Picking up some gifts at The Plant’s holiday market this weekend? There’s plenty to do at this food business incubator and in Back of the Yards.
This South Side neighborhood was settled by European immigrants in the mid- to late-19th century as the area expanded into a meatpacking neighborhood. Back of the Yards was immortalized in Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle,” an exposé of the dangerous, unsanitary, and unrelenting conditions in Chicago’s stockyards and slaughterhouses. Today, the area is now primarily industrial.
The folks at Bubbly Dynamics, located behind The Plant, shared recommendations in the area.
Something to Eat
- ♨️ Heffer BBQ is a craft barbecue restaurant specializing in central Texas and Mexican-inspired cuisine.
- 🌱 Turtle Stop is a corner store inside The Plant serving vegan food.
- 🇲🇽 La Cecina has the most authentic Mexican cuisine in the Midwest.
- 🐟 Taqueria Don Cuco has the best fish tacos.
- 🐖 Atotonilco has delicious Al Pastor tacos.
- 🥞 Toms Place is the go-to spot for pancakes.
- 🇻🇳 4 Seasons is run by one woman who cooks everything. She has the best Vietnamese food in town.
- 🛒 La International is a Mexican grocery store with a taqueria inside.
- 🥪 Cafeteria Yesenia has the best Cuban sandwich
Something to Drink
- 🍻 Whiner Beer focuses on barrel-aged beers and is dedicated to the Belgian tradition of bacteria and alternative yeast fermentations.
- ☕ Sputnik Coffee was born from the notion that coffee could (and should) be delicious and affordable.
Something to Do
- 📦 Packingtown Museum, inside The Plant, is dedicated to preserving the industrial history and cultural heritage of Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and surrounding neighborhoods.
- 👀 You can take a tour of The Plant, with limited hours open to the public.
The Union Stockyard Gate. (Peter Fitzgerald / Wikimedia Commons)
Something to See
- 🚪 The Stockyard gate is a rugged limestone gate that marks the entrance to the stockyards. It's one of the few visual reminders of Chicago's past supremacy in the livestock and meatpacking industries.
- 🧑🚒 Memorial to Fallen 21 is a piece of art created by S. Thomas Scarff to remember the firefighters who died in the Union Stockyard Blaze in 1910.
Boundaries of the New City community area, where the Back of the Yards neighborhood is in. (Google Maps)
From Sauganash to South Chicago to the suburbs, we’re looking for help penning neighborhood guides. Email us if you’re interested in helping!
Correction: Reader Thomas F. reminded us that Park Packing is another packing house in Back of the Yards. We’ve updated our neighborhood guide.
