About

Al Capone and other prohibition-era gangsters would be proud to see what River North has become. The area was once a haven for the illicit consumption of alcohol and a range of other shady activities. Today, it’s a thriving district that welcomes people from all walks of life to enjoy food, drinks, art and other wholesome activities.

River North benefits from being located within the center of Chicago’s sprawling urban metropolis, meaning that its residents, workers and visitors are able to easily access the very best of what the city has to offer. Yet it’s also an incredibly diverse part of the city. No two streets feel quite alike, with its interesting array of building styles, interesting landmarks, a wide range of greenery and, of course, riverways flowing toward Lake Michigan. Like the best parts of all American cities, River North manages to blend these features in a way that conveys excitement and encourages people to explore. In that case, it’s lucky that there’s also plenty to be found hidden within the district. For instance, the Wolf Point West Riverwalk is tucked away at the southwestern tip of River North and allows people to relax and gaze at the city life around them. And waiting beneath an off-ramp of the Kennedy Expressway is a small haven for canines and their owners, the Ohio Place Dog Park. A dog park at the end of an expressway shouldn’t work. But in River North, it really does, in a way that can only be explained by seeing it in person.

But the majority of visitors won’t need to seek out these tucked-away spots. River North is bursting with interesting landmarks that people travel thousands of miles to see. Naturally, the most immediately recognizable of these major landmarks are the historic skyscrapers. For instance, along the southern border of River North is theMART, the largest privately held commercial building in the USA. This monolithic structure spans across two city blocks. It attracts almost 10 million people every year thanks to the fact that it’s home to some of the most innovative companies in the USA today, including PayPal and Kellogg. Of broader interest to tourists is The Design Center within theMART, which is the world’s largest resource for interior design. It features over 125 showrooms, which boast the latest and greatest in luxury home appliances. This center is open to the public from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays and by appointment at other times. Many visitors have no interest in purchasing the items on display (although plenty of business happens here.) Instead, people come to be inspired to see how they can improve their own spaces and just to see the cutting edge of luxury home furnishing. The center also runs a range of programming, events and seminars that are of interest to anyone who has an interest in beautifying indoor spaces.

On the opposite end of River North’s southern border is an equally important historical skyscraper, The Wrigley Building. This structure is situated at the point where The Chicago River meets The Magnificent Mile. The Wrigley Building, with its asymmetrical beauty and prominent clock tower, is one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the entire world, And it only gets more interesting the more someone stares at it. For instance, it’s lined with 250,000 terracotta tiles, which are of a different shade at different heights of the structure. At the base, the tiles are off white. The tiles at the top are blue white. There are a range of shades in between, making the entire building brighten as it rises. The most immediately striking aspect of the building, the clock tower, will remind many of Big Ben in London. But in actuality, its inspiration comes from further south. It’s based on the La Giralda bell tower atop Seville Cathedral in Spain. In 1921, The Wrigley Building’s South Tower celebrated 100 years of existence. The North Tower, however, was completed in 1924. As many will guess by The Wrigley Building’s name, it was originally constructed for William Wrigley Jr., the founder of the chewing gum company Wrigley’s. Upon completion, The Wrigley Building towered above every nearby structure. Today, it’s dwarfed by much more modern skyscrapers, but it’s just as beautiful as always.

And no trip to River North would be complete without a pilgrimage to The Richard H Driehaus Museum, more commonly known as simply the Driehaus Museum. This museum is located within the historic Samuel Mayo Nickerson Mansion, a perfect example of Gilded Age opulence which dates to 1883. The interior of this mansion may be one of the most extravagant looking places outside of Vatican City. The entranceway alone is filled with marble floors, ceilings, columns and statues. In fact, a popular nickname for the space is “The Marble Palace.” And the stunning interior just keeps on getting better and better, from the Reception Room all the way to The Ballroom. Some of the wonders inside include a painting of Saint Cecilia by the British artist Sidney Harold Meteyard; a Chickering & Sons grand piano made of satinwood veneer and macassar ebony; and an eighteen light Tiffany Lily Table lamp which dates to 1910. The Driehaus Museum is far from the only place to admire art within River North. In fact, the only place in the United States with more art galleries than River North is Manhattan in New York City.

Clustered in the southeastern corner of River North are a number of hotels, with the quality of these ranging from the luxurious to the cheap-yet-cheerful. At the very top end of the hotel offerings within this region is The Langham, located at the southeastern edge of River North, overlooking the historic Dusable Bridge and the Chicago Riverwalk. The best room on offer within this hotel is the aptly named Lake View Suite, which stretches across 1,230 feet of space, with floor to ceiling length windows allowing guests to stare at sights miles away. Other impressive hotels within River North include the Royal Sonesta Chicago, which has retro interiors; The Talbott Hotel, which lives up to its art deco heritage; and the Godfrey Hotel, which has a cubist sci-fi design.

