From Street Cart to Storefront
By Isabella Miller and Ava Teasdale
An immigrant’s son modernizes his mother’s business and keeps the recipes intact.
JACKSON HEIGHTS — Before customers enter Arepa Lady, they can see a large Colombian flag on display through the storefront window. Decorating the white walls are black-and-white photos, including one of the restaurant’s founders, Maria Piedad Cano, who moved with her four sons to Jackson Heights from Colombia. In the photo, she is smiling while cooking in the arepa cart she founded 30 years ago. But in the five years since Ms. Cano’s son, Alejandro Osorio, 40, took over the family business, it’s expanded far beyond a modest street cart and has evolved into a modern setting with the same mouth-watering food.
The spacious interior is decorated with bright yellow lanterns and glossy black tables. On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, while Mr. Osorio, prepared for the day’s service, “The Hills” by The Weeknd blasted through the speakers.
An arepa is made of ground maize dough and is commonly stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables. They are especially popular in Jackson Heights where 62.5 percent of the population identify as Hispanic, according to the NYU Furman Center. Today, visitors and residents can dine at Arepa Lady, which has around 10 employees.
Arepas originated in Colombia and are most commonly eaten there and in Venezuela. “An arepa is a main staple of our meals, our food,” Mr. Osorio said. “It’s like a side dish, it’s a snack, it’s a meal — it’s just basically our bread.” The staff at Arepa Lady have surely perfected their recipe, and their menu doesn’t stray from tradition. They prepare a broad range of arepas like Pollo Asado, which has chicken inside, or the Carne Desmechada, which has shredded beef inside if it. Mr. Osorio compares the fluffy, light dough to that of cornbread.
The family opened their first brick-and-mortar location in 2014. They were forced to close it down in 2016 to make space for a new mixed-use building that was about to break ground. Several supporters of the restaurant took to Twitter to find out when the restaurant would open a new location.
The family moved into the current space soon after. After Ms. Cano retired in 2014, Mr. Osorio has been the owner. Three years later, he opened a second, smaller location at Dekalb Market Hall in Brooklyn. Despite the business’s evolution over the years, the actual arepa recipe remains exactly the same since Ms. Cano first ran her food cart. In a conversation about his mother, Mr. Osorio laughingly said, “She just taught me how to make arepas. Besides that, I don’t know how to make anything else!”
Arepa Lady is one of many family businesses in Jackson Heights. It’s a strong example of an immigrant family bringing their recipes and culture to the neighborhood as a business lasting multiple generations.
In 2017, A Day Without Immigrants took place to protest President Trump’s plans to build a border wall and deport millions of immigrants. Worried that many immigrants who didn’t go to work would be fired, the staff at Arepa Lady took the protest as an opportunity to recruit immigrant employees for its stand at Dekalb Market Hall. They wrote on Twitter:
“if you know of anyone fired in nyc due to #ADayWithoutImmigrants we are opening in Brooklyn. send resume to arepalady@hotmail.com.”
In addition to supporting immigrants or others who face discrimination, Arepa Lady sees itself as an important home for all types of people. “We’re all here, we all work here and as far as the community, people from all over come to the restaurant,” Mr. Osorio said.
