Richard Harbus for New York Daily News
Smoked ribs, chicken and barbecued beef, and a beer to wash it down, at John Brown Smokehouse.
The M line returns to Queens at the Court Square station, which sits the middle of one of the borough’s more complicated neighborhoods, Long Island City. Factories still share space with countless new condos, the towering Citigroup Building, and a growing number of topnotch restaurants like these.
Fresh and light
As Long Island City developers, Tal Schuster and Mike Mizrahi spent years building places for people to work and live, says Schuster. They decided to build Breadbox Cafe four years ago because they wanted to give them someplace to go.
A former corner gas station with its own parking lot, Breadbox is wonderfully zen, with soaring ceilings, natural wood and wide windows where garage doors once hung. Outside, 1,600 wooden rolling pins hang on the walls. Customers “buy” one and proceeds go to the children’s nonprofit New York Foundling.
The food feels just as good. The owners are Israeli, and the menu draws from the spirit of the region with food that’s both bright and flavorful. The excellent falafel is freshly fried and served with chopped tomato and cucumber salad ($12.50), and the chicken cheddar quesadilla ($12.95) is surprisingly healthy, layered with carrots, mushrooms and greens and served with crema, salsa verde and guacamole.
Breadbox Cafe: 47-11 11th St., at 47th St., Queens; (718) 389-9700.
Pisco palace
When Alejandro Rojas opens a Peruvian restaurant and pisco bar in December called Jora where the Crossroads Diner used to be, his family will be setting another milestone for the country’s cuisine. His mother and stepfather run Urubama in Jackson Heights, which was the city’s first Peruvian restaurant when it opened in 1976.
Rojas, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Lima before joining his parents at their restaurant in Queens seven years ago, hopes to introduce the city to a broader taste of Peruvian cooking. Rojas won’t serve rotisserie chicken, but instead plans to draw from lesser-known traditions from Peru’s many regions.
He’ll make a shrimp chowder with green peas, multicolored potatoes and fava beans that’s topped with a fried egg, or stuff spicy red rocoto peppers with beef and cheese. He’ll also have plenty of fresh fish ceviches, dressed with Peruvian chilies called aji or the earthy black mint called huacatay, plus a little-known version called chirulites, which are served more like sashimi, says Rojas.
His pisco bar will offer more than just the classic sour, he says, stocking versions of the spirit most of us haven’t tasted.
Jora: 47-46 11th St., at 48th Ave., Queens; (718) 392-2033.
Smoke joint
If the gingham-topped benches at John Brown Smokehouse seem homey, they should. Owner and Kansas City, Mo., native Josh Bowen’s mother helped stitch a few of them.
In fact, the laidback two-year-old BBQ spot — Bowen keeps his banjo on the bar and the patio features graffiti from the artists of nearby 5Pointz — feels a lot like a neighborhood clubhouse hidden in the middle of working warehouses. Happily the hangout, named after the 19th-century abolitionist, has some of the city’s most respected barbecue.
Even tourists make the trek for Bowen’s Queens riffs on K.C. ’cue, which means smoked chicken ($5 for a quarter bird), burnt ends that almost melt in your mouth ($22 a pound) or meaty spareribs ($9 per quarter-slab) — all with a deep, dark, sweet-spicy crust. The latter gains an extra layer of succulence with Bowen’s current secret sauce, made from foie gras fat, Founders Breakfast Stout and brisket drippings.
Cut through all that richness with the house ghost pepper chili sauce, or one of the hard-to-find craft brews on tap.
John Brown Smokehouse: 10-43 44th Drive, near 11th St., Queens; (347) 617-1120.
