Neyda’s Buy & Fly

How do you bottle greatness?
I don’t have the answer. Mostly because I am unfamiliar with current bottling technology.
But I do have the adequate reply on «Where can I get a great café con leche so I can dip garlic-​buttered Cuban toast into it as part of a balanced American breakfast?» That would be Neyda’s.
For more than two decades, this former gas station has been providing affordable Cuban-​flavored eats in an eclectic setting that screams, «I need a Diet Coke» and «I’m next door getting my car worked on.»
None of the furniture matches. That’s a good thing. There are only two stools at the counter. Another good thing. Use the picnic tables outside for full neighborhood flavor so that on days with cool breezes, you can close your eyes and enjoy all the magical ambiance of South 50^th Street.
If you like antiseptic dining spots with WiFi and cool sayings on your coffee and helpful employees whose job titles end with the suffix –ista, you probably won’t like Neyda’s. You may, in fact, hate it with a lava-​hot intensity.
But I love Neyda’s, Go for breakfast. Stay for a while. Absorb the local color. Real local color. The kind they don’t show you on TV or at the mall or in Panera. Put your smartypants phone away. Open your eyes. Shut up and listen. Unless you talk to someone from the neighborhood.
Eat what Neyda serves you. Go home happy. She’s a nice lady. Be nice to her, or else you’ll have to answer to me.