Video Gaming Terminals in 60622 (West Town, Chicago)

History

After the fire of 1871, wealthy German and Scandinavian families built brick and stone mansions around Wicker Park, the triangle of four acres the Wicker brothers gave the city in 1870. Many of the craftsmen who built those houses lived next door, in the working-class blocks that became Ukrainian Village. By 1930 most of Chicago's estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Ukrainians lived in that 160-acre tract. Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral went up there in 1903 to a Louis Sullivan design, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia paid part of the cost. Mayor Jane Byrne declared Ukrainian Village an official neighborhood in 1983.

Poles settled around Division and Ashland, on the ZIP's eastern edge. Later in the twentieth century Puerto Ricans moved west toward Humboldt Park and Mexicans settled east of Ukrainian Village. Steel Puerto Rican flags went up in 1995 at each end of Division Street's Paseo Boricua. Young professionals began restoring Wicker Park's old houses in the early 1980s, and by century's end the neighborhood was known as an alternative scene for musicians and artists.

The area today

The ZIP covers Ukrainian Village, East Village and most of Wicker Park, plus a corner of Bucktown north of North Avenue and, west of Western Avenue along Division Street, the eastern part of Humboldt Park out to Kedzie. Wicker Park's namesake park covers 4.74 acres and has a fieldhouse. The Ukrainian Village landmark district, roughly bounded by Haddon, Damen, Rice and Western, keeps its workers' cottages, flats and apartment buildings, and Holy Trinity on Leavitt Street is a landmark of its own. The Blue Line stops at Damen on an elevated platform and at Division in a subway station on the ZIP's eastern edge. West of Western Avenue, Division is Paseo Boricua, the half-mile stretch to California Avenue that is the center of Humboldt Park's Puerto Rican community, and in 2024 the state named a stretch of Division "Puerto Rico Town."

Bars and restaurants here

On Division's 1700 and 1800 blocks, Gold Star Bar and Phyllis' Musical Inn sit within a block of each other; Phyllis' has served drinks and live music since 1954 and has a beer garden. Nick's Beer Garden on Milwaukee has a back bar, patio and live music. On Damen just south of Division, the Rainbo Club was a Polish polka hangout in the 1940s and 1950s, and Liz Phair has said she shot the "Exile in Guyville" cover in its photo booth. WBEZ reported in October 2025 that the Empty Bottle's longtime home is at Western and Cortez. Cleo's Bar & Grill on Chicago Avenue is a sports bar with a large back patio, and East Ukrainian Village's Kasama rose to two Michelin stars in November 2025.