Pilsen

Czech immigrants named Pilsen after the city of Plzeň, and with the Poles they built its churches, taverns and an opera hall. Since the 1960s it has been the heart of Mexican Chicago, and the walls show it: murals cover the L station, the shops and the alleys. 18th Street, the main street, smells of fresh tortillas, pan dulce and pork slowly cooking in its own fat. This walk takes you from the mural-covered L station past a free museum of Mexican art, carnitas sold by the pound since the 1970s, a bakery where you serve yourself with tongs, a chocolate maker and the old Czech opera hall to the galleries of Halsted Street. Come hungry and early: the carnitas sell out.