N. MILWAUKEE COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR

Gladstone Park’s retail outlets and eateries can be found up and down on the N. Milwaukee Avenue Commercial Corridor that diagonals for 2-1/4 miles straight through the middle of the community. In addition, there are pockets of one-of-a-kinds on its other major thoroughfares: N. Northwest Highway on the western border, N. Elston to the northeast, as well as a few business concerns on the eastern edge on N. Central. The beauty is that many choices are within an easy drive – or even walking distance – of most residents, enhancing the quality of life in the community.

Since the great majority of Gladstone Park businesses are modestly-sized and locally-owned, there is a distinct small town feel to the community. It’s just one of the elements that gives residents the sense of having the best of both worlds…living in a major city with access to world class culture, sports, and services, all while retaining the kind of lifestyle that comes with simpler times. It doesn’t hurt that the community, along with greater Jefferson Park of which it is a part, has for four decades maintained its status as one of the four safest of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. And that its 10-11 mile distance from the Loop keeps residential as well as business properties much more affordable.

But because the main commercial corridor that supports Gladstone Park’s stores, restaurants and offices developed in fits and starts much later than the rest of Chicago, it has a very distinct appearance not seen elsewhere in the city. Its unusual physical structure makes it function very differently as well.

Part of that is due to its history. Before virtually any type of shop or pub rose out of the Far Northwest’s clayey muck, the city came in and altered the look of the community for all time. Implementing the road widening recommendations of the 1909 Plan of Chicago in one of the few undeveloped areas where it still could, it expanded Gladstone Park’s 2-1/2 mile long N. Milwaukee commercial corridor to four lanes with parking on both sides, creating its boulevard look. The widened road has a profound effect on life in the community. Unlike congested areas of the city, this stretch of Milwaukee blithely handles traffic. And despite its highway-like appearance, its speed limit is deceptively slow at 35 m.p.h.

The “broad boulevard” of N. Milwaukee that is Gladstone Park’s Commercial Corridor for all 2-1/2 miles as it runs through the middle of the community. One of the few roads in the city able to be widened to this degree based on 1909 Plan of Chicago recommendations, it has four driving lanes, a middle right/left turn lane and room for parking and bike lanes on both sides. Even though it looks like a highway, it has a posted 35 m.p.h. speed limit. Gladstonians traveling in the local community rarely encounter any traffic congestion or pedestrian road crossing problems. And since parking is so abundant both on the street and in dedicated parking lots, they do not have to put up with the parking meters so hated in the rest of the city. Photo by author.

The first wave of commercial construction in Gladstone Park occurred in the 1920s, spurred on when the 24-hour streetcar line first began operating down the full length of N. Milwaukee. Demand for goods and services came from passengers who wanted convenience as they got on or off at stops at the major crossroads in the community on the way to the big city or when returning home. Sensing opportunity, budding businessmen erected modest two-story brick buildings at those nodes following the architectural styles then popular in Chicago: a pastiche of eclectic forms ranging from neoclassicism to Art Deco. Often the small offices, stores and restaurants on their ground levels were complemented by owner apartments on their second floors. Where more people teemed, additional one-story commercial buildings were constructed to extend commerce down the street, creating the pattern of the “tall” buildings at corners with low-rise structures mid-block.

View of the northwest corner of N. Milwaukee where it intersects with Bryn Mawr. It shows the original pattern of commercial development in Gladstone Park with “tall” buildings on corners supplemented by one-story storefronts in the middle of blocks. The two-story neoclassical yellow brick building at the left (one section altered with modern stone columns) and the one-story dark brick building with the white ceramic tile trim next to it were built between 1927 and 1931, according to the Cook County Tax Assessor’s Office, when the streetcars first starting running down N. Milwaukee making stops at major intersections like this one. The next three low-rise midcentury modern structures in the middle of the block were not built until the late 1960s during the second wave of commercial construction. The picture is an apt illustration of the two architectural styles 30 years and worlds apart that have long been dominant in the community. Photo by author.

