have all scattered all over the city and area to new and better locations. But I hear that West town is the old Polish Centre, as well for Russians and other Eastern Europeans! Any Romanians?
Thanks a lot you guys, this is really helping me and my roommates, we will go and venture out everywhere b4 the semester is over! Thanks again and keep putting any other interesting places you can think of...I think after Little Italy this weekend it will be Ukranian Village!
It's worth mentioning that a lot of the "ethnic" neighborhoods in Chicago are only "ethnic neighborhoods" on the surface. Despite the Swedish bakeries and restaurants and Scandinavian museum in Andersonville, the percentage of actual Swedes still living there is almost statistically insignificant. There are few Greeks left in Greektown. There aren't many Italians left in Little Italy, there are few Germans left in Lincoln Square (well, I bet a lot of the residents there are at least partially ethnically German but don't know it or don't care, which can be said of a lot of white Midwesterners), and Koreatown is starting to go the way of a facade-neighborhood too as first and second-generation Koreans head for the suburbs. Ukranian Village has turned the corner from a Ukranian neighborhood to a hipster/yuppie neighborhood. About the only white ethnic neighborhoods that still retain a lot of their true ethnicity are the South Side Irish and the Polish section around Belmont/Milwaukee and going west along the Belmont/Addison corridor. The South Side still has a lot of Irish because a) they refused to participate in white flight and thus did not "disperse" themselves like a lot of other ethnicities did, and b) it's not close enough to the Loop to succumb to the pressures of gentrification. The Polish section around Belmont and Milwaukee remains Polish because it's about the only white ethnicity in this city that still sees substantial rates of immigration.
As for Little Saigon, it gets its other nickname "New Chinatown" from the fact that many of the immigrants up there, while being Vietnamese nationals, are ethnically Chinese.
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Ethnic neighborhoods!
). Several museum campuses and miles of park call Bronzeville home, not to mention historic districts and landmarks. And it is such a commuter friendly area with the red-line and CTA bus service.
