Few neighborhoods in the world have as much culinary depth and breadth as Wicker Park / Bucktown. Its 1½ square miles is home to more than 70 restaurants, featuring more than a dozen distinctive cuisines. It is the location of choice for some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs, including Michal Carlson of Schwa, Shawn McClain of Spring, Takashi Yagihasi of Takashi, and Radhika Desai of Between. Chicago is privileged to have such a concentration of unique, high quality restaurants outside of the noise and congestion of the loop.
As a neighborhood, Wicker Park / Bucktown’s reputation for culinary risk taking and inventiveness is second to none. From the vegetarian small plates at Mana Food Bar to the audacious pancakes at Bongo Room, from the dessert creations of Mindy Segal at Hot Chocolate to the wonderful bruschettas at Enoteca Roma, neighborhood chefs are pioneering here as nowhere else.
The amazing variety of décor and ambiance to be enjoyed in Wicker Park / Bucktown’s restaurants is remarkable and exhilarating. Immerse yourself in the glowing blue industrial vibe of Blu Coral or drop into the whacked-out Tex Mex theme of Angels and Mariachis. Enjoy the swinging 40’s cocktail lounge atmosphere of Club Lucky or transport yourself to the tropical cool of South Beach at Chaise Lounge.
Along the tree-lined streets of Wicker Park with its black wrought iron and ornate cornices, on the back patios of numerous charming Bucktown storefronts featuring original pressed tin ceilings and exposed brick, you’ll find a profusion of outdoor dining experiences. Few neighborhoods anywhere in the world can boast so much al fresco dining. In the summer months, a stroll down Division Street from Paulina to Leavitt, a distance of no more than a quarter mile, takes you past more than a dozen colorful sidewalk cafes. It’s telling to realize that more of Wicker Park / Bucktown’s restaurants offer al fresco dining than do not. It’s one of the signatures of this great neighborhood.
Wicker Park / Bucktown serves the late night crowd with more than a dozen la
te kitchens (opened past 11pm). It serves the budget conscious diner with a wide selection of BYOB options and is home to a burgeoning brunch scene.
Without doubt, Wicker Park/Bucktown is one of the premier dining destinations in the nation and deserves a website all its own, which is why we’re here. The Wicker Park Gadfly is your source for information and opinions on Wicker Park dining. We’ll tell you which restaurants offer what, and which do it best, adequately or not so well. We’ll provide the hours, addresses and phone numbers. We’ll tell you whether reservations are required, recommended or unavailable. We’ll tell you whether there’s live music, a laidback lounge vibe, or a raucous bar atmosphere. We’ll tell you which places are the most romantic and which places are truest to their ethnic pedigree. And we’ll tell you what you can expect to pay, not by the sometimes misleading method of providing the average cost of an entree (most people eat more than an entrée, and drink as well). We’ll tell you what the average price is for a meal for two including drinks and tax so you don’t get sticker shock.
Annually, we’ll unveil our 10 Best Dishes of the Neighborhood. We’ll stay on top of new restaurant openings. And we’ll rank every restaurant on a 5 star basis, using our own in-house reviewers, so you don’t get the confused and conflicted feedback that social networking and user-generated commentary sites give you. At the Wicker Park Gadfly you’ll be able to separate the culinary cream of the crop from the merely okay with insights deeper and more pertinent than “this place sucks” or “this is the greatest place ever”. Wicker Park / Bucktown deserves a more sophisticated forum for its dedicated and venturesome restaurateurs and we aim to provide it. We’re the Wicker Park Gadfly and we're exploring the depth and breadth of Wicker Park / Bucktown dining so you can choose wisely.
To learn more about advertising or posting events contact us a malcolm.logan@rcn.com.
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