Because growth throughout America was stalled by the financial devastation of the Great Depression and the disruption of WWII, few new businesses established themselves anywhere, no less in the local community during the 1930s and 1940s. The original commercial buildings on the corners where the streetcars stopped continued to loom over vacant land in the middle of blocks. Wide swaths of land not near major crossroads sat undeveloped altogether.

It wasn’t until the postwar period that the second wave of commercial construction took place along the N. Milwaukee business corridor. As the community’s housing subdivisions were being built out between the late 1940s and the 1960s, the influx of new residents created more demand for services, shops, and restaurants. Business people responded, erecting storefronts and office buildings on one vacant lot after another. But it was not until the early 1960s that the entire Gladstone Park business district completely filled in, according to Chicago city planners who produced the Gladstone Park Corridor Study, Milwaukee Avenue from the Kennedy Expressway to the City Limits, January 28, 2017. Because of its delayed commercial growth, Gladstone Park was fortunate never to be subject to the forces of the postwar Urban Renewal movement that devalued significant historic buildings elsewhere, demolishing them to build bigger and more modern (some would say poorer) versions of themselves in its thirst for “progress.”

A representative section of midcentury commercial buildings in the upper 5400 block of N. Milwaukee in Gladstone Park. These brick and stone buildings reflect the spare nature of “modern” architecture that eliminated unnecessary ornateness in exchange for the directness that came with the unbridled technological and scientific progress of the 1950s and 1960s. Where unaltered, there is abundant glass to express the openness and optimism of the era. The buildings’ sturdy construction and easy adaptability makes them good candidates for small offices and specialty shops in the 21st Century. Photo by author.

Why was Gladstone Park’s business district development always kept it at least slightly out of sync with that of the rest of the city? One factor was geography. Its location in the Far Northwest corner of Chicago was simply of greater distance from the density and purchase power of the Loop than almost any of the other 76 city neighborhoods, greatly affecting its business climate. At 10-11 miles from the center city, the community might as well have been lightyears away. While one person might rue the dampening effect the distance had on land values, another would see opportunity. With comparatively inexpensive properties, entrepreneurs during this second wave found they were able to profit even when constructing small, low-rise commercial buildings on large plots of land. Echoing the economic prosperity and optimism of the 1950s, they built sturdy, low-slung midcentury modern buildings with an abundance of windows, distinctive angular forms, bright colors and singular geometric shaped accents.

With most of the commercial corridor finally built out, business activity again slowed. The limited commercial construction there was along the Gladstone Park business district in the 1980s and 1990s followed the mall-style design that was all the rage at the time. Some six small strip malls, each with a handful of stores and shared parking lots, were built with access off N. Milwaukee. Several large banks on generous pieces of property were also erected during this time. But most of the rest of the business district stayed untouched as if frozen in time.

Strip mall with parking lot accessible from the 5900 block of N. Milwaukee at its northeast corner near W. Ardmore. Online Cook County Tax Accessor information pegs the mall with a construction date of 1988. Of the six or so strip malls built during the last two decades of the 20th Century in Gladstone Park, none have more than 10 or so units for stores, offices and restaurants, depending how they are divided up and counted. The largest strip malls anchor the southern entrance to the community near N. Milwaukee’s intersection with W. Foster and the northern end where it crosses W. Devon. The two strip malls at the north sport most of the community’s national chain stores and restaurants such as 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Subway, U.P.S., and Dunkin’/Baskin Robbins. Photo by author.

How does this come together nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st Century? The traditionally low land prices combined with development on its own time schedule led to Gladstone Park’s business district assuming a most unusual presentation for an area of a major city. With its low-rise, spread out commercial landscape, it is a duck out of water when contrasted with downtown’s tall, dense buildings or even those in Lincoln Park, Bucktown, or the North Side. And because the community’s business development occurred during two distinct waves, it was left with only two main styles of architecture. Even today, the eclectic neoclassical/Art Deco two-story business buildings from the 1920s and 1930s and the one-story midcentury modern structures of the 1950s and 1960s predominate.

