Jackson Heights

María Piedad Cano was a judge in Colombia before she came to New York and spent years selling arepas off a griddle cart on Roosevelt Avenue. Her son Alejandro Osorio runs the 37th Avenue storefront now and the arepa de choclo is still the thing to order, a thin sweet-corn cake folded over cheese like an omelette. It is a counter with tables, cash and card, no booking.

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

A truck parked on Roosevelt Avenue near 78th Street that started in 2019 and is the reason Tijuana-style birria is now everywhere in New York. You order quesatacos at the window and they come with a cup of consommé for dipping. People eat standing on the sidewalk under the elevated 7. It runs to 1am on weeknights and 2am on Friday and Saturday.

Mon to Thu, 5pm to 1am. Fri, 5pm to 2am. Sat, noon to 2am. Sun, noon to 1am

A block of 37th Road closed to cars in 2012 and turned into the public square of Jackson Heights, with seating, planters and the 74th Street station at one end. The businesses around it run a Business Alliance that programs the space, and it carries melas, momo crawls, parades and vigils through the year. On an ordinary afternoon it is people sitting with chai and a phone. It costs nothing and there is no closing time.

Open at all hours as a public plaza

The oldest operating gay bar in Queens, on Roosevelt Avenue since 1989, owned by Eduardo Valentin and Casimiro Villa. It has served the Latino LGBT community here for most of that time and the music and the crowd reflect that rather than anything imported from Manhattan. Happy hour runs from four in the afternoon and the door stays open until four in the morning.

Daily, 5pm to 4am. Happy hour from 4pm to 9pm

Open on Roosevelt Avenue since 2004 and by its own account the first Nepali restaurant in New York. The kitchen cooks across the Himalayan belt, so Nepali dal bhat tarkari sits on the same menu as Tibetan hand-pulled noodles and Bhutanese ema datshi, which is long green chilies in cheese sauce. Steamed momos and wai wai sandeko, crisp instant noodles tossed with chili and herbs, are what most tables order. It is a sit-down place with waiter service and it stays open to midnight.

Sun to Thu, noon to midnight. Fri and Sat, noon to 1am

A halal kitchen on the corner of Diversity Plaza with a steam table of curries and a grill turning out seekh kebab, nihari and haleem. You order at the counter, take a tray upstairs or sit at one of the tables on the ground floor, and the chai comes in a paper cup. It is open from seven in the morning and the place is busiest at one in the morning when the plaza is still full.

Daily, 7am to 2am

A South American bakery counter on 37th Avenue with trays of bizcochos behind glass, chivito sandwiches to order and coffee at the register. The case changes through the day and the pastries are priced by the piece. There are a few tables inside and most people take a bag. The restaurant next door at 85-02 is the same family.

Daily, 8am to 9pm

You get to this one by walking into the one-story building at 37-50 74th Street, turning right, and following a fluorescent-lit corridor past a cell phone counter to a small kitchen at the back. The menu is about twenty items and the beef and chive momos are what to order, with the housemade hot sauce that sits in squeeze bottles on the tables. Cold beef noodles and beef thanthuk are the other two things people come for.

Daily, 11am to 10pm

A mithai counter on 37th Avenue with trays of barfi, gulab jamun and jalebi behind the glass, sold by weight into a box. The snack side of the menu runs to samosas, chaat and pakoras made to order at the back. There are a few stools and most of the business walks out with a box tied in string. Prices are by the pound and a box for four people costs less than a round of drinks.

Mon to Thu, 10am to 9pm. Fri to Sun, 10am to 10pm