Chicago Avenue runs through the heart of Ukrainian Village and is its main commercial street — a functional strip of restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and neighbourhood services that has been gentrifying slowly since the 1990s without losing its working-class character. The stretch from Damen west to Western Avenue has the most interest for visitors.
The bar culture on Chicago Avenue is deliberately unpretentious — neighbourhood taverns that predate the craft beer era alongside newer BYOB spots that opened as the neighbourhood attracted younger professionals. The Ukrainian and Polish restaurants that have been here for decades coexist with newer Mexican and Ethiopian places without obvious conflict. It is a genuinely mixed commercial street of the kind that is increasingly rare in the city's more heavily gentrified North Side neighbourhoods.