Wicker Park's New Taco Bar and Rock Cantina

Open since late April, Angels & Mariachis is a taco bar and rock cantina from Eat Well Drink Better Inc. (the same company behind River North's English and Wrigleyville's The Central). Spread out over two floors in a Wicker Park space that formerly housed a bakery and deli, the restaurant evokes small-town Mexico and provides laid-back private dining space—and margarita pitchers—for groups. Available for full buyouts, the entire space can seat 200 guests.

In front of the restaurant, a sidewalk patio provides seating for 35. The front room, which seats about 50, opens out onto Division Street with garage-door windows and features a long bar topped with traditional Mexican tiles. Along the walls, festive red lights illuminate decorative objects (ranging from wooden angels to candles and bull's heads) that the Angels & Mariachis owners pulled from Mexican markets and street fairs. In the back room on the lower level, a tile-topped taco bar seats roughly 20; additional counter seating along the wall expands the room's capacity to 30.The stairwell leading to the second floor is surrounded by walls covered in hand-painted murals of skeletons in cowboy hats. The upstairs room, which seats roughly 100, features its own private restrooms and a separate bar. "It's literally like renting out an entire bar," says co-owner Ivan Torres. Other features include built-in leather booths, wooden tables surrounded by woven leather chairs, two foosball tables, and funky art decorations like Mexican puppets and stained-glass windows.

Angels & Mariachis' menu is filled with familiar Mexican favorites like enchiladas, tacos, guacamole, and burritos. For groups, margarita pitchers come in flavors ranging from pomegranate to the house-specialty Angel Margarita, which adds mint leaves and orange juice to the traditional lime-and-tequila mix.

To enforce the small-town vibe they envisioned for the restaurant, the owners opted to keep the space TV-screen free. There is, however, a sound system with iPod hookup.