Roscoe Village, North Center

North Center, Roscoe Village continued...

Here's what we're talking about:

North Center's signature intersection is where Damen and Lincoln Avenues meet Irving Park Road. Within two blocks of that junction, in any direction, is an almost dizzying variety of eating and drinking places.

On Lincoln just south of Irving Park -- in a former mortuary -- is a pub (Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro) anchored by a massive U-shaped bar imported from Ireland and home to an impressive selection of single-malt whiskies. Steps away up toward Irving Park is El Llano, a Colombian restaurant that serves platter-size steaks at comfortable prices.

On Irving Park -- we're still at this one intersection, remember -- are the following: two longtime neighborhood German favorites, Laschet's Inn and Resi's Bierstube; the Orange Garden Restaurant (20 varieties of chop suey!), a North Center standby for about 80 years; and The Globe, a pub with 223 brands of bottled beers on its menu and, presumably, in its cooler.

The Globe, incidentally, is a pub especially favored by ex-pat Brits and opens as early as 6:45 a.m. on Saturdays during soccer season.

"It's always soccer season," notes bartender Erin Batchelder, who also helps monitor the many tellies in the pub's two rooms.

(Rugby types, on the other hand, tend to congregate at Black Rock, a North Center drinking establishment four blocks south of Irving Park on Damen, near Addison Street. Consider yourselves warned.)

Same area: Martyrs Restaurant and Pub, on Lincoln near Mrs. Murphy's, has music most nights and food and drink every night. The Lincoln Restaurant, on Lincoln just north of Irving Park, manages to be a fairly standard diner during standard-diner hours and, on Thursday and Friday nights, a comedy-variety club.

Same area: South of Irving Park, the American Theater Company (Byron Street just off Lincoln), a fixture for more than 25 years, is big on Mamet (a Chicagoan) but a showcase for fresh talent as well. North of Irving Park and right on Lincoln, "Cornservatory" comedy theater is all about fun, much of it improvisational.

Point made?

Roscoe Village concentrates much of its good stuff on four pleasant blocks of Roscoe Street -- six blocks south of Irving Park -- between Damen and Western Avenues. For the most part, we're talking restaurants, neighborhood drinking places and small shops here. One stop that could be of particular interest to visitors is Riverview Tavern, at Damen and Roscoe, themed after the amusement park that stood for 63 years four blocks straight west, right across Western. Riverview Park closed in 1967 -- but ask any Chicagoan old enough to have been there and prepare to be bludgeoned with stories of the Bobs (the park's top roller-coaster), the Pair-O-Chutes (terrifying) and the finishing burst of air at Aladdin's Castle.

A couple of North Center attractions take us to the edge of the neighborhood. National as well as local publications have raved about the burgers at Jury's (a self-described "classy neighborhood restaurant and bar," with white tablecloths and moderate prices) on Lincoln just south of Montrose Avenue. Check out the Chicago-centric wall art, which includes watercolors by popular local artist Tom Lynch and fine black-and-white photos as well.

And on Ravenswood Avenue near Montrose (just south of Lill Street Art Center's galleries and workshops, which are officially in the Lincoln Square neighborhood) is Architectural Artifacts.

Here can be found chunks of Lost Chicago, from statues salvaged from the city's historic movie palaces to Frank Lloyd Wright stained-glass windows to terra-cotta faces once part of the now-gone Lyric Theater, all for sale. Along with juggling clubs, Argentine seltzer bottles and wagon wheels.

No wonder tourists, as well as locals, have found their way here for nearly 25 years.

"They want to see the [Louis] Sullivan and Wright stuff," says owner Stuart Grannen. "There's things here they can't see anyplace else in the world."

Nor, anyplace else, are you likely to find a pub in a mortuary. That's North Center.

For more information about North Center, Roscoe Village, please contact:

• Northcenter Chamber of Commerce, 773.525.3609
• Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce, 773.327.5123
• Roscoe Village Neighbors, 773.329.5036