Shauna Eats Sunnyside

Financial Crunch Hits Churro Lady

The other Saturday, B and I decided to brave the increasingly brisk weather toward 46th St. for some sweets. At the time, my lamentations for churros were promptly rebuked by a disillusioned B.

B: “We haven’t seen her in months. Churro Lady closed up shop and shipped out a long time ago. You and your imaginary snacks…”

Sh: “That’s not possible. Churro Lady is 46th St.-fabulous. She HAS to still be there! You’ll see.”

B: “Whatever. I’m going for empanadas.”

As we walked, we mused about how many churros we would eat in the event that Churro Lady was present and a-slingin’. B suggested a churro challenge. I debated whether I could get down more than ten without a fight. B swore on 25. With stakes that hot, our anticipation grew.

Rounding the bustling corner at Queens Blvd. and 46th, as the sun peeked over the wilted eave of Flowers By Giorgie and beamed onto strips of pavement, the sidewalk crowd parted like the Red Sea to reveal her baseball-capped majesty, the tongs-wielding Churro Lady, awaiting our gleeful descent onto her batch of holy sugared dough sticks.

I glanced sideways at B, and he silently conceded defeat.

As we approached, Churro Lady graciously put down the celly and pulled back a layer of plastic wrap to reveal a piping bed of deep-fried sugar action. We asked for three (as in Churro Lady’s golden deal of three-for-$1) and were quickly informed of the new two-for-$1 charge. TWO-FOR-$1?! Seriously?! You know times are tough when reliably cheap street sweets are droppin’ a 20% increase on our snacky asses. Churro Lady just shrugged and said something in Spanish. Um, okay.

We took four-for-$2 and retreated to some red pleather movie theater seats outside of Pio Pio Riko, where the blow-up (and nighttime illuminatory) chicken was holding down his corner roost alongside a speaker that blared Peruvian folk tunes onto the sidewalk. GOTTA LOVE OUR ‘HOOD.

The churros were delicious… super crisp, amply sugared, lengthy and manageable as served in brown paper bags. But it just… wasn’t… enough. After scarfing down four, we realized that we’d go bankrupt before hitting our churro challenge goals, and thus, our noble plan was justifiably abandoned.

B returned to the pastry wondress for two more dough sticks, while I cautiously eyed up this eccentric chap rockin’ snowgear and riding breeches who was serenading a few noticeably underage girls across the street. Creepy, yet somehow amusing:

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Churro Lady of 46th Street
46th St. b/w Queens Blvd. and Greenpoint Ave.
Sunnyside, NY 11104