Video Gaming in Chicago's 48th Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

Few people lived in the Edgewater area before the late nineteenth century. Scattered settlers farmed celery, the residents were mostly German and Irish, and Swedes gathered along Clark Street in an area they called Andersonville. Developer John Lewis Cochran then advertised a lakeside subdivision as Edgewater, with mansions on the lakefront, smaller houses to the west, and sidewalks, sewers and streetlights in before buyers arrived. Chicago annexed Lake View, Edgewater included, in 1889, though Edgewater's 300 residents voted no. Cochran had persuaded the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad to stop at Bryn Mawr Avenue and was instrumental in creating the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company, which opened a connection through to Howard Street in 1908. Apartment buildings crowded between Winthrop and Kenmore, and the Edgewater Beach Hotel (1916) and Edgewater Beach Apartments (1929) became landmarks. Property owners formed the Edgewater Community Council in 1960, and in 1980 the city made Edgewater its own community area, separate from Uptown. Along Clark Street, merchants revived Andersonville's Swedish past, and a "Chinatown North" promotion on Argyle Street grew into a strip of Asian American shops.

The area today

Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth represents the 48th Ward from a ward office at 1129 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. The alderperson succeeded the retiring Ald. Harry Osterman after winning a 2023 runoff with about 52 percent of the vote. The ward is mostly Edgewater along the lakefront, with parts of Andersonville and of Uptown around Argyle Street. Red Line trains stop at Berwyn, Bryn Mawr, Thorndale and Granville, and the Bryn Mawr Avenue Historic District covers the business corridor from Sheridan Road to Broadway. The Edgewater Chamber of Commerce credits the lakefront beaches, that historic district and an off-Broadway small theatre district with driving visits to the neighborhood.

Bars and restaurants here

If your room is on Bryn Mawr Avenue, you have seen the corridor change. Block Club Chicago reported in 2025 that the pandemic and more than four years of Red Line construction had left storefronts empty, and that they were filling up again as the rebuilt Bryn Mawr station reopened. Broadway and Granville Avenue also appear on the Chamber's list of neighborhood corridors, with international restaurants, antique shops and coffeehouses. Argyle Street east of Broadway is a different scene, a commercial strip lined with Vietnamese restaurants and shops.