GLADSTONE PARK STORES

Gladstone Park may not be swank, but it isn’t generic either. The few chain stores in the community tend to be clustered at either end of N. Milwaukee at the major intersections at W. Foster in the south and W. Devon in the north. But there are no more than a handful of branches of national corporations such as Walgreens, U.P.S., AutoZone, 7-Eleven, and Dollar General here. And Big Box stores are nonexistent with virtually the only one anywhere nearby (a Target) in neighboring Mayfair, a half to one mile east. Residents wanting the Walmart, OfficeMax, PetSmart, Cosco, and Dick’s Sporting Goods experience can drive approximately two miles north on N. Central to find them in large strip malls on W. Touhy in suburban Skokie.

Like all towns in America affected by the growth of online stores – exacerbated first by the Great Recession of 2008 and later by the COVID-19 pandemic – the community’s businesses have suffered. As the commercial climate has changed for brick-and-mortars, stores with standard products that can be more easily ordered online and delivered to peoples’ doorsteps the next day have faltered. But because the Gladstone Park’s physical storefronts are generally small in square footage as well as distinct, shops with artisan products and specialty items that need to be seen and felt to be appreciated have begun to take their places. Still, there are many more vacant storefronts than anyone wants.

Shopping anywhere can be inhibited by the difficulty of parking which gives easy access to stores. That makes protecting Gladstone Park’s abundant and free street parking paramount. Obviously, businesses and restaurants that have their own parking lots (or shared lots in strip malls) have the automatic advantage, removing barriers for shoppers and promoting activity. Still, the bigger businesses in the community with large little-filled parking lots could prove themselves good neighbors by opening spaces for customers frequenting nearby stores and restaurants, particularly at night when they the larger businesses are usually closed.

Locally the biggest challenge to store access is not so much finding a space for a vehicle as the difficulty of parking in one store owner’s lot and not being able to walk to several stores in one trip. When merchants threaten to tow the vehicles of customers who go off site, shoppers are forced to move their cars multiple times to get to different places on one outing. This is one reason why it’s so important for storeowners to forge reciprocal parking agreements with each other in order to remove encumbrance and encourage Gladstonians to stay in their own community to spend their dollars. After all, shouldn’t a person making a deposit at Associated Bank be able to walk across W. Foster to pick up a Walgreen’s prescription and then circle back on the other side of N. Milwaukee to buy a pack of picture hangers at H&B Hardware in one trip without having to drive from one place to the other?

When highlighting some of the stores in Gladstone Park, we must first start by giving homage to Andy’s Deli & Mikolajczyk Sausage Shop. Other stores mentioned below are some of the community’s other standouts, either because they have particular significance for residents or because they draw numbers of customers from outside the area.

Andy’s Deli & Mikolajczyk Sausage Shop, 5442 N. Milwaukee, known simply by its patrons as “Andy’s,” is one of Chicago’s most renowned Polish food markets. It brings shoppers from both the center city as well as the suburbs looking for its fresh homemade traditional sausage, breads and bakery delicacies, and all sorts of spices and canned goods imported from the Homeland.

Although Andy’s presence in the community is the result of the spread of Chicago’s Polish immigrant population north toward the latter part of the 20th Century, its roots go even further back. Established by Mike Mikolajczyk in 1918, it moved to Gladstone Park in the mid-1980s after being bought by current owner Andy Kolasa. Andy’s website claims it is “the largest producer of a wide variety of authentic Polish sausages in the Chicagoland area” and as such it is highly recommended by Choose Chicago in its exploration section on the city’s Polish culture.

Perhaps unimposing from the outside, JC Licht Benjamin Moore Paint and Decor Store, 5514 N. Milwaukee, draws Chicagoland customers into the Gladstone Park community from a much wider area. Besides a full line of Benjamin Moore Paints, the JC Licht side of things offers home design services such as window shades and blinds.

