Video Gaming Terminals in 60641 (Portage Park, Chicago)

History

The name Portage Park recalls the canoe portages between the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers, and the Encyclopedia of Chicago places one along present-day Irving Park Road. In 1869 Charles T. Race bought acreage near the Chicago & North Western railroad, paid for a depot so trains would stop, and subdivided the land into lots advertised with hourly trains downtown. Jefferson Township, which took in Irving Park, Portage Park and Belmont Cragin, joined Chicago in 1889. The Portage Park District, formed in 1912, took 40 acres by condemnation in 1913 where Irving Park Road meets Central Avenue, and its fieldhouse was finished in 1922. Six Corners, where Irving Park Road, Cicero and Milwaukee meet on the border of Portage Park and Irving Park, was a thriving business district in 1953. Belmont Cragin, to the south, took its name in the 1930s.

The area today

ZIP 60641 runs roughly from Diversey Avenue north to Montrose Avenue and from Pulaski Road west to Central Avenue. Portage Park covers its western side and Irving Park its eastern side. Below Belmont Avenue the ZIP continues into Belmont Cragin, with small pieces of Hermosa and Avondale toward Pulaski. Six Corners, the commercial area at Irving Park Road, Cicero and Milwaukee, sits near the middle. The Portage Theater, built in 1920 at 4050 N. Milwaukee with a cream-colored terra cotta front, is a Chicago landmark, and Schurz High School, a 1910 Dwight Perkins design at 3601 N. Milwaukee, is another. The Blue Line's Irving Park stop, open since 1970 under the Kennedy Expressway near Pulaski at the ZIP's eastern edge, connects to Metra's UP-NW line and CTA buses 53, 54A and 80. Portage Park, with its Olympic-size pool, sits at the west end.

Bars and restaurants here

On Irving Park Road, Eris Brewery & Cider House at 4240 W. fills a building the Masons occupied until 1981, and Block Club's 2026 patio guide lists its dog-friendly patio, with beer, hard cider, cocktails and pub food. Moonflower, a cocktail bar at 4359 N. Milwaukee that Block Club says opened in 2021, and Block Club's 2026 patio guide lists a speakeasy and a patio out front. Block Club reported in September 2026 that The Original Steaks and Hoagies Tavern, the chain's first tavern-style shop, had opened at 3930 N. Cicero in Six Corners.