Video Gaming Terminals in 60634 (Dunning, Chicago)

History

In 1851 Cook County set aside land bounded by Irving Park Road and Narragansett, Montrose and Oak Park avenues for a poor farm and an asylum, and the nearby hospital kept settlers away from the village Andrew Dunning tried to start next door. The 1890s brought Kolze's Electric Grove, where hotel owner Henry Kolze turned wooded land near his inn into a picnic and dance ground with gas lamps, a nightly orchestra and beer at a nickel a glass for riders off the new streetcar lines. Schorsch Brothers Real Estate's 1916 tract west of Austin Avenue and south of Irving Park Road was named West Portage Park, a name chosen to keep the new blocks from being linked with Dunning. The Patio Theater opened at Irving Park and Austin in 1927. In the 1940s Belmont-Central went up with a dozen stores, a parking lot and a playground, and after the war the CTA ran its Belmont bus past Central. The Park District bought Kolze's grove in 1949 and 1950, turned the old tavern into a fieldhouse and named the park Merrimac. Hiawatha Park, on Forest Preserve Avenue, opened in 1958.

The area today

ZIP 60634 is built around Dunning, with parts of Portage Park, Belmont Cragin, Montclare and O'Hare. Roughly, it runs from Diversey Avenue north to Montrose Avenue and from Central Avenue west past Harlem, then narrows to a strip between Belmont Avenue and Irving Park Road out to Cumberland Avenue before widening again across forest-preserve land. Merrimac Park, at Irving Park and Narragansett, and Hiawatha Park both have fieldhouses with gymnasiums. Wilbur Wright College has had its campus at 4300 N. Narragansett since 1993, and the Patio Theater, built in an atmospheric style with a ceiling made to look like a night sky, stands at Irving Park and Austin. Block Club reported in May 2024 that the 3400 block of Harlem Avenue is a Little Italy of Italian shops. Indian Boundary Golf Course, 18 holes among Schiller Woods, sits near the west end. By bus, the 77 Belmont and 80 Irving Park run east from Cumberland, the 85 up Central and the 90 up Harlem.

Bars and restaurants here

On Central Avenue, the ZIP's eastern edge, Fork and Coin held its grand opening at the start of August 2026 at 3938 N. Central, in the former Bluebird Cafe building; its co-owner describes the pub and supper club as an American izakaya. On Harlem Avenue, Block Club's May 2026 patio guide points to Social Junkie, at 3848 N. Harlem, for drinks, bar food and live music. A few blocks south, the 3400 block's Little Italy business association restarted in 2021.