As with many districts within Chicago, River North has changed significantly since the city first boomed in the 19th Century. River North emerged as an urbanized location in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The most commonly accepted cause of this fire, a cow knocking over a lit oil lantern in a barn, explains exactly what the region was like prior to 1871. It was a region rural enough to house farms but urban enough for an almighty blaze to wreak havoc. After the fire devastated the land, the pioneering architects of Chicago rapidly developed the area into something resembling a modern city. Where once there had been farms and detached homes, instead warehouses, municipal buildings and shipping facilities sprung up. Shortly after this construction revolution, the area became known as Smokey Hollow, thanks to these buildings and nearby factories spewing out constant plumes of smoke throughout the day. In fact, during this industrial era, the smoke was so thick that the sunlight was almost always blocked out. Further contributing to the smog was an influx of rail transportation through the region, which delivered goods to and from the city from across the nation.

Also during this time, River North became home to Italian immigrants, particularly those from Sicily. Unsurprisingly, then, Chicago’s inaugural Roman Catholic Church, Assumption Parish, was founded within the neighborhood. From this point onward, River North also became home to the finest Italian restaurants in the city and quite possibly the entire Midwest. Unsurprisingly, the mob also became active within the area during this time, which would have a major impact on the function of the area in the future. But to understand how the mob became dominant, the difficulties that beset the region need to be elaborated upon.

As the 20th Century boomed, River North’s economy suffered. The port, which had been the key driver of the area’s economy, relocated to another part of the city. Soon, the warehouses and factories closed their doors. But in the 1920s and early 30s, one industry found River North to be perfect: bootlegging. The passage of the prohibition of alcohol across America in 1920 enabled mobsters to capitalize upon a major craving for illicit consumption. Therefore, many of the supposedly derelict warehouses and factories of River North contained moonshine and speakeasies. River North was ideal for bootleggers, as the port industry may have moved on, but much of the infrastructure remained, That meant that alcohol could be conveniently shipped to the area across Lake Michigan from Canada. Another contributing factor that helped River North’s bootlegging industry was the fact that law enforcement often wouldn't dare enter the region, such was its reputation since the relocation of its port.

With River North essentially under the control of mobsters, a number of historically important events took place within the area during this time. For instance, at the corner of Chicago Avenue and North State Street, what appeared to be an innocent flower shop, Schofield’s Flowers, became the sight of a shocking murder. Early on November 10th, 1924, three men walked into this flower shop. They went into the back room and shot one of the store’s employees five times. But this man was no innocent victim. He was the mobster Charles Dean O’Banion, and Schofield’s Flowers was a front for bootlegging. In fact, above the storefront were offices that acted as Dean O’Banion’s North Side Gang headquarters. The event sparked a bloody five year gang war between O’Banion’s North Side Gang and other significant Chicago gangs, including Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit.

In the following decades of the 20th Century, River North’s reputation did not recover. If anything, the legalization of alcohol in the 30s hurt the area even more, with a key source of revenue being lost. However, in the 1960s, a few things happened that began to show that River North was changing. This came as a result of the 1960 census, which showed, for the first time in history, that Chicago’s population was declining. The city’s mayor, Richard Daley, was determined to bring people back to the city and initiated a significant urban redevelopment project. One of the most ambitious of these developments was to be Marina City, located on the southern edge of River North. Marina City, which is also nicknamed The Corn Cob, was devised as a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex. The two most immediately recognizable buildings within Marina City are the 64-story high apartment towers, which any alternative rock fans will instantly recognize from the iconic cover of the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by the band Wilco.

Marina City showed just what River North could become. By the time the entire complex was completed in 1968, Marina City was at the very cutting edge of architectural achievement, much as the nearby Wrigley Building had been decades before. In fact, upon completion, Marina City’s flagship towers were the tallest residential buildings and the tallest towers made from reinforced concrete anywhere on Earth. It was also the first post-war urban high-rise complex in America. Its successful completion led to a range of residential construction across American urban population centers.

But the wider urban renewal of River North took some time to get started. After Marina City was completed, it was several years before any other development programs began to revitalize the district. This changed in 1974. The businessman and real estate developer Albert M Friedman saw potential in the area, and as a result, is largely to thank for making River North what it is today. Friedman’s property development firm, Friedman Properties Ltd, was then a young company that was looking to make its mark on the city of Chicago. Friedman saw that River North was overdue for revitalization. So if he could buy, build, renovate and lease out commercial property in the area, then he would make a significant profit, he reasoned. Soon, Friedman Properties started work on the southeast portion of River North, where Marina City was located.

At first, it seemed like Friedman had wasted his money. His commercial properties sat vacant for several years. But then, with the creative scene in Chicago finally picking up, Friedman’s investments began to pay off. Galleries, ad agencies, photographers and other companies based around the arts began to realize that River North had a range of high quality spaces on offer for an unbelievably low cost. By the end of the 70s, River North was finally starting to shake off its reputation as a rough district and had begun to become a place that people sought out for inspiration. Today, Friedman Properties either outright owns or has a strong business interest in over 50 buildings in River North, which totals over 5 million square feet of space.

