Arepa Lady

María Piedad Cano spent decades griddling arepas from a cart under the Roosevelt Avenue el, late at night, for crowds coming off the 7 train — a street-food legend long before the word went soft from overuse. Her family moved the operation indoors, and the storefront on 37th Avenue now serves her arepa de queso and arepa de choclo the way the cart did: hot off the plancha, brushed with butter, finished with a snowfall of shredded cheese.

The room is small and bright, the menu short, and the sweet-corn choclo folded over salty cheese is still the order that explains everything. Come in the evening when the griddle has been running for hours, take it to go, and eat it standing on 37th Avenue like the regulars do.