FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 11, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 79
dining out
Photo courtesy of Alejandro Osorio
Arepa Lady’s back in business
in Jackson Heights with a larger
restaurant but same great food
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Arepa Lady, the popular restaurant in
Jackson Heights specializing in the South
American delicacy, reopened last week
a block away from its old location on
Roosevelt Avenue.
Th e restaurant was forced to fi nd a
new location in March to make way
for a seven-story building, said co-owner
Alejandro Osorio.
“It was really disheartening,” Osorio
said. “We didn’t know what to do.”
But Osorio views the forced removal as
a blessing in disguise. Th e new location
at 77-17 37th Ave. can seat nearly three
times as many patrons as the prior holein
the-wall spot.
Arepa Lady did not make a formal
announcement about its reopening on
Oct. 4 in order to work out kinks. Word
got out regardless and spread quickly
throughout the neighborhood.
“The whole weekend was crazy,” Osorio said.
Osorio is used to seeing crowds gather
for his family’s arepas. His mother, Maria
Cano, has been making and selling arepas
in the neighborhood since the family
immigrated in 1984 and quickly earned
the nickname “Arepa Lady.”
In her native Colombia, Cano was a
judge who came to the United States in
order to escape violence. She supporter
her four sons in Jackson Heights by selling
the beloved Colombian staple food in
a food cart at the corner of 79th Street and
Roosevelt Avenue. It wasn’t until three
years ago when the family decided to
replace the cart for a sit-down restaurant.
Arepa Lady will only be open for a few
hours every day starting at 5 p.m. for the
next two to three weeks, but Osorio said
the restaurant will eventually expand its
hours to match the old schedule. Once
the things settle down, the restaurant will
add new items to the menu which will, of
course, just be new types of arepas.
“Don’t fi x what isn’t broken,” Osorio
said.
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