El Gauchito

Mario José Civelli was a boxer from Mendoza who came to New York in 1968, learned the meat trade at a Cuban butcher shop in Jackson Heights, and in 1978 opened his own small butcher shop in Elmhurst for the Argentine community. A year later he built a grill in the front window and set out three tables. The butcher counter is still at the back; the dining rooms have grown around it, hung with paintings of Argentine stars of cinema, tango and the ring.

On a busy Sunday the line runs through the narrow entrance past soccer jerseys for sale, and nearly every table gets the parrillada, a mixed grill of Argentine cuts alongside the house-made chorizo and morcilla, with a bright, garlicky chimichurri. Start with baked empanadas, add locro if it is cold out, and buy a few frozen empanadas from the butcher on the way out. Marcello Civelli, Mario's son, runs the room.