The Best Fun & Dining in Uptown Chicago
One of Chicago’s most vibrant and lively neighborhoods, Uptown is hub of dining and entertainment. You can’t go wrong with living, working, and visiting the Uptown neighborhood and, if you’re a Becovic resident, you know that our flagship building and offices are here! From theatres to multiple blocks filled with restaurants and shops – we’re here to give you a local guide to one of the best neighborhoods in Chicago.
Music & Experiences
The Riviera Theatre & Aragon Ballroom
The Riviera is the sister spot to the Aragon Ballroom. Hosting shows and artists year-round, these are some of the most iconic spots to catch a show in all of Chicago. Located where Broadway and Racine combine, the Riv hosts big shows and big names in it’s 2500 capacity space. A 3-minute walk east will bring you to The Aragon’s Moorish architecture has good acoustics, great stage views, and amazing balcony seating. Both locations are ideal if you want to head to The Green Mill after your show to catch more live music. Advance tickets are always recommended, so check out The Riv’s lineup here and The Aragon’s here.
Argyle Street
Argyle Street is a massive attraction in Uptown and one of the many reasons people travel this way to spend an afternoon. While Chinatown might be the better-known spot to get the best Chinese food, Argyle is the spot for Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and East Asian heritage, and a prominent cultural destination on the city’s north side. Walking down the street, you will encounter Boba stands, Vietnamese pastries, Peking Duck, Bahn Mi and a variety of amazing public art and murals.
Green Mill
The Green Mill has been around since 1907 and, for more than 100 years, has been outstanding! Once a hangout of Al Capone and his gang during the Prohibition era, according to TimeOut.com, “you can still spot Capone’s preferred booth, conveniently placed within eyeshot of both the front and back exits, inside the joint.”
Still, as popular as ever, the Green Mill includes a “music-focused roster of bebop, free jazz, and slam poetry nights.” Check out their schedule and lineup here!
Graceland Cemetery & Arboretum
For those who enjoy the peculiar and the creepy, we suggest a stroll through Graceland Cemetery, one of the biggest in the city. One of Chicago’s finest hidden treasures since 1860, in October of 2022 the began a historic renovation of the main entry. While this work goes on in this serene yet vibrant park-like cemetery, guests are pointed to the newly renovated Greenwood Gate located at 4264 N. Clark St. Since 1860, Graceland Cemetery is the final resting place to many prominent Chicago figures, including athletes, politicians, industrialists and many of the finest architects of the last century like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Daniel Burnham. Designed by visionary landscape architects, including O.C. Simonds, Graceland both serves as a glimpse into the past and a beautiful place for the future. Even with all of its 150 years of history, Graceland Cemetery is still an active cemetery and certified arboretum with more than 2,000 trees spread across 121 acres.
Click here to follow along with the renovations, and learn more about the space and its occupants.
Food
Furama
Family owned and operated across generations, Furama served its first customers in Uptown in 1985. Since then, Furama has become the biggest Chinese restaurant in the Uptown community and offers one of the largest varieties of Dim Sum in Chicago and uniquely serves guests the traditional way on Dim Sum Carts. Furama is one of the few places existing today that believes in the keeping of traditions by delivering dim sum on carts, which is the heart of the dim sum experience.
Furama is one of Becovic’s Neighborhood Partners and holds a place in the hearts of Becovic’s Uptown residents. You can find them here.
Koval Distillery
Koval popped up in 2008 as the first new distillery in Chicago since prohibition. It produces a variety of small-batch spirits, including “whiskey and gin. The distillery recently moved to a new (and much larger) production facility in Ravenswood, not far from breweries like Dovetail and Begyle,” according to Timeout.com.
The tasting rooms and patios are open now and guests “can enjoy house cocktails, flights, coffee and a small selection of baked goods. The bright, airy space features a bar backed by a display of Koval’s products and a row of overstuffed ’70s-inspired Italian leather couches to sink into while you sip an Old Fashioned.” Cheers!
Ragadan
Bringing cuisine from Jordan to Chicago, Ragadan is the new hot spot specializing in falafel and burgers. Chicago.eater.com shares that “this Uptown fixture comes from a Jordanian American, and there’s standout falafel and a special burger, called the single Dan, with a za’atar-spiced mayo. A place where customers can find hummus, eggs, and pancakes? Sign us up.”
With tons of vegetarian and vegan options, the Jordan-American flare is perfect for a casual dinner and anything in between.
Tweet Let’s Eat & Big Chicks
Known for welcoming guests with their complimentary coffee cake (that’s absolutely delicious), Tweet is a staple of the Uptown neighborhood and is always packed for breakfast and lunch. While a picture of Barack Obama watches from the corner, enjoy burritos, benedicts, buttermilk pancakes, and burgers. At 4pm Tweet shifts to Big Chicks, an upbeat LGBT-friendly bar with small bites & DJs on the weekend.
Learn more, see menus, and schedule your visit here!
Sun Wah BBQ
Sun Wah BBQ started its journey in New York’s Chinatown where it was crammed into a storefront hardly wider than nine lengths of roast ducks. In the spring of 1987, Sun Wah BBQ opened its doors in Argyle. While the transplant was a welcome upgrade as it provided space to accommodate kitchen gear and dining patrons, in 2009, the doors at Argyle closed with a scribbled note directing patrons to their even larger (and current) location just around the block on Broadway. Known for its Hong Kong-style BBQ, Sun Wah has won numerous awards for its Peking duck, which, when dining there, is sliced table-side. Sun Wah rapidly gained popularity throughout the years because of all the media attention, including receiving the 2018 America’s Classics Award. Sun Wah was featured on ABC 7 Eats news segment, The Food Network, Chicago’s Best, and possibly the most well-known out of its accomplishments- a segment on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
Read their story, see menus, and make a (strongly recommended) reservation here.