This story is a part of an occasional sequence exploring nightlife in New York.
Neal Bakshi and Oliver Griffiths had been sitting on stationary Citi Bikes in Brooklyn final Saturday night time, utilizing them as makeshift tables and chairs as they ate their dinner.
Mr. Bakshi, 29, was consuming fajitas from a truck parked to their proper whereas Mr. Griffiths, 37, was consuming tacos from a truck simply to their left.
“As a drunk meals institution, I’m perplexed with the concept I’ve an open container of very popular liquid,” Mr. Griffiths stated, pointing to his birria tacos and a small plastic container of consomé.
“I solely have two arms, and I’m fortunate that I’ve a ‘desk,’” he stated, gesturing to the bike’s basket. “Perhaps because of this they positioned themselves right here.”
The bike station, which is on Wyckoff Avenue by Jefferson Road in Bushwick, is on the finish of a three-block stretch of practically a dozen late-night meals vehicles, which regularly park there on weekends till close by golf equipment and events disperse within the early morning.
And whereas some individuals seize late night time tacos or halal meals earlier than heading residence at 4 a.m., others cease by the vehicles earlier than and between events, like Mr. Bakshi and Mr. Griffiths, who had been en path to a D.J. set at Elsewhere.
But for hundreds of individuals on the Queens Night time Market in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, consuming was their Saturday night time plan.
Positive, the market additionally had a pleasant duck named Wrinkle making the rounds, and a makeshift dance flooring the place individuals loyally stomped alongside to the “Cha Cha Slide” and “Cupid Shuffle.”
However at the beginning, the individuals who descended on the park had been there to attempt the market’s greater than 50 meals distributors.
And the Queens Night time Market isn’t the one place in New York the place individuals spend the night time sampling a spread of cuisines. Different night time markets have popped up lately within the Bronx, Harlem and Chinatown, with their very own units of distributors.
Dense nightlife areas, just like the stretch of Wyckoff Avenue by Jefferson Road and the Decrease East Aspect, additionally entice dozens of late-night distributors that serve pizza, smash burgers and rooster over rice till dawn.
Mattos Paschal, 30, got here to the Queens Night time Market from Astoria to fulfill up with associates and take a look at a assorted mixture of meals from around the globe.
“On the prepare out right here I used to be like, ‘Will we need to hit as many continents as attainable? Do I would like one thing on a stick?’” she stated with fun.
“The yak cheese is excellent,” she added, describing a potato patty that she purchased at a Tibetan stand. “I’ve not had it earlier than, however I’m into it!”
John Wang, 40, based the market in 2015 and remains to be the principle level particular person for the seasonal occasion.
As he ran round placing out logistical fires on Saturday night time, he stated that he had been impressed by the night time markets that he visited in Taiwan as a toddler.
“A few of these meals festivals and live shows have a really particular goal demographic that both has disposable earnings, or they like this sort of music, or they dwell on this neighborhood,” he stated. “To me, the night time market in Taiwan actually represented the entire metropolis.”
A part of the market’s pull is actually the group side — as Mr. Wang stated, “you don’t know who you’re sitting subsequent to.”
However the market’s value cap, which requires distributors to maintain their costs beneath $5 per merchandise (with a couple of $6 exceptions), is probably going one of many major causes many individuals flock there week after week.
“I speak all concerning the variety and stuff, however I feel a lot of that is simply concerning the value cap,” Mr. Wang stated. “It’s the one place in New York Metropolis you possibly can nonetheless get a meal for 5 bucks.”
And coordinating the Queens Night time Market, which includes selecting dozens of distributors every year to replenish an more and more tight house, is not any straightforward feat.
Mr. Wang stated that the market averaged 15,000 guests every week, which provides as much as greater than 1 / 4 million individuals over the course of the season.
“Six days every week, I’m careworn and it’s loopy and I’m undecided I need to do it,” Mr. Wang stated. “However then there’s Saturday nights.”
The place to Go
Queens
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Queens Night time Market, Saturdays from 5 p.m. to midnight beginning Could 7, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, subsequent to the New York Corridor of Science at 47-01 111th Road, queensnightmarket.com
Manhattan
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Uptown Night time Market, second Thursday of every month from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. beginning April, 701 West 133rd Road in Harlem, uptownnightmarket.com
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Chinatown Night time Market, Saturday Could 20 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Forsyth Plaza (on the foot of the Manhattan Bridge), thinkchinatown.org/nightmarket
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Smorgasburg World Commerce Heart, Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., The Oculus at Fulton and Church Road, smorgasburg.com
The Bronx
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Bronx Night time Market, Final Saturday of every month from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. beginning April 30, 1 Fordham Plaza, thebronxnightmarket.com
Brooklyn
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Smorgasburg Prospect Park, Sundays from 11 a.m. to six p.m., Breeze Hill in Prospect Park, smorgasburg.com
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Smorgasburg Williamsburg, opening in June, hours and dates T.B.A., Marsha P. Johnson State Park, smorgasburg.com