American Thermal Windows, 5304 N. Milwaukee, too, replaces windows in residential, multifamily, and commercial buildings, but is singular in the Chicago area for offering a line of art glass windows that complement the city’s historic homes. The safe successor to lead-based stained glass, art glass from American Thermal comes in a variety of traditional and modern patterns. A long-time presence in the community, the firm has been family-owned and operated since 1981.

Residents feel particularly lucky to have the independently-owned H&B True Value Hardware Store, 5329 N. Milwaukee. Even though many local hardwares didn’t survive the era when big box stores took over, H&B has continued to do a robust business. Not only does the store have a great basic stock of everything you would expect in a hardware – and more – but also they will special order for their customers. Services include pipe, key, and glass cutting; knife, scissor and chain saw sharpening; and screen repair.

Besides Andy’s, the regional Shop & Save functions as Gladstone Park’s main grocery store. In a strip mall at 6312 N. Nagle at the triangular intersection with N Milwaukee and W. Devon, it sports an enormous selection of fresh produce as well as a plethora of products saluting the Polish population in the community. The specialized bakery offers unusual breads and goodies a cut above other supermarkets (Mango Cake is a favorite) and its deli with fresh prepared dishes is much more expansive than most. The wide variety of meats features halal products, whole pigs during the holidays as well as hard-to-find parts such as pork knuckles. Probably the most comprehensive international market in the area, the Shop has huge aisles of Mexican, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese foodstuffs.

If the Shop & Save isn’t your cup of tea, there are a number of nearby full-scale grocery stores in the area. You can travel four blocks southeast of the Gladstone community to the Mariano’s/Kroger’s grocery store southeast at 5353 N. Elston. Only one mile south gets you to the nearest Jewel-Osco on N. Central in greater Jefferson Park with another in the Village Crossing Shopping Center two miles north in Skokie. Or you can travel two miles east to the nearest organic/gourmet Whole Foods Market in Sauganash.

GLADSTONE PARK RESTAURANTS

Some people say the minute a Starbucks opens in an area, it’s an indication of gentrification. If that’s accurate, then Gladstone Park hasn’t yet reached that pinnacle of success. But the community’s hardly alone in the Far Northwest of Chicago with no local Starbucks. Indeed, the much wealthier Edgebrook community to its immediate north couldn’t (or wouldn’t) support a Starbucks either. After one opened smack in the middle of its commercial district, residents continued to patronize their local coffee shops for good cups of Joe when running for the nearby train or ambling about its central business district. The Starbucks closed down.

No matter. In Gladstone Park you can get coffee (and meals) at national franchises such as Dunkin,’ McDonalds, Subway and 7-Eleven. You can grab a cup with your breakfast at the regional Elly’s Pancake House. Or you can have a wider choice for your caffeine fix at many more local restaurants and bakeries along its commercial corridors amongst those highlighted below. The community is proud that because many of its restaurants are independently run, they offer unique food and drink choices in more eclectic atmospheres than you might find elsewhere.

Gladstonians always have the option of making the two-mile drive north to the Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback Steakhouse, Chili’s, Jersey Mike’s and other national chain restaurants in the suburban Skokie strip malls on W. Touhy. But perhaps the best way for those new to the area to find an interesting dining experience amongst the 20 or so Chinese, Middle Eastern, Polish, Greek, American, Mexican, Thai, Spanish, and Italian restaurants and bakeries right in their backyard is probably to do an online search for eateries in the community’s 60630 and 60646 zip codes.

