Elizabeth

Open on Van Buren Avenue since 1993, with butchers on staff who cut the meat that goes on the charcoal grill. The menu runs through grilled fish and picanha alongside omelets and sandwiches, so lunch and dinner are the same counter. There is a bar and a takeout side.

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

A two-story Georgian house built around 1750 on East Jersey Street, now run as a museum by the State of New Jersey. Elias Boudinot lived here from 1772 and was president of the Continental Congress while he owned it. Alexander Hamilton stayed with the Boudinots in 1772 while he was at Elizabethtown Academy, and Jonathan Dayton bought the house in 1795 while he was speaker of the US House. It is a National Historic Landmark and the guided tour takes about an hour.

Mon to Fri, 9am to 5pm. Closed Sat and Sun

Family owned since 1998 and open at five in the morning, this is a Colombian bakery counter with a restaurant behind it. The case holds pan de bono, buñuelos and empanadas, and the coffee is Colombian. Later in the day it turns into a full kitchen doing bandeja paisa and sancocho, and there is a bar for aguardiente and juices.

Mon to Thu, 5am to 9pm. Fri and Sat, 5am to 11pm. Sun, 5am to 9pm

William Livingston built this house in 1772 and became New Jersey's first governor two years later. It stayed in one family until the 1990s and is now run by Kean University, which means the contents are the family's rather than a curator's reconstruction. The house tour runs about an hour and caps at fourteen people, and the grounds cover twenty-three acres you can walk for a small fee.

Tue to Sat, 10am to 3pm. Closed Sun and Mon

A Colombian bakery counter with a kitchen behind it on Elmora Avenue, the stretch of Elizabeth where the Colombian trade is concentrated. The case has bread and pastries and Colombian coffee in the morning. The kitchen does bandeja paisa, empanadas and sancocho through the day and stays on until half past nine.

Daily, 9:30am to 9:30pm

A Portuguese kitchen on East Jersey Street named for the Minho, the province in the far north of Portugal. It cooks coastal Portuguese plates and Brazilian top sirloin, with a full bar and a patio out the side. The place is casual enough to walk into in what you are already wearing.

Mon to Thu, 11am to 10pm. Fri and Sat, 11am to 11pm. Sun, noon to 10pm

A tavern on Newark Avenue that traces back to 1933, closed for a stretch and was reopened in 2008 by Mike and Regina, who kept the Irish-American bar it had been. The back bar carries more than 150 whiskeys and the draft list runs past seventy. There are DJs Thursday through Saturday and the kitchen stays on until one in the morning.

Mon, 3pm to 2am. Tue and Wed, 11am to 2am. Thu and Fri, 11am to 3am. Sat, 11:30am to 3am. Sun, noon to 2am

A Dominican kitchen on the same block of North Broad Street as the venue, serving mofongo, stewed meat over rice and beans, and a Dominican breakfast from a quarter past eight. Plates are large and priced off a board rather than a menu card. You order at the counter and sit down where there is space.

Mon to Sat, 8:15am to 7pm. Sun, 8:15am to 5:45pm

A bi-level bar on Spring Street, open since 1998 and about a mile from Newark Liberty, which is where the name comes from and where a lot of the custom comes from too. Sixteen screens downstairs and a quieter lounge upstairs. The kitchen is Portuguese under the wings and bar food, and the drafts are a dollar and a quarter during happy hour.

Mon to Wed, 11am to 2am. Thu to Sat, 11am to 3am. Sun, 11am to 2am

A halal grill a hundred yards down North Broad, cooking chicken and lamb over rice, fried fish and burgers to order. It is built for takeout with a short counter to stand at. On Friday and Saturday it runs to two in the morning, which is later than anything else in sight of the venue.

Mon to Thu, 11am to midnight. Fri and Sat, 11am to 2am. Sun, 2pm to 11pm

A service window in the ground floor of a corner house in Peterstown, selling the Italian hot dog, which is a fried dog or sausage packed into bread with peppers, onions and thin fried potatoes. There is no seating and no table. It is cash only with an ATM on the wall, and you eat standing on Second Avenue.

Daily, 11am to 7pm

A Morris Avenue diner that has been on the corner for over fifty years and runs around the clock. The 2008 renovation put murals and painted palm trees on the walls, which is where the name comes from. There is a bakery case at the front and a diner menu that covers breakfast at any hour.

Open 24 hours, daily

A Portuguese house on Monroe Avenue, open since 1989 and large enough to seat four hundred. The kitchen does grilled fish, paella and a steak brought to the table on a hot stone you finish yourself. There is free valet out front, which is unusual for Elizabeth and tells you what kind of evening the place expects.

Tue to Sat, 9am to midnight. Closed Sun and Mon