Slot Machines for Bars in Avondale, Chicago

History

Milwaukee Avenue began as a trail across prairie, and after 1848 it was straightened and planked. Avondale grew along that road and the railroads beside it. Annexation to Chicago came in 1889, and street railways on Milwaukee and Elston avenues and the Logan Square branch of the elevated line drove growth from 1890 to 1920. Near Belmont Avenue, clay pits and brick factories gave one stretch the name Bricktown. After 1920 Grebe's Boatyard on the river's west bank north of Belmont built luxury yachts, and in World War II it turned out minesweepers. By 1930 Poles made up 33 percent of residents. St. Hyacinth parish was founded in 1894 and built its church on Wolfram Street between 1917 and 1921. The blocks around it became known as Jackowo and those around St. Wenceslaus as Wacławowo, together the Polish Village. Polish arrivals in the 1980s and 1990s included political refugees, and in 1991 Lech Wałęsa attended Palm Sunday Mass at St. Hyacinth. By 1990 Hispanic residents were 37 percent of the area.

The area today

The Chicago History Museum says more than half of Avondale's residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and traces of the Polish Village remain around St. Hyacinth Basilica at 3636 W. Wolfram Street. The Blue Line stops at Belmont and Kimball, 3355 W. Belmont Avenue. Brands Park, at Elston and Henderson, began as a picnic grove that hosted Clan-na-gael and Schwabenverein outings, and the River Park District finished buying the land in 1927. Revolution Brewing opened its Kedzie Avenue brewery in 2012 and bought the building in 2022. In August 2026 its taproom at 3340 N. Kedzie hosted the first Avondale Spotlight Awards, where Chief O'Neill's, the Irish pub on Elston, won the Neighborhood Tradition award. Avondale Bowl, a 1920s bowling alley restored in 2019, is at 3118 N. Milwaukee.

Bars and restaurants here

On Milwaukee Avenue, Void opened in August 2024 at 2937 N. Milwaukee in the former Moe's Tavern, a dive bar that closed during the pandemic. In 2022 Block Club reported a resurgence on the stretch between Kimball and Central Park avenues, long lined with vacancies, and on Central Park Avenue the Polish dance bar Podlasie Club, opened in 1986, was drawing a younger crowd. On Belmont, Kuma's Corner, the heavy metal burger spot, opened at Francisco in 2005. On Elston, Frank & Mary's Tavern reopened in November 2025 under new owners after 54 years with its original owner, beer signs and fish case intact.