Video Gaming Terminals in 60645 (West Ridge, Chicago)

History

The Irish immigrant Rogers, whose land became the basis of Rogers Park, bought his first parcel near what is now Lunt and Western. West of the ridge, farms and greenhouses run by immigrant families from Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland and Scandinavia held on until just before World War I. In 1890 forty-seven voters approved the Village of West Ridge, and Chicago annexed it three years later. New streetcar routes on Devon and Western led farmers to sell to developers, and in 1913 a golf club bought land at Pratt and Western from the Fortman family, farmers in the area since the 1840s. The Ridge Avenue Park District began buying ground for Indian Boundary Park in 1915, opened a zoo in the mid-1920s that at first held a lone black bear, and built the Tudor fieldhouse in 1929, with Tudor Revival apartments around the park by decade's end. After World War II, Jewish families began buying homes here, and from the 1960s the community grew more Orthodox. Developers bought the old golf course in 1965 and won zoning for high-rises and a shopping center; the state bought part of it in 1970 for Chicago's first state park, and the Park District took over Warren Park in 1976.

The area today

The ZIP runs roughly from Devon Avenue north to Howard Street and from Damen Avenue west to Kedzie Avenue. Nearly all of it is West Ridge, with a narrow strip of Rogers Park along the east edge. No "L" station sits inside it; Howard station is a few blocks east of the northeast corner, and the 49B bus runs south on Western from Howard. Indian Boundary Park, at 2500 W. Lunt, has a lagoon and a nature play area, and its east lawn runs into the front yards of the apartment buildings beside it. Warren Park, at 6601 N. Western, covers 88.93 acres, the North Region's largest park. WBEZ reported in 2023 that a walk around California or Kedzie passes many synagogues. Devon Avenue, the ZIP's southern boundary, is addressed to 60659; Block Club's September 2026 guide has its South Asian shops and restaurants stretching more than a mile between Seeley and California.

Bars and restaurants here

On Touhy, Block Club's April 2026 story on pool leagues lists Cali's Corner, at 2800 W. Touhy, among the rooms that host American Poolplayers Association league nights. Up on Western, the Red Room Comedy Club at 7442 N. Western runs stand-up and open-mic nights, including shows in Spanish, for a 21-and-over crowd, and its website sends audiences next door to Mark II Lounge once the show lets out.