In a dining room found a few feet below street level, customers hover over aluminum takeout containers with roti, curries, and grilled paneer sandwiches. Because it’s hidden under scaffolding, and sandwiched between a smoke shop and a shuttered restaurant, it’s easy to miss.
It’s one of a handful of Punjabi businesses in the area that cater to taxi drivers and college students in search of affordable food at all hours. One appeared recently in an unsuspecting location: Desi Stop and Deli, a small snack shop that’s completely vegetarian, opened at 75 Second Avenue, between East Fourth and Fifth streets, last fall.
It’s been too long since vegetarians had a proper burger that made meat eaters jealous. Now, burgers across the city are made at chain restaurants with plants that bleed. At one point in this city’s history, veggie burgers were made with actual vegetables: quinoa, chickpeas, and walnuts in the case of Superiority Burger, located near Tompkins Square Park or portobello mushrooms, cannellini beans, and onions at Lekka Burger, which closed the last of its Manhattan storefronts earlier this year.
