Pilsen Artist creates Art from Recyclable materials
Leticia Rodarte started her art career and became an entrepreneur at age eight. It started during grammar school in Mexico, she drew maps for her friends and charged them a “torta” for it, Rodarte said. “I started making my own money selling my drawings to friends from grammar school,” Rodarte said. “That’s when it started, [...]
Police Keep Licensed Peddlers Moving on 18th Street
Pilsen peddlers say business complaints to police have stopped them from selling on 18th Street. Anastacia Cortez, a licensed peddler for 15 years, said Chicago Police Officers have told her to move numerous times while selling on 18th Street. “The cops tell me that my post is mobile, and I have to keep moving, so I leave,” Cortez said. Cortez said she later is [...]
“Diamond in the rough” folk art in Pilsen
Walking down the streets of Pilsen, it is common for one to come across many Mexican restaurants and varying trinket stores, each as authentic as the next. On 18th Street, Efrain Loza owns and manages Artesanias D’Mexico, a Mexican folk art and retail store. He brings the products directly from 14 different states in Mexico. [...]
Your Sweet Tooth Will Thank You When You Visit Pilsen’s Nuevo Leon
Tourists from all over the country come to visit Panaderia Nuevo Leon, one of Pilsen’s oldest and most beloved bakeries. Since 1973, Nuevo Leon has carried the tradition of a mexican-style bakery where customers come in, grab a tray and tongs, and serve themselves. No matter what time of day it is, your sense of [...]
Rickshaw-style bicycle cabs come to Logan Square
Here’s a unique new job opportunity: get paid for getting in shape. A new business in the Logan Square area, RoadieCab, pays bike riders to ferry passengers around. While peddling, riders work on their leg muscles, burn calories and increase their endurance. RoadieCab bikes are not like the pedicabs seen in other Chicago urban areas, [...]
Little Village skate shop gives kids a place to hang out, learn a new sport
Jamie Duran had an epiphany one day at a family gathering: his life needed a purpose. Unemployed, the 35-year-old Duran wanted to offer something new to his community, something that would encourage kids to approach a new hobby. And he needed a new hobby too. Duran proposed the idea of opening a family skate shop [...]
Lincoln Square’s hidden gem: Rosley’s Rocks
Rosley’s Rocks and Gems is tucked away in Lincoln Square, a seemingly nondescript little shop on a quiet street. A passerby could easily miss the store; with its glass storefront and neon sign, it seems to be just another coffee shop or second-hand clothing store. Once inside, the store is anything but just another retail [...]
Pilsen coffee shop brings neighborhood together
Café Jumping Bean is vibrantly colorful, with art all over its walls, chairs and tables. The smell of freshly brewed coffee – Café Jumping Bean’s own unique blend – lingers in the air. Located on the corner of 18th and Bishop streets, Café Jumping Bean has been serving the Pilsen community and surrounding areas for 19 [...]
Chicago LGBTQ library set to open soon in new location in Rogers Park
In a move lasting nine months longer than anticipated and raising uncertainties, one of the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ libraries finally transitioned from Andersonville to Rogers Park on April 30. The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, which holds collections of gay and lesbian history and hosts programs like theater groups and poetry readings, traded their West Granville [...]
Building a barbecue community in West Ridge
Harry Belafonte is playing on the turntable and the smell of smoked barbecue invades the room. Within moments of walking in, Rub’s Backcountry Smokehouse proves true to its name, and feels more backwoods Nashville than it does Northside Chicago. Vintage flags, wagon wheel chandeliers and ornamental pigs decorate the space. Through the economic downturn, struggling [...]
Latin American restaurants let Chicagoans travel globe in less than three miles
Since its founding in 1833, Chicago has been a final destination for “American dream” seekers from all over the world, and thanks to that, today locals can find themselves crossing international borders simply by strolling through three Northwest neighborhoods. At the intersection of North Sacramento Avenue and West Lyndale Street, a small piece of Cuban [...]
Chicago Small Business Center to help entrepreneurs open up shop
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the opening of City Hall’s new Small Business Center last week to provide a “one-stop shop” for novice entrepreneurs looking to establish small businesses in Chicago. Emanuel said he hopes the new program will “make City Hall, not the problem, but the solution,” by providing a quicker and easier service [...]
Calling all zinesters, readers, and writers to Chicago Zinefest 2013
Chicago Zinefest starts on Friday. According to the Zinesters at Chicago Zinefest, ”A zine (an abbreviation of the word fanzine, or magazine; pronounced “zeen”) is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images.” Chicago has been home to Zinefest for several years. The official site describes ”The Chicago Zine Fest is an [...]
The Cat’s Meow Purrs Despite ‘Rough Neighborhood’
It may seem like the prefix to a joke, but it isn’t. Two black women, sisters at that, own a sex store in Chicago. But don’t call it a “sex store.” “We are the Cat’s Meow, a ‘Pamper Me’ boutique,” said Rame—who describes herself as office operations and decorator and goes by a single name—half of the [...]
Ravenswood Station project could transform neighborhood
The Ravenswood Station project, which started construction in November, will completely transform the stretch of Lawrence Avenue between Ashland and Western Avenues, according to area Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th). Pawar said he hopes the new project, which will feature a Mariano’s Fresh Market and an LA Fitness and is set to open next November, will [...]
Independent resale shop works for greener South Loop
As Mari Ann Weiss-Cater sat behind the desk in her resale shop Urban Remix Consignments, she looked through the photographs of her chocolate Labrador Dexter on her phone, his bed sitting behind her, and explained, “He’s like our own Walmart greeter.” Entrepreneur, mother and dog lover, Weiss-Cater owns and manages her South Loop consignment shop with [...]
Family-owned pharmacy in South Loop provides personalized care
In Hindi, “Kushal” means well and “Bhavi” means future, which is why Kushal and Bhavi Patel chose to name their South Loop business the Well Future Pharmacy. In July 2012, the husband and wife pharmacists opened their independent pharmacy at 1442 S. Michigan Ave., after deciding they could not be a part of the corporate pharmaceutical [...]
ZAMRIE does fashion for (storm) relief
The cute ivory skirt with a blue, red, and gold plaid print and tempting “on sale” tag, could be dressed up or down, and Ashley Zygmunt, the creative mind behind the maker of the skirt, Chicago label ZAMRIE, exclaims, “nobody understands that skirt! Only an editor at Vogue really got it.” For her Fall 2012 [...]
