Yely's Coffee Shop

No menu? No problem!

by Sarah Lariviere

on the cheap

Taquería La Mexicana, May 11 New York Soup Exchange, May 4 Fasika, April 20

The person working the counter decides what you pay at Yely's Coffee Shop, and there is no menu. The constant stream of regulars don't need one -- they know the system. They also know this is anything but a normal coffee shop.

A glass case filled with meats and starches is the draw at this Dominican café, near the Jackson Square T stop in Jamaica Plain. Habla Español? Then ask for what you want, and they'll load up a Styrofoam container, toss in some limes, and charge you about $2 to $5. According to one of the owners, the price is determined by whether "you eat just a little, or you eat a big plate." But if you don't speak Spanish, just do as the man ahead of me did: "Give me a piece of [point, point, point]. . . . There we go."

However you handle it, you'll be choosing from pork chops, ribs, pigs' ears (!), kingfish, salami sausages, roasted chickens, dumplings filled with beef, sweet fried plantains, baked cassava root, rice, and spaghetti, to name a few options. Sitting at one of the stools at the counter, I was wondering how I'd eat my steaming pile of food without any sauce, until I took a bite of kingfish. Lusciously moist, it jumped with the tastes of lime and salt. Pork ribs fell apart when picked up, and they were super-fatty, in a good way. As I was finishing my last few plantains, it became clear to me why, as the man at the counter explained, the place is always jumping.

Yely's Coffee Shop, located at 284 Centre Street, in Jamaica Plain, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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