“This is a Mexican/pizza place,” says Brad Newman, a co-owner of the obliquely named Cookies & Carnitas (5757-59 N. Broadway, 773-769-2900), which opened this past Wednesday. At 5757, Newman and Mikey Taormina serve pizza, carnitas made from Becker Lane pork, and sandwiches with fast-casual service, and at 5759, a bakery and coffee shop opens Wednesday.

Here are some other things Newman said to us:

• “5759—I’m in love with it. It was so nasty when we got here, and it ended up looking nice.”
• “We are a bunch of cheffy dorks that work in fancy restaurants and blah blah blah but what is the reality of our life. We want the best Korean wing or the best taco.”
• “We still have the pizza oven built by Faulds in 1954 in Chicago. It was nonfunctioning. We had to buy another one and had them take parts off of it and find some weird guy who could fix it. We don’t have any other ovens.”

The “cookies” half of the restaurant’s name is represented by five homemade types of cookies, also available in ice-cream sandwiches with Häagen-Dazs filling and rolled in toppings such as chocolate chips or toffee. But not carnitas. That ampersand in the name doesn’t mean at the same time.