Avondale

Many locals scratched their heads when Time Out anointed Avondale one of the world's coolest neighborhoods in 2022. Up until that point, it was known mostly as a working-class enclave populated by Polish and Latino residents who went about their daily business, leaving questions of hipness to their southeast neighbor, Logan Square. But those with their fingers on the pulse had detected the signs—a buzzy café here, a vintage boutique there—of a neighborhood on the brink of change. Although stylish shops and critically lauded restaurants are popping up at breakneck speed, they mingle with native features like the Polish sausage shops and bakeries that dot Milwaukee and Belmont avenues and the neoclassical towers of St. Hyacinth Basilica, so that an old-world authenticity endures—for now.