Slot Machines for Bars in Little Italy, Chicago

History

The Encyclopedia of Chicago places Little Italy on the Near West Side around Halsted and Taylor Streets and says Italians were never a majority there. A Sun-Times history says most Italian Chicagoans' ancestors came from southern Italy between 1880 and 1920. The Sun-Times dates Holy Guardian Angel Church to 1899, and Our Lady of Pompeii was built when Guardian Angel became overcrowded; Pompeii became a parish in 1911, and workers broke ground on its church a dozen years later. After World War II, urban renewal brought expressways, public housing and Medical District growth, the Sun-Times says. Holy Guardian Angel was razed for the Dan Ryan Expressway, rebuilt in 1959 and razed again for the UIC campus, according to WBEZ. Florence Scala led marches and a City Hall sit-in against the campus site Mayor Richard J. Daley chose in 1961, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined the activists' appeal in 1963. The Sun-Times says the project destroyed hundreds of businesses and displaced thousands of residents.

The area today

The Sun-Times centers its Little Italy guide on Taylor Street between Ashland Avenue and Halsted Street, notes the area is also known as University Village, and says the Italian neighborhood once stretched west to Western Avenue, into what is now Tri-Taylor. City Cast Chicago's walking guide to that mile lists the 157 bus on Taylor and Blue Line stops at Racine and UIC-Halsted. Arrigo Park, 7.23 acres beside the campus, was Vernon Park until 1974, when it was renamed for state representative Victor Arrigo. The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum is what remains of a 13-building settlement campus. The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, proclaimed a shrine by Cardinal Bernardin in 1994, stands at 1224 W. Lexington Street, and ABC7 reported in May 2026 that it celebrated its first Mass since a two-year renovation.

Bars and restaurants here

If you run a room on Taylor Street between Ashland and Halsted, you know the old names. A 2018 Sun-Times guide dated Pompei to 1909, Tufano's Vernon Park Tap to 1930 and Little Joe's Circle Lounge, at 1041 W. Taylor, to 1946, and in February 2026 the Columbia Chronicle called Little Joe's the longest-running bar in Little Italy. The Sun-Times says the university and the Medical District brought students, jobs and young professionals, and new businesses followed. Fra Noi reported that the 2025 Taylor Street Little Italy Festa drew tens of thousands, and noted the grand reopening of Rosebud, which the Sun-Times says was founded on Taylor Street.