Undoubtedly the most popular “fast food” choice in Gladstone Park is pizza. There are no mega chains such as Dominoes or Little Caesars or Pizza Huts here. Instead, a couple of regional and even more local pizzerias vie for supremacy with their own versions of Detroit style, Chicago deep dish, and New York style pies, some stuffed and all with various toppings. Along N. Milwaukee Avenue alone are six pizza-centric parlors, only two that are part of regional chains: Jet’s Pizza, 5256 N. Milwaukee with 425 franchises in 22 states and Rosati’s Pizza, 5544 N. Milwaukee, which can be found in 12 states. The four independently owned pizza joints are the 50-year-old Paterno’s Pizza and Sports Bar at 5303 N. Milwaukee, attracting regulars from the far southern end of the community; Chikago Pizza, 6149 N. Milwaukee, claiming “top pizza” honors with a 4-1/2 star rating on Yelp to prove it; Papa Joe’s Pizza, 5750 N. Milwaukee, family owned and operated since 1969; and Phil’s Pizza D’Oro, 5800 N. Milwaukee, which renovated in late 2024 to become a sleeker operation. Other restaurants such as Pasta D’Arte, Colletti’s, and the newer Stefani Bottega Italiana offer their own versions of the Italian pie along with other entrees. Plus many bars serve so-called Chicago “tavern-style” pizza, those square-cut pieces of plain tomato-and-cheese patrons can nibble on that are geared to get them even thirstier than when they came in.

The many independent pubs interspersed along N. Central, N. Elston, and N. Northwest Highway (as well as on N. Milwaukee) should not be dismissed as mere watering holes. Many of Gladstone Park pubs operate more like the Public Houses they are named after with surprisingly full service menus. Most are family-friendly during lunch and weekday dining hours. They are places where the community can come together to socialize and celebrate.

We cannot write about eateries in Gladstone Park without mentioning how the always volatile restaurant scene here was affected when the country was walloped by the COVID pandemic. When Illinois and Chicago lockdowns closed all bars and eat-in dining rooms for months in 2020, all owner-managers had to adapt to draconian strictures that threatened their ability to serve customers. When demand for takeout soared, restauranteurs in the community smartly pivoted, some taking advantage of new exceptions that for the first time let them to sell alcoholic beverages with their food deliveries to increase dwindling profit ratios. Still, a number of restaurants like the Persian Noon-O-Kabob, at the junction of N. Elston and N. Milwaukee, never fully got back on their feet and permanently closed.

When they could no longer serve patrons on the premises, astute restaurant owners temporarily closed. Using the dead time to install new HVAC systems to improve ventilation and filtration, they cut down on disease transmission for when they would be allowed to reopen. Others took advantage of the City of Chicago’s new permits to build expanded outdoor eating areas on sidewalks in front of their buildings or in the rear of their premises.

In the short run, Gladstone Park’s many small restaurants came through COVID better than expected by focusing on their core strengths. Living up to its The Garage Bar name that promised naturally good air flow thanks to an actual garage door that opened the entire front of the restaurant completely to the outside, the pub at 6154 N. Milwaukee also relied on an open air rooftop that instilled confidence in patrons. Café Marbella, 5527 N. Milwaukee, removed its closed-in booths, replacing them with tables at the city-specified distance apart to serve more diners safely; it also built a new open-tented patio dining area out back. Colletti’s, 5707 N. Central at the corner of N. Elston, went all out and transformed its outdoor patio area with lighted and heated geodesic domed “igloos” for individual small parties to dine in, restricting their exposure to the airborne coronavirus. Pasta D’Arte, 6311 N. Milwaukee, put a whole line of outdoor dining tables, chairs and umbrellas along N Mobile, the side street adjacent to its main facility, making it into a virtual garden by adding numerous huge planters of flowers under the trees. Both Colletti’s igloos and Pasta D’Arte’s sidewalk garden dining proved so popular they were kept even after the need for cutting down on virus activity waned.