In the 1980s, River North’s status as a rapidly rising district led to a whole new ecosystem of business activity. For instance, another prominent real estate developer, Daniel Levin, realized that what River North lacked was a high-quality health club. And so he opened the East Bank Club, which spanned two city blocks, in 1980. The stigma of River North was still strong enough for many people to advise Levin against the project. In fact, he struggled to even gain a bank loan to fund his health club. But then, at the pre-opening party of the business, hundreds of individuals clambered to rent their own lockers. Levin later said that this was the moment when he knew that his venture would pay off. In the following years, prominent members of the East Bank Club included television host Oprah Winfrey, Reverend Jesse Jackson and an ambitious young law professor named Barack Obama. This club, and its 350,000 square feet of amenities, are still located at 500 North Kingsbury Street today.

In the late 1980s, a number of high-end restaurateurs chose to open businesses within River North. One prime example is Rick Bayless, the celebrity chef host of the television show Mexico - One Plate at a Time, who opened the Frontera Grill in the dead center of River North in 1987. This restaurant, which is still located at 449 North Clark Street after 35 years, was inspired by Bayless and his wife, Deann Groen Bayless, taking an extended visit to Mexico for the purpose of writing a cookbook. As a result, the restaurant today serves as a document of Bayless’s adventure and the dishes that it inspired. And while Chicago is thousands of miles from Mexico, Frontera Grill’s food strives to be as authentically Mexican as possible. Even the organic corn that goes into handmade tortillas is imported from Oaxaca and the olive oil comes from Baja. And fans of Coca-Cola with actual sugar will be overjoyed to know that the cokes the restaurant serves are also of the Mexican variety. As for the dishes themselves, it’s hard to pick out particular standout offerings. But the crispy duck carnitas should be tried by anyone who loves either duck or carnitas. And the weekend special cochinita pibil, which features slow-cooked suckling pig, is well worth ordering. Just be sure that you visit after 5pm from Friday to Sunday, or it won’t be available.

Frontera Grill may have been one of the first deluxe dining options to open within River North, but it’s far from the last. Today, almost every block features fantastic food choices, with establishments serving cuisine from across the globe. One prime example is Bavette’s Bar and Boeuf located at 218 West Kinzie Street. As the title implies, this location is a steakhouse that cooks its food in a French style. Naturally, the go to items on the menu are steaks, ranging from filet mignon to dry-aged bone-in ribeye. But the establishment also has a variety of non-steak food items. For instance, its chilled seafood platters are nothing short of spectacular. The decor of Bavette’s Bar and Boeuf is also a perfect way to experience the Chicago of yesteryear. Every piece of furniture within this restaurant evokes the feel of a speakeasy. And this theme extends beyond just the senses of sight and touch. Even the music playing within is jazz, and yes, 1920s jazz specifically. In fact, all that’s missing from the prohibition era is a surprise raid.

Of course, as a place that has had a high population of Italian Americans for over 100 years, River North still has some truly outstanding Italian restaurants. Many consider the finest of the finest to be Ciccio Mio, located on the very same block as Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf at 226 Kinzie Street. It also has incredibly similar decor, and this isn’t an accident, as both Bavette's Bar & Boeuf and Ciccio Mio have the same owner. Ciccio Mio is smaller than Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf, meaning that it’s often fully booked. But anyone that is able to make a reservation will not be disappointed, with a superb menu of Italian items on offer, including Sicilian style swordfish and orecchiette pugliese, which is a spicy pork sausage dish.

A much more spacious Italian restaurant within River North is Siena Tavern, located at 51 West Kinzie Street. This locale is the result of a partnership between the celebrity chef Fabio Viviani and DineAmic Hospitality. The concept for this restaurant came about when Vivani returned to Italy, his home country, with Lucas Stoioff and David Rekhson, the founders of DineAmic. The three went to the city of Siena and dined within a bar named La Taverna. The resulting River North restaurant is a loving homage to that experience. The 10,000 square feet of space that make up the restaurant is designed to reflect both an Italian market, a modern tavern and, of course, a fine dining establishment. The menu features the Italian dishes that the world knows and loves, like lasagna and pizza. But the more adventurous eaters will want to select the “Forget About It” four course tasting menu of Fabio Viviani’s favorite dishes (By the way, technically, it’s listed as four courses plus dessert, meaning that it’s actually five courses.)

While River North has gone through many changes over the years, one thing about it has remained constant: it appeals to enterprising individuals. That ranges from gangsters to real estate moguls to restaurateurs to artists and a whole host of others. Therefore, anyone who appreciates a place where hustlers hustle and opportunities constantly present themselves will enjoy walking through and experiencing this neighborhood. River North should be on all but the least adventurous person’s list of places to visit in Chicago.