Riding the V Line: Tokyo Teriyaki’s Gloriously Unironic Spam RollWe’ve been riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants along the way. This week brings us to the end of the line. But it’s been a hell of a ride, hasn’t it?
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: Coming Back Around to RussiaWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants along the way.
As the V Line reaches its terminus along the vast, terrifying stretch of Queens Boulevard that dominates Rego Park, we find it poetically pleasing that it resumes the Russian atmosphere of its starting point in Brighton Beach. Our second favorite Uzbek kebab restaurant, Cheburechnaya, is at 63rd Drive, but our favorite, Café Arzu, is at 67th Avenue.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: Ben’s Best, the Pride of Rego ParkWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants along the way.
Katz’s, the Carnegie, and the 2nd Avenue Deli are the pride of Manhattan, but Ben’s Best still belongs to Rego Park. Get off the V at 63rd Drive, walk past Wiggles strip club, and there you are.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: The Life Aquatic at Ping’sWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants along the way.
This far along the V, you can tempt death crossing Queens Boulevard, wander for blocks alone on the sidewalk, and pop into several houseware stores and travel agencies. Or you could go to Ping’s, a citadel of classic Cantonese food that makes even doubters delight and shout, “This is why I love Queens!”
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: Thai Heat and Genius on Elmhurst AvenueWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants along the way.
It’s not much of a secret anymore, but it would be madness to get off at Elmhurst Avenue and not eat at Chao Thai, a Thai restaurant nearly as good as Woodside’s legendary Sripraphai.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: Guinea Pig on Roosevelt Avenue
Roosevelt Avenue’s riches are almost impossible to exhaust: It’s a glorious land of tacos, papusas, Colombian hamburgers, Himalayan soups, late-night arepas, and fried chicken. But the last time we looked, there was only one place on “Rosey” to get guinea pig. And that’s Hornado Ecuatoriano.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: The Last Diner Is on Northern BoulevardWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
Northern Boulevard, in Astoria, isn’t exactly what you think of as a great restaurant neighborhood. (If you love big-box stores and car dealerships, though, it’s nirvana.) But work your way down a couple of blocks and, hidden next to a vacant lot, is what might be the last freestanding classic railroad-style diner in New York City. It’s called, fittingly, the New York Diner and is blissfully un-self-aware.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: The King of Cuban Sandwiches
Night on Broadway in Woodside is electric: Trains rumble overhead, a hundred dialects of Spanish are barked in the air, and the promise of everything from dance lessons to roasted guinea pig glares nightward out of neon signs. When we step off the V at 65th Street, though, we somehow never find ourselves tempted by all that novelty. What we want is the undisputed classic, the El Sitio Cubano sandwich, the patriarch of its race. It’s just a few steps from the train to the counter, but even those are too many.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: The Diner to End All Diners at CupWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
Steinway Street is where the gastronautic joys of Queens really begin. We hope it won’t seem perverse of us, then, to choose a non-ethnic, non-hole-in-the-wall restaurant for Steinway Street. You walk past a number of them, as well as the Museum of the Moving Image, on the way to Cup.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: Manducatis Is the Antidote to LIC LimboWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
Dreary, desolate, bereft of even the corner delis that make other postapocalyptic industrial zones livable, Long Island City doesn’t offer you much to look at as you walk from the four or five blocks from the Ely Avenue stop to Manducatis. But that’s the beauty of the V train: It drops you in barren areas that are home to supremely warm and welcoming restaurants.
The Orange Line
Riding the V Line: A Turkish Oasis at Sip SakWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week’s location is 53rd and Lex, the V’s last stop in Manhattan. It’s delis and hotels everywhere you look, and it doesn’t get much better as you head east on 53rd Street. But hang a right on Second Avenue, and pop into Sip Sak, Orhan Yegen’s one-of-a-kind take on Turkish fast food.
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Pay Homage at the Carnegie DeliWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This Week: Carnegie Deli
Our stop last week should have been the last on the B line before transferring to the V and the joys of Queens, but we’re staying on this train for one more stop, efficiency be damned. Get out on 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue and visit the Federal Reserve of deli foods: the one, the almighty Carnegie Deli.
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: The Zen of Sake Bar HagiWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This Week: 47th-50th Streets
The Orange Line
Riding the Orange Line: Herald Square’s Unforgotten Hash BarWe’re riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
Herald Square, with its discount stores and the horrific Manhattan Mall, is merely an obstacle between you and MSG. But snake your way through the grim and random maze of cut-rate merchandise and defeated-looking office workers, and you’ll find yourself at Keens Steakhouse, one of the city’s last bastions of hash.
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Back Again at YataganSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This Week: West 4th Street
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: The Hidden Genius of JoeySomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: Broadway-Lafayette Street
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Bialy You Can BeSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This Week: Grand Street
The Orange Line
Riding the B-Line: Breaded Steak in the Shadow of Big BoxesSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This Week: Atlantic Avenue
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Flatbush Avenue’s Secret Hamburger StandSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: Seventh Avenue
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Unreal Afghan Pasta in Polyglot Ditmas ParkSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: Newkirk Avenue
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Baklava Like You Wouldn’t BelieveSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: Kings Highway
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Georgia on Our MindSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week: The Sheepshead Bay B Stop
The Orange Line
Riding the B Line: Our Favorite Brighton Beach SpotSomewhere in the world there may be a train line that covers more gastronomic territory than the B and V subway lines, which start in southernmost Brooklyn and end deep in Queens, but if there is, we don’t know about it. For the next twenty-odd weeks, we’ll be riding the B and V from Coney Island all the way to Forest Hills, jumping off frequently to rave about our favorite restaurants and food stores near the subway.
This week, the Brighton Beach / Brighton 6 Street B stop
