Food in Chelsea

A small corner bakery on Ninth Avenue near 21st, going since the early 2000s, with layer cakes and banana pudding in the case and a few seats in the window. Everything is baked on the premises and sold by the slice. It stays open to eleven at the end of the week, which is unusual for a bakery anywhere in Chelsea.

Mon, 9am to 9pm. Tue and Wed, 9am to 10pm. Thu to Sat, 9am to 11pm. Sun, 9am to 9pm

A bagel counter on Eighth Avenue at 24th, kettle-boiling and hand-rolling its own and keeping about two dozen cream cheeses in a refrigerated case behind the glass. You take a ticket, say what you want and watch it get built. It opens at half past six on a weekday, which is early enough to be the first thing open on this stretch of Eighth Avenue, and it shuts at three every day without exception.

Mon to Fri, 6:30am to 3pm. Sat and Sun, 7am to 3pm

On the corner of Seventh Avenue and 17th since 1998, open around the clock, with white banquettes and a menu that does not change between three in the afternoon and three in the morning. Mac and cheese, fried chicken, breakfast served until five in the evening. It is loud and it is always busy and you can still walk in and sit down.

Open 24 hours, every day

The National Biscuit Company baked Oreos in this block-long brick building, and the ground floor is now a concourse of counters you walk through rather than sit down in. The building is open from seven in the morning until ten at night, though the stalls set their own hours inside that and the coffee and bread counters are the first ones up. It is crowded most of the day and the crowd moves. You order standing up and eat standing up, or you carry it across Tenth Avenue to the High Line.

Mon to Sun, 7am to 10pm. Individual vendors set their own hours inside that window and most close earlier

A papaya-drink hot dog window on West 23rd just east of Seventh Avenue, in the same line of descent as Papaya King and Gray's Papaya. All-beef dogs come off the griddle with a fruit drink in a waxed cup. Eat at the narrow rail along the window. It never shuts, so at two in the morning the person ahead of you is as likely to be coming off a shift as off a show.

Open 24 hours, every day

A corner diner on West 23rd near Ninth that trades every hour of the week. Booths along the windows, a counter with stools, laminated menus and pancakes available at four in the morning. Nothing in the fit-out has been updated in a long time and the turnover of staff looks about as slow. It is the nearest all-night table to the gallery blocks.

Open 24 hours, every day

A Pan-Latin luncheonette on West 14th just off Eighth Avenue, open every hour of every day, with a Cuban leaning to the menu. Counter seats along the window and booths behind. A roast pork sandwich at two in the morning and eggs at eight, with the same menu either way.

Open 24 hours, every day

The chrome diner car on the corner of Tenth Avenue and 22nd, across from the gallery blocks, which has been photographed more than most buildings in Chelsea and has changed hands several times. It trades daily from nine in the morning until eleven at night under the Cafeteria group now. Booths, counter, and a full menu all day rather than a separate brunch and dinner.

Mon to Sun, 9am to 11pm

A patisserie on Ninth Avenue opened in May 1998 by the pastry chef Stephane Willemin and Romain Lamaze, with a long curved case of tarts and croissants at the front and tables behind it. You can stand at the case, point, and take a croissant away for a few dollars, or you can sit down for eggs. It opens at seven in the morning and keeps going until ten at night, which no other bakery on this avenue does.

Mon to Sat, 7am to 10pm. Sun, 7am to 9pm

A standing counter inside Chelsea Market with a trompo of pork turning in the window and tortillas pressed a few feet from where you order. There are no tables, just a rail along the wall. The line is usually long and it is also usually fast, because three people work the griddle at once.

Mon to Sun, 11am to 10pm

A counter and a row of stools on West 14th at Seventh Avenue, going since 1964 and open around the clock. Cake doughnuts, crullers, black and white cookies and coffee in a paper cup. You stand or you take a stool, and at three in the morning there is usually somebody in every one of them.

Open 24 hours, every day

A counter on the main concourse of Chelsea Market where the dough is pulled and slapped against the bench in front of you before it goes in the water. Biang biang noodles wide as a belt, dumplings, and a chili oil that is the reason most people are in line. You order, they call your name, and you eat at the shared tables in the middle of the concourse. The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes including the wait.

Mon to Sat, 11am to 8pm. Sun, 11am to 6pm