Video Gaming in Chicago's 11th Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

Bridgeport began in 1836, when construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal got under way. Irish canal workers arrived first, then Germans and Norwegians, and many lived along Archer Avenue. Lumber yards, factories and packinghouses opened along the river and canal. After 1880, streetcars ran up Halsted and 35th Streets, and that corner grew into a shopping strip that eventually replaced Archer Avenue as the neighborhood's commercial center. Germans, Czechs, Poles and Lithuanians each built parishes, and saloons, fraternal halls and schools filled in around the churches.

East of the Union Stock Yard, which opened on December 25, 1865, Canaryville housed clerks, cattle buyers and managers; the stockyards closed in 1971. To the north, Armour Square was wedged between rail lines and the river. In 1909 Charles Comiskey built a White Sox ballpark between 34th and 35th Streets. After 1910, Chinese residents left the Loop for blocks near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, mainly for cheaper rent. Elevated rail tracks took blocks of housing, and demolition for the Dan Ryan and Stevenson Expressways followed.

The area today

Ald. Nicole Lee represents the 11th Ward from a ward office at 3659 S. Halsted St. Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed Lee to the seat, and Lee won a full term in the April 2023 runoff with 62 percent of the unofficial vote. New ward maps made the 11th the city's first Asian American majority ward. The ward takes in, roughly, Bridgeport and Armour Square, including Chinatown, plus parts of Canaryville and McKinley Park. The Red Line stops at Cermak-Chinatown and Sox-35th, and the White Sox ballpark is a block west of Sox-35th. Chinatown's gate stands at Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, and Henry Palmisano Park, built on a former quarry, sits at 2700 S. Halsted. Home games, Chinatown dinners and concerts at the restored Ramova Theatre on Halsted bring people out at night.

Bars and restaurants here

If your room is on Wentworth Avenue or Cermak Road, you serve the Chinatown restaurants, the bakeries and the visitors the neighborhood has drawn for decades. On Halsted and Archer in Bridgeport, restaurants, auto repair shops and retail shops with Chinese signs line the street, and quiet Morgan Street is lined with galleries and studios. Around 35th Street, home games put fans on the street and in the Sox-35th stop, while concerts at the Ramova draw people to Halsted on show nights. Bridgeport still clings to a blue-collar attitude, though its crowd looks more diverse than it once did.