Chinatown used to be a late night town (see: Wo Hop, Great NY Noodletown). Eldridge Street Store is trying to bring that back, and it already has a dedicated group of regulars who sport tooth gems and probably know the owners. The tiny, all-orange place is open until 4am on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, in case you’d like to eat some sesame chicken after everyone’s asleep. But even at a more normal time of day, Eldridge Street Store is a quirky little spot where you can drink bubble tea and eat some solid American Chinese classics. They do tea all day, with eight different types of bubbles and jellies, plus fresh fruit purées, and food starting at 5pm, so you can pair your taro bubble tea with a shrimp egg roll or some fried plantains. Their peanut noodles, advertised on a neon sign in the window, could never hold a candle to the ones at Shu Jiao Fu Zhou. But Shu Jiao Fu Zhou closes at 8pm.
photo credit: Willa Moore
photo credit: Willa Moore
photo credit: Willa Moore
photo credit: Willa Moore
