On a hot July night, red lanterns hung along an Uptown street crowded with visitors to the Argyle Night Market. They sampled banh mi sandwiches, sipped bubble tea, bought crocheted flowers made by Thai artisans and danced to a hip-hop band.
The Argyle Night Market kicked off July 3 and runs every Thursday night through Aug. 28 on Argyle Street, the neighborhood’s main commercial corridor dubbed “Asia on Argyle.”
The free outdoor event is styled after an Asian night market. It launched in 2013 to boost Uptown, home to a large Asian community, particularly people from Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Since then, the night market has grown to draw about 5,000 people each week, said Sarah Wilson, executive director of nonprofit Uptown United and Uptown Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event. It’s Chicago’s only permitted weekly street festival.
People come from across the city to sample local food, shop, enjoy live entertainment and meet exhibitors. This summer, approximately 50 vendors will participate in a line-up that changes every week, said Wilson.
The night market is held on a plaza-like section of Argyle Street designed for pedestrians. It was the city’s first “shared street,” spearheaded by the Chicago Department of Transportation in 2016 to support Uptown’s economic development and street life that included events such as annual Lunar New Year celebrations and the night market.
Meggie Doyle of Lake View visited Argyle Night Market on July 3, in her first trip to Uptown. “It gets people out here and spending money,” she said. Market-goers “meet the people they’re buying from and are all the more excited to support somebody. It’s not Amazon.”
The event has a big impact for some nearby businesses like Immm Rice and Beyond. Because of it, Thursday nights are “super busy. It’s like a weekend night,” owner Dew Suriyawan said of his Thai restaurant, at 4949 N. Broadway.
Barriers in Uptown
Argyle Night Market is even more important in light of the many challenges that have hit Uptown in recent years.
Across the U.S. and in Chicago, businesses in Asian neighborhoods like Chinatown and Uptown were hit harder during the COVID-19 pandemic because they received less government aid and were targets of anti-Asian racism. Now, higher costs due to tariffs add to their ongoing battle with inflation.
In Uptown, construction is another barrier — literally. From 2021, L stations at Argyle Street and three other Red Line stops closed or shifted during the Chicago Transit Authority’s most expensive infrastructure project. A temporary L station is located a few blocks north of Argyle Street.
“It was a rough couple of years with the pandemic. Construction has been devastating for local businesses,” said Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th), who represents Uptown.
The neighborhood is eagerly anticipating the opening of the new Argyle L station on Sunday. During the Red and Purple line renovations, CTA’s Open for Business program offered help to affected businesses through marketing on buses, trains and social media, said Jeff Wilson, CTA government and community relations officer.
Uptown needs all the support it can get. Before the pandemic, the neighborhood was bustling, said Chettha Saetia, economic development director at the Chinese Mutual Aid Association in Uptown. Now, more storefronts are empty, especially on, or near, Argyle Street. He estimated that 30% of stores are closed in Uptown.
The neighborhood seems quiet on weekdays but Argyle Street is packed during the night market.
“We make every effort to bring it because this community has been hit so hard,” said Wilson, of the Uptown Chamber.
But the event’s costs have nearly doubled in the last four years and pandemic-era government funding is no longer available.
“Ultimately, we raised vendor fees a little, but they remain significantly lower than other street festivals,” said Wilson. “This was a conscious decision to ensure our local businesses could participate.”
The health of Uptown’s businesses runs the spectrum. “Some are thriving and some are really struggling,” said Wilson. “Cost of goods remain expensive as are operating expenses, like rent, wages, utilities. Businesses are trying hard to not raise prices on customers. It’s a real challenge.”
But many must pass higher costs along to customers. “We have to make enough to survive,” Suriyawan said. Immm Rice raised prices a month ago on some items, like a popular beef dish that went up a dollar to $14.50. In an example of swelling expenses, Suriyawan said a 50-pound bag of rice from China or Thailand cost about $40 last year and is now about $68.
Ultimately, tariffs and higher costs will affect customers. “Who pays?” Suriyawan said. “You.”
‘Taking back the streets’
Various factors are contributing to Uptown’s storefront vacancies. Some are being used as storage and are not available for rent, said Wilson. Older storefronts “may need a lot of work on the inside and renovation costs might be prohibitive for a future tenant.”
There are also spaces in new buildings that were never built-out because of high costs. Many small businesses can’t afford higher rents or the build-out costs, added Wilson.
Running a small business is not easy, especially for immigrants with additional language and cultural barriers like some in Uptown, said Manaa-Hoppenworth. Tariffs only add to their burden. Uptown’s grocers that sell Asian goods must constantly change prices, said Manaa-Hoppenworth. “It’s wrong.”
In spite of new challenges, Uptown has come a long way over the decades in the face of socio-economic inequity. In the 1970s, the neighborhood saw an influx of former mental health patients displaced by state deinstitutionalization, according to a Loyola University Chicago report.
In 1990, more than 25% of families in the neighborhood lived below the poverty line. In 2024, that share was about 20%, according to DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies.
The idea for Argyle Night Market came from a 2008 report by the Urban Land Institute. It suggested the event and other initiatives to address public safety issues and revitalize Uptown. It was an example of “‘positive loitering’ and taking back the streets,” said Manaa-Hoppenworth.
Thien Ly owns Tank Noodle, a Vietnamese restaurant that his mother opened in 1996. During a recent night market, he and family members served a long queue of customers from their stand. The event “brings awareness to Uptown and new clientele. It’s good marketing for the community,” he said.
Ly grew up in Uptown and has seen the neighborhood change over the years. Locals like him who stay in the community work hard to keep it going, he said.
Warren Parnell has been coming to Argyle Night Market since it started in 2013, except for 2020 when the event paused during the pandemic.
“I love it because of the diversity and to be a supporter of this community,” said Parnell, who previously lived in Uptown but now lives in Edgewater.
He recalled that Argyle Night Market drew a small crowd its first year and marveled at how it has blossomed. “I’m amazed it has been 11 years and how it remains,” said Parnell.
