Queens Boulevard at 138th

A corner
coffee shop
that cooks.

Small corner coffee shop with a diverse American & Greek menu offering three meals a day.

See the card (718) 297-7494

228dishes on the card

24sections

7days, identical hours

$1.00a cup of coffee

The Briarwood Cafe storefront on Queens Boulevard: a deep burgundy awning carrying the name in cream script either side of a line-drawn coffee cup, the phone number 718-297-7494, and the words Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner along the bottom edge — The Briarwood Cafe storefront on Queens Boulevard. *Photo: Neil P McGuinness*

The room

Sit at the counter

Five chrome stools, a formica top, and a pass-through window to the range where the cooks work in full view. There is a sidewalk deck out front too — four tables under a blue canopy — which the Google listing insists does not exist.

How to find it

The counter inside: five chrome-pedestal stools with brown vinyl seats in a row, a long formica counter, and behind it a pass-through window into the kitchen where two cooks are working under strip lights, with coffee brewers and a wall clock to one side — The counter inside. *Photo: Savyasachi Brown*

The card

Everything, all day, until four

Burgers and turkey burgers, 9 over-stuffed wraps, triple deckers ordered by number, 7 heroes with names on them, cold salad plates, the broiler, the seafood, 20 entrees, an Italian corner and a bakery case.

The awning says breakfast, lunch and dinner. All three are true. All three finish at four.

A takeout bacon cheeseburger in a foil container, the patty and melted cheese laid open beside the bacon-topped bun half, with crinkle-cut French fries filling the rest of the dish. *Photo: Central Blue Diamonds*

Greek Corner

Gyro from $4.95

Gyro and chicken gyro on pita or as a plate with fries and a small Greek salad. Souvlaki. Spinach pie. Pastitsio. Greek coffee at $1.75 and baklava at $2.50.

We serve only olive oil with all our salad.

Printed at the head of the section, in the kitchen's own words

The Greek side

And a soda fountain

Egg cream, $1.95

Lime rickey, ice cream soda, milk shakes, cherry or vanilla soda with a fifty-cent refill. A working fountain menu that nobody in Queens knows is still there, because it has never been on the internet.

One honest gap

We can't price the eggs

Nine of the ten photographs on their Google listing are of breakfast — eggs over easy with bacon and home fries, French toast, western omelettes, pancakes. The card we were given has no breakfast section at all. Breakfast is served from 7 AM and we cannot price a single item of it. This is the first thing to ask the owner for.

Prices are taken verbatim from the cafe's own printed card. They have not been confirmed as current — Google lists a $10–$20 spend per head, which the card predates. Call (718) 297-7494 for today's prices.