Pilsen & Bridgeport

Chicago’s Mexican heartland and growing artistic center

Noteworthy for: Los Angeles is the only US city with a larger Mexican population than Chicago.
Word to the wise: The excellent Chicago Blues Museum on S. Iron Street is open only by appointment, so plan ahead.

Chicago’s Hispanic heartland is in the former Czech neighborhood of Pilsen, around 18th and Cermak Streets on the Lower West Side. Home to the National Museum of Mexican Art and many fine Mexican murals, Pilsen is increasingly a refuge for escapees from Wicker Park’s gentrification.
Thrift stores line 18th Street, while buildings south on Halsted are sprouting galleries and studios, most easily accessible on the monthly Second Fridays open night. On Halsted, try super-sweet dulce de leche Mexican-style cake from Kristoffer’s, check out the boisterous Nightwood bar and restaurant, or pull up a barstool with the locals in barely lit Skylark.

Bridgeport, south across the river between Halsted and Ashland, was once part of the giant Chicago stockyards and served as inspiration for Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel, ‘The Jungle’. Still a tough neighborhood, it also attracts emerging artists.