Openings

Operating from inside the Mexican/pan-Latin (with a touch of American) restaurant Barrio, La Bodega del Barrio (355 N. Clark St., River North) is a convenience-store-plus-takeout-window stocking booze and Mexican soda and serving up churros in funky flavors (Fruity Pebbles, for instance), coffee, and tacos.

In a quite similar setup, The Street (205 E. Pearson St., Gold Coast) is a café counterpart to the newly opened Marisol on the ground level of the MCA. The coffee bar pours Metric coffee and sells pastries and other light breakfast bites, plus salads and sandwiches for lunch.

Morsel

A worthy investigative read for regular Wrigleyville boozers (and haters of regular Wrigleyville boozers): The Sun-Times found that bars in the area have gotten sizable property tax breaks by adding apartments to the tops of their buildings.