Play cafe

Apparently, the problems of cooped-up parents do amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Little Beans Café (1809 W Webster, 773-251-1025), opening Thursday 20, offers a place for moms and dads to plug in their laptops and sip a latte while kids stir up pretend play in the cafe’s “village” grocery store and firehouse, crawl around in the soft-touch area, or dig into the space’s puzzles, books and games. With special events and classes, a full coffee, tea and snack menu and daily passes costing $12 (with supervised play options starting at $20), that’s a cafe where we’d be willing to play it again.