In the long run after coming out of COVID, Gladstone Park’s restaurant scene has only grown stronger. The well-respected Stefani Restaurant Group of Chicago that had long attracted diners with the finest of tastes to its signature Stefani Prime in the suburbs, located a new fast casual satellite facility named Stefani Bottega Italiana at 6075 N. Milwaukee where Noon-O-Kabob had been. In late 2023, Ma O’Brien’s Irish Pub remodeled the former Nil Tap at 5734 N. Elston Ave and quickly became so crowded with patrons they sometimes engaged food trucks for those who wanted to buy snacks and meals that the pub’s small kitchen could not prepare. Jarasa Kabob, universally top-rated as one of the most authentic Middle Eastern restaurants in Skokie, felt confident enough the set up a second location in Gladstone Park at 5233 N Milwaukee on the corner with W. Foster where the Greek King’s Gyros #2 had been. The fledgling and evolving Baked by Jane, 5481 N. Northwest Highway, promised baked goodies along with coffees, juices, smoothies and a wide range of paninis when it set up its new bakery in 2024. Remodeling the small, unassuming mid-century A-frame building at 6161 N. Milwaukee that was once home to the long-closed Original Roma Beef, Bob-O’s Italian Beef opened its second Chicago location in late 2024 to offer its award-winning version of one of Chicago’s iconic sandwiches.

When demand following the pandemic dictated it, several other Gladstone Park restaurants expanded. While still offering all its wonderful Sicilian baked delicacies and gelato, The New Paradise (Italian) Bakery turned into a specialty breakfast and lunch restaurant renamed New Paradise Cafe Bakery. New owners acquiring Phil’s Pizza D’Oro, 5800 N. Milwaukee, retained the pizza operation, but split the large building it was in to open a new sister restaurant next door. At the corner of N. Austin, 5800 North Café calls itself a “pancake house” promoting all homemade food in its cozy sit-down breakfast and lunch location, upping the ante by serving alcoholic beverages along with its coffees and teas.

A number of new and stand-out local restaurants are highlighted below. The list is not meant to be a comprehensive collection, nor are the photos below which feature additional eateries. At the end of this section, we highlight the legendary Superdawg, the Hot Dog Drive-In Restaurant that is so well-known for its old-timey carhop service that it has its own Wikipedia entry and attracts nostalgic patrons from across the country.

Stefani’s Bottega Italiana is the newest satellite location of the highly-regarded Stefani Restaurant Group of nine eateries that includes the tony Stefani Prime in Lincolnwood. The reiteration in Gladstone Park returns the leading Chicago restaurant group back to its culinary roots, operating as a fast casual cafe. Lunch and dinner customers can order authentic handmade Bolognese pasta dishes, Roman-style pizza, and Italian sandwiches at the counter while watching pastas being made on authentic imported machines in the “Pasta Lab” that caters to the group’s other locations. Its dedicated parking lot makes it easy to stay to eat at its in-house tables, take out, or purchase from the many sought-after Italian specialty grocery items sold at the location.

Bob-O’s Italian Beef, 6161 N. Milwaukee, opened in late 2024 and swiftly won the top prize in WGN Radio720’s “Best Beef Tournament.” Featuring humongous slabs of sweet or hot peppers atop tender piles of sliced beef au jus, its sandwich was also voted “Best Italian Beef” in Chicago by ABC 7’s Hungry Hound. Bob-O’s also serves meatball and sausage sandwiches, delectable fresh-cut fries and Vienna hotdogs so worthy of the name that the Vienna Hot Dog Company twice elected Bob-O’s to its Hall of Fame. Though most customers swing into Bob-O’s small parking lot for takeout, those who want to eat inside in a funky 1950s atmosphere can sit on backless metal industrial stools at counters that stretch along two inside walls.

Vaughn’s Pub & Grill at 5485 N. Northwest Highway, has a particularly adventurous menu for a Irish public house, ranging from Wisconsin Cheese Curds to the Chirish Burger (with Irish cheddar and Irish bacon rasher) to the Hummus & Veggie Wrap to the Blackened Atlantic Salmon. Billing itself as “Your NW Side Meet-Up Place,” it features booths surrounding a main floor bar, an upstairs dining room and bar, and an outdoor sidewalk eating area in warmer weather. You’ll see everyone at Vaughn’s from young professionals to older couples to the cycling groups that stop by regularly for a workout pint.

