Home // Favorite Friday Nights // Lincoln Square

Chinatown's undercover life

Sheila Dichoso and Ashley Hopkins

8.23.09

During the daytime, Chinatown is sensory overload. Heaping plates of dim sum awaken your taste buds and your pheromones. Foreign languages and blaring car honks resonate in the air. Ridiculously talented Chinese masseuses relieve your work-week tension.

When night falls, though, this South Side enclave looks more like an urban desert. "The only nightlife to speak of would be in some of the restaurants that are open until the wee hours of the morning," says Dr. Kim Tee, president of the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago. "Most people that come to Chinatown do so to eat good food and to shop."

But we suspected a subterranean nightlife existed. Chinatown does have an illustrious past – this neighborhood was Al Capone's old stomping grounds. It was where he attended church, where he worked, and where he first shot a gangster.

So we ventured below zero after dusk, to find that side of the neighborhood that’s unexplored and lesser known…those latent mysteries waiting to be unraveled. We knew something was there.

Ethyl's Party

• 2600 S. Wentworth Ave.
  8:30 p.m.

Looking for a place to grab a quick beer in Chinatown is a challenge. But this unassuming dive is just does the trick, if you can swallow its peculiar past: The bar is a former Italian funeral home (!). The deejay stand is strategically placed where coffins used to sit, the kitchen in the place of an embalming room.

According to the owner and long-time patrons, the place is haunted. But quell those fears: Ethyl’s Party is more Casper than Poltergeist, and many customers are fiercely loyal locals who have lived in the neighborhood for decades.

Whether you’re a Chinatown lifer or just passing through, this bar has something for everyone. On occasion, the owner dishes up complimentary food, such as grilled sausage in a French baguette and topped with giardiniera that’s best served with a cold beer and a side of neighborhood chit-chat. We could have stayed forever, but the night beckoned.

World Treasures Emporium

• 2253 S. Wentworth Ave.
  9:30 p.m.

Walk five blocks along Wentworth and you’ll stumble upon World Treasures Emporium, where shopping ‘til you drop is possible until 10:30 p.m. every day. The no-frills gift store is all about substance rather than style. It’s a one-stop souvenir haven that sells traditional Chinese items such as fans, kimonos, and chopsticks.

But you’ll also find winsome oddities you’ll never need (but would love to have), such as bird flutes, wooden rattlesnakes, and kitschy-but-cool, eye-catching bamboo fountains. The store also offers pop pop snappers which are viciously entertaining to throw on the ground. If you’re just trying to kill some time, try on the bamboo hats or (Chinese bowl hats with a long, black braid in the back). It’s cash only, but you don’t need much of it–the emporium sells everything on the cheap.

Cantonesia

• 204 W. Cermak Rd.
  10:30 p.m.

You can work up an appetite in an hour of trinket shopping. Enter Cantonesia, just steps away from the Cermak-Chinatown El stop, whose lit-up sign promising “dining” and “cocktails” wooed our senses and tempted our taste buds. Although the painted brick façade is less than modern, the interior feels entirely different. Asian art lines the vivid yellow walls, and the sleek black furniture make you feel like you’re in a sultry Wong Kar-Wai film.

The Hong Kong-style eatery offers both Cantonese and Mandarin fare. Try the Buddha’s Delight, a vegetarian dish made with tofu, broccoli, baby corn, green peppers, mushrooms, clear noodles, and water chestnuts, which will satiate your hunger pangs. For the carnivores, the honey sesame chicken–chicken coated with batter and smothered in a decadently sweet sauce–is just as satisfying. Cantonesia has a fully-stocked bar complete with both American and Chinese spirits. Wash it all down with a couple of Tsingtao beers, but be sure to fill up–your late night’s just begun.

Sushi Lounge

• 234 W. Cermak Rd.
  12 a.m.

You can work up an appetite in an hour of trinket shopping. Enter Cantonesia, just steps away from the Cermak-Chinatown El stop, whose lit-up sign promising “dining” and “cocktails” wooed our senses and tempted our taste buds. Although the painted brick façade is less than modern, the interior feels entirely different. Asian art lines the vivid yellow walls, and the sleek black furniture make you feel like you’re in a sultry Wong Kar-Wai film.

The Hong Kong-style eatery offers both Cantonese and Mandarin fare. Try the Buddha’s Delight, a vegetarian dish made with tofu, broccoli, baby corn, green peppers, mushrooms, clear noodles, and water chestnuts, which will satiate your hunger pangs. For the carnivores, the honey sesame chicken–chicken coated with batter and smothered in a decadently sweet sauce–is just as satisfying. Cantonesia has a fully-stocked bar complete with both American and Chinese spirits. Wash it all down with a couple of Tsingtao beers, but be sure to fill up–your late night’s just begun.