Little Village

Where is it located?

Any places that you would recommend??

Here’s a link to something I wrote about Little Village nearly 5 years ago. It’s a little dated but should help to get you started.

Popular usage of the names of the neighbourhoods down this way is inconsistent and in particular there are various ways of dividing up the stetch of strongly Mexican settlement that extends from ca. Canal in the east to the western edge of the city and beyond, into Berwyn and Cicero. Officially and historically, Pilsen goes from Halsted to Ashland, Heart of Chicago from Ashland to Western; so far as I know, from Western on or, at the very least, from the viaduct a block west of Western on Cermak is La Villita. In Rene G's linked post, he focusses on the more western section of La Villita, centred on 26th Street from the courts westward. Out that way there are a lot of restaurants, including the recently discussed Mi Tierra (see separate thread). Also on that stretch of 26th is an apparently decent seafood (caveat: we've been there only once) called El Tecolote. A large, noisy, very informal kind of joint down that way is La Kermis, which is not to my mind a particular destination but one can get a good torta there and Amata and I both like the thick style of gorditas they make.

In the more easterly area of La Villita is the stretch on Cermak from the viaduct near Western to Sacramento or so. In this zone there are two places I like very much that I've already posted on and a couple more I will be posting on. Here are the two with illustrated write-ups by this writer:

Casa de Samuel
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=19710#19710

El Nuevo Kappy's
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=25309#25309

Also of interest is the following dairy shop, written up by Amata who was following up on an earlier post by bjt (link thereto in Amata's post):

Santa Maria Lacteos y Cremeria
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=26435#26435

Buen provecho,
Antonius

For a first foray into La Villita, consider starting at the arched gateway on 26th around Kedzie and proceeding westward. East of there are certainly some good places, like the El Milagro cafeteria and store next door where you can purchase masa preparada or simply ground. I had need of a quick lunch in the area today and took some colleagues, who were all impressed with the offerings. They had both red and green chilaquiles, so I was happy.

Exploring in any direction is encouraged. Major north south streets and, especially Archer Ave., will have more large stores. North of 26th is one of the few places left in Chicago where you can see how retail establishments used to permeate the residential neighborhoods. Just in returning from El Milagro to California on the block north of 26th St., we passed corner furniture stores, fruterias, carnicerias, candy stores, lawyers offices, etc. This is a streetscape that has largely vanished in Chicago (due to zoning, etc.), and shows how much people in the neighborhood do business very locally.

If you are new to the South Side, notice also that there are both numbered Streets and Places. Places are one block south of the Street with the same number. I am not exactly sure where/how far south this starts, but it does exist at least in parts of La Villita.