Jarasa Kabob, one of the top-rated Middle Eastern restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, set up its second location in Gladstone Park at 5233 N Milwaukee on the corner with W. Foster where the Greek King’s Gyros #2 had been. Bringing halal fast casual foods back to the community after Noon-O-Kabob just one mile north closed, it opened in a completely remodeled building with tables and booths that had been formerly occupied by the Greek King’s Gyros #2. In a strip mall, it shares a parking lot with neighboring businesses that makes dining in or taking out quick and easy.

Thai Pot Noodles Shop, 5691 N. Milwaukee, is Gladstone Park’s version of the Pan Asian cuisine. With selections such as Japanese Gyozas (Fried Pot Stickers), Vietnamese Spring Rolls, and Singapore Noodles, along with traditional Thai dishes such as Pad See Ew, any lover of Asian dishes can find happiness. Located in a small strip mall, it shares a parking lot with neighboring businesses, making it easy for patrons to order takeout or stay to eat at the tables inside.

Gladstonians were thrilled when New Paradise Cafe Bakery, 5742 N. Milwaukee, moved into the community in early 2022 to supplement the Polish, Greek and American bakeries already in the neighborhood. A product of three generations of bakers from Sicily, it features all varieties of pasticcini, torte, creams, and other Italian specialties including gelato. When New Paradise expanded in 2024, adding fresh daily subs (including the classic Italian Pepper & Egg Sandwich), different types of pizza, and daily specials, it became an all-around breakfast and lunch eatery.

Foodies throughout Chicagoland who want authentic Polish food come to Gladstone Park for some of the most delightful delis, bakeries, and eateries of their kind in the city. One of these that has gotten top reviews for its pierogis is SMAK-TAK, 5961 N. Elston. A full Polish experience can be had with traditional dishes supplemented by all the extras such as the 10 different types of Tymbark juices and Naleczowianka Sparkling Water imported from the homeland.

Mom’s Old Recipe, 5760 N. Milwaukee, is the unusual white tablecloth Mexican restaurant. Often voted in community surveys as “Best Restaurant in Gladstone Park,” it earns its name with its full lineup of the expected entrees (like burritos) to unexpected dishes such as Marinated Shrimp Ceviche, De Mole Enchiladas, and Chipo Tilapia (fish with spicy garlic and chipotle served over black bean cream sauce). All is homemade, elegantly presented, and served along with wines and cocktails from the full bar. Latin music amplifies the splashy tropical murals on the walls, setting the atmosphere and paving the way for late hours fun.

Cafe Marbella, 5527 N. Milwaukee, a Spanish tapas restaurant combines ingredients in ways you never would have thought of, such as the Higo Con Tocino (stuffed figs with bacon served with brandy cream sauce) and Coca de Cebolla y Pimientos (Catalonian flatbread with caramelized onions, Spanish red peppers and manchego cheese). Don’t forget to order a pitcher of white or red Sangria. So many unusual cold and hot choices are available from the husband and wife who own Marbella that a vegetarian – or even a vegan – can put together a full meal here.

The most highly vaunted of Italian restaurants in Gladstone Park, the white tablecloth Pasta D’Arte Trattoria Italiana, 6311 N. Milwaukee, attracts a wide clientele. Remodeled in an eclectic New York style with medieval doors flanked by Roman-style columns combines “old world Italy with modern times.” The restaurant’s engaging atmosphere and extensive wine list magnifies its Abruzzese-inspired meat dishes and Barese-influenced fish entrees. There are different rooms and seating choices, including areas for private parties. When the weather is amenable. consider checking out its outdoor garden of tables along the side street for al fresco dining.

