Explore Chicago's Little Italy

Chicago's Little Italy is Taylor Street, on the Near West Side, just southwest of the Loop. It's smaller than the Little Italys in New York or Boston, and it's a lot less Italian than it used to be. Go for the food, the old family businesses that are still hanging on, and a piece of Chicago history you won't get downtown.

The neighborhood used to be much bigger. In the early 1960s the city picked this area for the new University of Illinois campus, and the construction knocked down a big part of it, including most of Hull-House. Florence Scala, a Taylor Street activist, led the fight against it and took the case to the Supreme Court, and lost, as Wikipedia's history of the neighborhood explains. Today Little Italy runs roughly from the Eisenhower Expressway south to Roosevelt Road, and from Interstate 90/94 west to Ashland Avenue. UIC surrounds it, so the crowd on Taylor is heavy on students and hospital staff from the Illinois Medical District, and the Italian part is mostly the restaurants, a deli, an ice stand and the churches.

Getting there

Take the Blue Line (Forest Park branch) to UIC-Halsted, walk south on Halsted, and you're at the east end of the neighborhood in about ten minutes. The Racine stop on the same line is closer to the middle of Taylor Street. The Pink Line's Polk stop works for the western blocks. The 157 Streeterville/Taylor bus runs along Taylor, and it connects to downtown and Streeterville. From the west side of the Loop you can also walk it in about half an hour. See our transportation page for fares and passes.

What to see

The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, at 800 S. Halsted St. on the UIC campus, is the best reason to come here other than lunch. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull-House in 1889 to serve the immigrants packed into this part of the city, many of them Italian. By 1911 it had grown to 13 buildings. Only the original mansion and the dining hall survived the university's construction. The museum tells the story of the settlement and the neighborhood it served, and it's free. It's open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4:50pm and Saturday 10am to 3pm.

The Our Lady of Pompeii shrine, at 1224 W. Lexington St., just north of Taylor, was founded in 1911 as the neighborhood's second big Italian parish, and it calls itself the oldest continuing Italian American church in Chicago. Pompei, the restaurant (more below), took its name from the church. Sunday Masses are at 8:30 and 11am if you want to see it full.

A few landmarks from the old version of this page have moved or changed. The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame spent about two decades on Taylor Street, but it had to leave in 2019 when its building was sold. It bought a former bridal shop at 3417 N. Harlem Ave. in Dunning, on the Far Northwest Side, and Block Club Chicago reported that its collection includes Mario Andretti's Indy 500 car, Matt Biondi's Olympic gold medals and a Joe DiMaggio statue. Check its website for visiting hours before you make the trip out there.

Arrigo Park, the seven-acre park at 801 S. Loomis St., lost its Christopher Columbus statue in 2020, when the city took down three Columbus statues after protests. Under a 2025 settlement, the Park District lent the statue to the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. It's going on display inside the new Florence Scala Italian American Museum at 1501 W. Taylor St., according to Time Out Chicago. The empty pedestal in the park is getting a statue of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, who worked with Italian immigrants in Chicago. She won a public vote in 2026, the Sun-Times reported.

The neighborhood's big party is the Taylor Street Little Italy Festival, usually held in August. Our neighborhood festivals page has more street fairs like it.

Where to eat and drink

Most of the old places are on Taylor between Morgan Street and Ashland Avenue. These were all open in 2026.

• Al's #1 Italian Beef, 1079 W. Taylor St. The Italian beef stand, open since 1938. Order it dipped with hot giardiniera and eat it at the counter the way everyone else does. It's closed Sundays. More on the sandwich on our food and drink page.
• Mario's Italian Lemonade, 1068 W. Taylor St., right across the street from Al's. The DiPaolo family has run this walk-up stand since 1954. The ices are made from squeezed fruit, sugar and ice, and lemon is the one to get first. It opens for the season on May 1 and usually closes sometime in September, so don't come in winter expecting a cup. Beef at Al's, then an ice at Mario's, is the classic Taylor Street combination.
• Pompei, 1531 W. Taylor St. Luigi Davino opened it as a bakery in 1909, selling bread and cheese pizza, and the family is now five generations in. The menu is much longer these days, and it's open for lunch and dinner every day.
• Conte Di Savoia, 1438 W. Taylor St. An Italian deli and grocery using family recipes since 1948. Come for a sub or a prosciutto sandwich to take to Arrigo Park.
• Rosebud, 1500 W. Taylor St. The 1973 original of what's now a local chain. Sit-down, old-school Italian with hearty portions and a private room that holds up to 80 for family parties. Book ahead on weekends.
• Tuscany on Taylor, 1014 W. Taylor St. The first Tuscany, opened in 1990, with Northern Italian dishes and pizza from a wood-burning oven. It's dinner only and closed Mondays.

RoSal's, the family place at 1154 W. Taylor St. that the old version of this page recommended, closed in 2018 after 28 years. For more sandwiches nearby, Chicago's best cheap eats includes Jim's Original, the Maxwell Street Polish stand a short walk south on Union Avenue, and our Chicago-style hot dogs page covers the city's dog stands.

Where to stay

There isn't much hotel choice in Little Italy itself. The Loop and the South Loop are the closest bases, a few Blue Line stops or a short cab away. See our hotels in the Loop and the where to stay in Chicago guide. To figure out what the whole trip will cost, try how to budget for a trip to Chicago.

Photo by CHiDN