Faarzi: A Deliciously ‘Fake’ & Quirky Journey to Kathmandu

Trekking to Maspeth for Airport BBQ & Newari Pizza

Surely Maspeth’s first Nepali tavern.

“Get ready for a replicated mini trip to Nepal, they have our passports ready,” my IG pal Heman Shahi texted. We’d been chatting for months about his various ventures—he’s a cannabis advocate and founder of Re-Legalize Nepal–and he’d offered to show me around Nepali food and culture. I met him on the corner of Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard on a blustery March evening.

“Namaste, brother,” he greeted me and soon we were crossing Queens Boulevard. “There’s a Nepali word faarzi, it means like fake or a replica,” he said. Like a fugazi from Donnie Brasco, I mused. As we continued down Grand, Faarzi Himalayan Bar and Grill, one of the most unusual Nepali spots in Queens came into view. Unusual not just for its location far from the nexus of Tibetan and Nepalese restaurants in Jackson Heights, but also for its former life as the Grandstand, an Irish bar.

I’d never been inside Grandstand, but the corner building with its arched windows and second story signage was an iconic Irish tavern. Faarzi, with a plaque outside defining the word faarzi and namechecking three famous eateries in Kathmandu–Shandar, Lahana, Honachha–and a trio of Hindu gods gracing the threshold is clearly designed to be an iconic Himalayan tavern. It’s the brainchild of two young men–Lalit Thapa, who runs the front of the house, and Bipul Lama who runs the kitchen–who met while working at Utsav, an Indian restaurant near Radio City Hall. Heman told me that they spent much of the pandemic gutting the place and getting various decorative elements from Nepal.

Choila, served with a cloud of smoke, and a passport.