damnlines.comdamnlines.comMaría Piedad Cano built a decades-long cult following selling arepas from a Roosevelt Avenue street cart before opening a sit-down Jackson Heights restaurant in 2014.
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For years, the only way to taste María Piedad Cano's arepas was to go looking for her: per Gothamist, fans would roam Roosevelt Avenue after dark hoping to catch her cart before she sold out and packed up. Cano, a former lawyer and judge in Colombia, began griddling arepas from a cart under the 7 train's 82nd Street stop in 1990, and by 1993 The New York Press had already dubbed her the 'Saintly Arepa Lady,' a nickname that stuck, according to Gothamist.
That find-her-if-you-can dynamic eased when Cano and her sons opened a sit-down restaurant at 77-02AA Roosevelt Avenue in June 2014, timed to coincide with a Colombia World Cup win, per Gothamist. The storefront let the business run year-round instead of hibernating each winter, though Gothamist reported Cano kept working the original cart herself on Friday and Saturday nights during the warm-weather season even after the restaurant opened.
CBS News frames the cart's rise — from a struggling immigrant's mobile griddle to a business Cano calls a 'triumph' — as the origin of a following that now extends to additional sit-down locations in Astoria and Downtown Brooklyn, per The Infatuation. The current Jackson Heights restaurant, at 77-17 37th Ave, takes reservations through its own website (thearepalady.com), a departure from the cart-only, walk-up-and-hope era that built the legend.
Patterns as reported by press and regulars — not measured by damnlines.
Reservations: The Jackson Heights restaurant offers online reservations by party size and time via its own website (thearepalady.com); not confirmed on Resy, OpenTable, or Tock.
Walk-ins: Yes, walk-ins accepted at the restaurant; the original street cart was always walk-up only, per Gothamist.
Restaurant hours per thearepalady.com: Sun–Thu 12pm–10pm, Fri–Sat 12pm–11pm; the original cart historically ran seasonally, with Cano working it Friday/Saturday nights in-season per Gothamist.
For years the challenge wasn't a timed wait but finding the cart at all: per Gothamist, fans roamed Roosevelt Avenue after dark hoping to catch María Piedad Cano before she sold out. Since the family opened a sit-down restaurant in 2014, that scramble has largely given way to normal restaurant seating with online reservations, per thearepalady.com, though the original cart still draws Friday-and-Saturday-night crowds under the 7 train at 82nd Street in season, per Gothamist.
The Jackson Heights restaurant's website, thearepalady.com, offers an online reservation system where guests choose a party size and time. It's unclear from public reporting whether the original street cart or the newer Astoria and Downtown Brooklyn locations, mentioned by The Infatuation, accept reservations at all.
Yes — the Jackson Heights restaurant accepts walk-ins alongside its online reservations. The original food cart under the 7 train at 82nd Street has always been walk-up only, with Cano working it herself on Friday and Saturday nights in season, per Gothamist.
María Piedad Cano built a cult following selling arepas from a Jackson Heights street cart starting in 1990, earning the nickname 'Saintly Arepa Lady' from The New York Press in 1993, per Gothamist. CBS News frames her path from a Colombian judge who fled to the U.S. to a beloved Queens food institution as central to that story.
Yes — per The Infatuation, Arepa Lady has expanded beyond the original Jackson Heights spot to locations in Astoria and Downtown Brooklyn.
Sources: Gothamist · Gothamist · CBS News · The Infatuation · Arepa Lady (official site)