Colletti’s, 5705 N. Central at the corner of N. Elson, founded in 1946 and owned by four generations, has long been a fixture in this greater Chicago community. Locals relish eating in booths watching the Cubs, Bears, or Bulls inside the sports bar section or feasting in its large dining rooms. Nowhere else in the community can private parties eat outside year-round in their own in multi-color lighted geodesic igloos that were originally installed during the COVID pandemic for isolation from the virus. Regular city folk enjoy Colletti’s as well as luminaries who come for important meetings and events that have a way of turning up on the city’s evening news.

Perhaps the most unusual restaurant in Gladstone Park is Amitabul, 6207 N. Milwaukee, which bills its cuisine as Korean Spiritual Vegan. With a name that translates as “Awakening,” it opened in 1995. Attracting vegans from throughout Chicagoland who lust for its savory and healthily steamed plays on traditional Korean dishes, it avoids all animal products down to the stir-frying oils that come from them.

Because The Garage Bar, 6154 N. Milwaukee, has an actual garage door at its storefront entrance that can be completely raised in nice weather, it offers a fresh air dining experience whenever the weather so accommodates. Always hopping on the weekends with its full bar, the restaurant maintains a family-friendly atmosphere during weekday dinner hours with choice of tables or booths. Its open rooftop section upstairs creates a fun alternate dining and party experience where it’s easy to get celebratory when the occasion calls for it.

Highway House, 5653 N. Northwest Highway, is truly “more than just a restaurant” as it declares on its website. Distinguished by its large starry lighted patio under towering trees that fronts on a small side street oudoors, the restaurant gives people a wide choice of dining atmospheres. They can take advantage of a full bar while dining pub style inside on tall stools or al fresco style (outside) if they want to feast in what seems like an undiscovered forest preserve in Gladstone Park’s little corner of Chicago.

A remnant from the days of outdoor movies and hula hoops, Superdawg (Hot Dog) Drive-In, near the corner of N. Milwaukee and W. Devon, is known nationally and internationally as one of the few remaining restaurants in America where carhops still bring food to your vehicle. Its space ship style building with its colorfully painted geometric accents and sinuous curves is vintage midcentury in both appearance and function. Topping off the spectacle (literally) are fiberglas-enforced papier-mache hotdog icons Maurie and Flaurie, named for the original owners, prancing atop the roof. Recently refurbished, their lit-up eyes blink seductively, drawing automobiles in to the carhop lot day and night.

An anchor in the Gladstone Park community since 1948, Superdawg found its calling when it opened seasonally to summer crowds that had taken the streetcar from downtown Chicago to cool off in what later became the Whealan Pool of the Cook County Forest Preserves across the street on W. Devon. In the intervening 70 years, its carhop mode of service was always a novelty, but never became obsolete. In fact, Superdawg did screamingly well during the COVID-19 pandemic when it had no need to pivot to serve food safely since it was already socially distancing by bringing orders to customers in parked cars.

In May, 2023, Superdawg celebrated its 75th Anniversary with local politicians presenting a new honorary “Maurie and Flaurie Berman Way” street sign to hang next to the honorary “Superdawg Way” street sign. U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley announced having entered the hot dog eatery’s anniversary in the official federal congressional record. Recalling the founding of the restaurant, the children and grandchildren of Maurie and Flaurie Berman described how the Northside high school sweethearts started the restaurant after Maurie returned from fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. As current owners and operators, the descendants noted that the kitchen is still in the original 12 x 20-foot facility, updated only with an electronic ordering board and intercom system. The signature dishes remain virtually the same, too, with Superdawg’s Chicago-style dog is exclusively sourced by a private manufacturer, served topped with mustard, relish, and onion in a poppy seed bun in a box with crinkle cut fries, a dill pickle spear and a green pickled tomato wedge.

The text above and photographs below are not a comprehensive collection of Gladstone Park’s stores and restaurants. They are a selection meant to be representative of the neighborhood. Please consult Gladstone Park Chamber of Commerce for more resources on local businesses in the community.

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