Uptown

Situated between the Lakeview and Edgewater neighborhoods, ethnically diverse Uptown is known for great live music and nightlife at the Green Mill jazz club, and several popular concert and entertainment venues, including the Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theatre and Uptown Theater at Lawrence Avenue and Broadway. A bit further north, along Argyle Street, is a heavy concentration of Southeast Asian restaurants and shops, including some of the best Vietnamese eateries in the city.

Uptown: An Intriguing Blend of Old and New

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

Leave the Red Line 'L' at the Lawrence Avenue stop, look around, see the "Aragon" sign and you immediately understand what makes the Uptown neighborhood unlike any other in Chicago.

Uptown is a community emerging from a time warp, fitfully and at times grudgingly. But here old and new find a way to co-exist, and the result can be a delight for discerning visitors.

It's home to the city's largest concentration of East Asian restaurants outside the Chinatown (Armour Square) neighborhood, a film studio that gave Charlie Chaplin a nice career boost, the resting place of heavyweight boxing champs Jack Johnson and Bob Fitzsimmons and what may be the best ground-level view of Chicago's glorious skyline.

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