Video Gaming in Chicago's 27th Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

River and rail work drew settlers to West Town. Most of the community area east of Wood Street lay within Chicago's original 1837 city limits, workers arrived in the late 1840s to build railroad lines, and factories near the river drew more settlers. By the turn of the twentieth century, Italians had concentrated in West Town's southeastern portions, especially along Grand Avenue. On the Near West Side, the city built a market hall on Randolph Street in 1850, and Fulton Market Street buildings housed branch operations of the "big three" meatpackers. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, more than 200,000 people took up residence on the Near West Side, and Greeks, Italians, Poles and Russian Jews arrived in waves. The city created Union Park in 1853, and Jens Jensen, then a gardener, planted an experimental wildflower garden in it. African Americans began moving into the neighborhood in the 1910s, and the park was racially integrated.

The area today

Ald. Walter Redmond Burnett represents the 27th Ward from a ward office at 4 N. Western Ave., Unit 1C. The City Council voted 47 to 0 to confirm Burnett as alderperson, succeeding Walter Burnett Jr., first elected to the seat in 1995. On March 12, 2026, the City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee voted without debate to reject ordinances that would have barred video slot and poker machines from the 27th Ward and five other wards. The ward takes in, roughly, parts of the Near West Side, West Town, Humboldt Park, the Near North Side and East Garfield Park. The Green and Pink lines stop at Morgan and Ashland on Lake Street, and the Blue Line stops at Illinois Medical District. Union Park, which hosts concerts and festivals, and the United Center sit inside the ward.

Bars and restaurants here

If your room is on Randolph Street west of Halsted, you work on what Block Club Chicago calls restaurant row, with a dance club among the dinner rooms. Madison Street near the United Center is arena country; reporting during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Block Club Chicago found nearby businesses hoping to benefit from their proximity to the arena. In West Town's southeast corner, the Encyclopedia of Chicago describes restaurants, nightclubs and shops along Milwaukee Avenue and Halsted Street, and Block Club placed an Italian restaurant at the Grand, Milwaukee and Halsted intersection. Around the Illinois Medical District, the district's own history cites residential, retail and restaurant development beside the hospitals.