River North before "The Bear"

Season Three of "The Bear" hit Hulu on Wednesday night, and the River North neighborhood remains one of its main stars.

Why it matters: The depiction of the neighborhood reminds us how much it's changed over the decades, especially around Mr. Beef (opened in 1979), which inspired the show's Original Beef of Chicagoland.

Flashback: In the 1830s, the area was occupied largely by industrial buildings and Irish workers at breweries, tanneries and soap factories. A couple of decades later, Chicago's first railroad brought more European immigrants to the neighborhood.

• Around the Depression, the eastern edge closer to Michigan Avenue became wealthier, while the area near the river remained underdeveloped.
• By mid-century, factories and industrial warehouses like Blommer and Montgomery Ward were still prevalent in the area, making hearty lunch places like Mr. Beef popular.
• In the 1970s the area became a hot spot for the queer community with the opening of Dugan's Bistro, known as the "Studio 54 of the Midwest."
• In the '80s, factory closings left big, open spaces — ideal for art studios and galleries, which we still see along Superior, Erie and Franklin streets today.
• In the '90s, Mayor Richard M. Daley and developers saw the advantage of riverfront property. Higher-end mid-rises popped up, leading Daley to start the demolition of Cabrini Green apartments on the northern edge of River North.

Dig in: Gordon Sinclair's Gordon restaurant in 1976 and Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill in 1987 became early high-end restaurants in a neighborhood now brimming with them.

• Bayless recalls that River North was "super, super sleazy" when he arrived, but it was all he could afford.
• "You look around this neighborhood now, and you can't even imagine that it was that way," he told Eater in 2013 . "It was all adult bookstores and strip clubs, and there were all these bars with little room places up above that you could rent by the hour."

State of play: One of the last vestiges of the era is Te-Jay's Adult Books sandwiched between two Lettuce Entertain You restaurants on Hubbard Street.

• Bayless expanded down the block, opening two more restaurants — Topolobampo and Xoco.
• Plus, the neighborhood now has French restaurants (Brindille, Obelix and La Grande Boucherie), Mediterranean fare (avec) and cocktail bars (Gilt Bar and Broken Shaker).

The bottom line: When "The Bear" was released, some criticized the show's River North setting as too glitzy for a working-class beef joint, but the rags-to-riches transformation emerging this season reflects the neighborhood's metamorphosis.