What neighborhood would you move to based on the food?

Currently I live in Wicker Park (North and Damen area) but for personal reasons I've decided to move to another neighborhood. What neighborhood would you recommend for someone who enjoys quality food (I love the GNR map) and eats out frequently?

Thanks,

JohnnyConatus

JohnnyConatus wrote:Currently I live in Wicker Park .. What neighborhood would you recommend for someone who enjoys quality food (I love the GNR map) and eats out frequently?

i'd say don't move! for me it'd be a close up between wicker park and river north... and i'd lincoln square is very doable.

It depends entirely on what kind of restaurants you like.

For me, the choice is simple: if food was the only reason to move, I'd move to Albany Park. Great middle eastern and korean right in the neighborhood; great thai a mile away; indian and pakistani 3 miles away; Sabatino's, Argyle, and good mexican are also just a short trip away. Not to mention having bistro campagne and spacca napoli in the general vicinity.

But it wins for walking distance and it wins for short drive, as far as my tastes are concerned.

Pilsen is actually pretty good, too: lots of mexican in pilsen and la villita, italian in the heart of chicago and on taylor, and chinatown and greektown not too far away. But I'd rather have good middle eastern than good italian.

dddane wrote:i'd say don't move! for me it'd be a close up between wicker park and river north... and i'd lincoln square is very doable.

Pray, tell... I've been working in River North for years, and it seems pretty desolate to me. I guess I don't step up to the upper-scale spots (eg. Naha) very often, but the inexpensive stuff is pretty soulless. Tell me what I'm missing!

I don't know Albany Park all that well, but it does seem like a pretty amazing concentration of places in my own style. Lincoln Square seems to me to be tipping a bit too far in the fancy-just-for-fancy's-sake places, but there are a lot of nice things about that neighborhood, to be sure.

North Andersonville has a similar ratio of places (and kinds of places) to Lincoln Square, but much denser population (parking is a drag). The Edgewater stretch of Clark Street just north of A-ville seems to be sprouting new places at a pretty good clip.

It might be too far north for you, but I'm in Evanston, and there's a very good array of foods of all different kinds within walking distance ... and if you include a driving radius of 3 miles or so, almost anything ...

I moved to Pilsen for two reasons:

1. Food
2. Escape Lincoln Park

gleam wrote:For me, the choice is simple: if food was the only reason to move, I'd move to Albany Park. Great middle eastern and korean right in the neighborhood; great thai a mile away; indian and pakistani 3 miles away; Sabatino's, Argyle, and good mexican are also just a short trip away. Not to mention having bistro campagne and spacca napoli in the general vicinity.

Right on the money, Ed, except that you don't have to take a short trip out of Albany Park for good Mexican (or quite a few other Latino cuisines for that matter). You can't drive two blocks down most of Lawrence or Montrose without passing a couple taquerias and a couple full-service Mexican restaurants*.

More about living and eating in Albany Park here.

Best,
Michael

*I think it's high time to revive this project.

Edgewater/Roger's Park--E. African, S. American, C. American, Caribbean, E. European, Persian, Turkish, Afghani, Indi-Paki, Viet, Lebanese, American ... shall I go on? And yes, all those regions are rather handsomely represented.

isn't there a map somewhere with the GNR winners on there? Pull that baby up, find the center or close to it and your in business.

jedibrand wrote:Edgewater/Roger's Park--E. African, S. American, C. American, Caribbean, E. European, Persian, Turkish, Afghani, Indi-Paki, Viet, Lebanese, American ... shall I go on? And yes, all those regions are rather handsomely represented.

I agree. Having moved from Lincoln Park to Edgewater/Rogers Park, I have been so happy with all the diverse offers the area has!

I just moved to Albany Park (for the food)--definitely a good call (thanks eatchicago and gleam). Essentially the epicenter of superlative Thai, great taquerias, Middle Eastern, Korean, not too far from Lincoln square, Argyle, Devon. Besides the restaurants, there are lots of excellent places to shop: Cermak produce, several Middle Eastern markets, good butcher shops.

Tough one, wicker park is what I would recc. So, what about West Town? Matchbox/Silver Palm, Coal Fire, Bari, West Town Tavern, J Patrick's, numerous taquerias, Avenue M, really I could go on and on. Plus I don't know your criteria for moving other than food, but you have great public trans over there, with bus and blue line.