One City Tap is more than a corner bar: it’s also a neighborhood hub, with board games, karaoke nights, weekly Sábado Gigante dance parties, and scary movies during the month of October.

Walk into La Palapa and be transported to a beach in the western Mexican state of Nayarit: palm trees, thatched umbrellas to shade visitors from the scorching Midwestern sun, a bright blue dining room that could be the ocean.... And also a full menu of seafood, starting with the complementary ceviche and continuing on to shrimp, langoustines, and the house special, filete relleno (tilapia stuffed with shrimp, octopus, crab, onions, tomato, cilantro, and cheese).

A longtime neighborhood standby, Huck Finn serves up diner breakfasts, soups, and sandwiches 24 hours a day. But what it’s really known for is its enormous Texas doughnuts which cover an entire plate and can be ordered with ice cream and sprinkles.

Laura’s has been serving up pizza, pasta, sandwiches, flavored ices and other Italian-American classics since 1976, but the sunny patio is a recent innovation. In the mornings, Rosie’s Donuts — and coffee — takes up residence; order them at the drive-thru in the back.

The New Archview no longer serves dinner and drinks as the sign advertises, but it still has breakfast and lunch — and also a pleasant, shaded place to enjoy pancakes, tacos, burgers, soup, steak. Like any true family restaurant, there’s something for everyone.

The original Kristoffer’s in Pilsen was famous for its tres leches cakes, praised by the likes of Diana Dávila and Rick Bayless before owners Carlos and Cristina Chavarria sold the place and moved to Florida to open a bakery there. But after just a few years of sunshine, they returned and opened Kristoffer’s Cakes in McKinley Park. They still serve tres leches, but they’ve branched out into other cakes, and have experimented with gluten-free and keto baking.

This small, cozy spot serves up lunch and brunch six days a week, including skillets, pancakes, burgers, salads, chilaquiles, and empanadas. Visitors are welcome to bring their own booze to liven up pitchers of fruit juice or micheladas.

Nelson Algren once wrote that no one should ever eat at a restaurant called Mom’s, but he never got to visit the taproom at Marz Community Brewing, which serves up Japanese-influenced snacks, sandwiches, and noodles Thursday through Sunday, including kaarage fried chicken, katsu sandos, and ube mochi waffles. If that didn’t change his mind, he might have been persuaded by the 24 beers regularly on tap (plus the many more available in bottles and cans) and the devotion of owner Ed Marszewski (Maria’s, Kimski, Pizza Friendly Pizza) to literature, in the form of the beer journal Mash Tun.