R40 – Ruta 40 comes to Vernon Boulevard

On Vernon Boulevard, the river-facing high street of Long Island City, R40 sets its dining room around a custom-built parrilla, the Argentine wood grill that gives the restaurant both its smoke and, indirectly, its name. It opened its doors on 11 February 2020, the end of a build that had run for three years. The project paired Miriam Dominguez, who already ran the Cuban restaurant Madera just across the street, with her son Giovanni Porto as executive chef. The name borrows from Ruta Nacional 40, the road that runs the length of Argentina and occupies the same place in that country's imagination as Route 66 does in the United States. Seating for about sixty runs from the front door past the open kitchen to a backyard added for warmer months. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a nod to a kitchen that has kept its parrilla-first identity through five years on this stretch of Queens waterfront.

01The room and the setting

The design studio Steve Wolf Designs built the identity around the chef's own travels to Argentina, aiming for a room that would feel both of the pampas and of Queens. The result, by the studio's own account, is a blend of traditional Argentinian-inspired design with an elegant and modern twist. The dining room is rustic and expansive rather than rough — wood-trimmed, brick-exposed, built around the open kitchen and its custom parrilla so that the grill itself is part of the room's choreography. A seasonal backyard extends the dining space outdoors, and an underground cellar holds a wine list of more than seventy varieties, most of them Argentine.

The MICHELIN Guide notes the restaurant for an interesting wine list and a terrace, two details that track closely with what greets a diner on arrival: the glow of the grill up front, the garden out back, and a cellar built specifically around Mendoza and Salta.

02The chef

Giovanni Porto runs the kitchen as executive chef, a role he has held since the restaurant's opening. R40 is a collaboration between Porto and his mother, Miriam Dominguez, who owns the Cuban restaurant Madera, directly across Vernon Boulevard — a family partnership that has quietly anchored this corner of Long Island City for years before R40 arrived. The brief Porto gave his design team was personal: to bring the experience he felt through his own travels to Argentina into the room itself, rather than relying on imported tropes of gaucho culture.

Insider tip

Closed Mon & Tue; brunch weekends; reserve via the restaurant's own email.

03The cooking

The kitchen's anchor dish is built for two and grilled entirely over the custom parrilla: a deluxe Argentinian platter comprising skirt steak, short rib, sweetbreads, chorizo, blood sausage and chicken thigh, served with pepperoncini peppers, pickled roasted peppers, market greens, housemade za'atar-spiced flatbread, salsa criolla and classic chimichurri. Beyond the grill, the menu widens into share plates — bone marrow steak tartare with grass-fed coulotte, shallots and sherry; bluefin tuna tartare with cauliflower crema and pickled mustard seeds; arroz negro with squid-ink rice and grilled head-on prawn — alongside a short empanada list, house pastas and a chicken milanesa finished with market greens and a champagne tarragon vinaigrette.

04What to order

Start with the empanada basket, one of each filling, including a jumbo lump blue crab and shrimp version with remoulade and the classic ground-beef, raisin and boiled-egg clásico. The provoleta — crispy provolone with confit tomatoes and chili flakes on sourdough — is built for sharing before the grill arrives. For the main event, the parrillada for two is the dish the restaurant was built around, but a 30-day dry-aged NY strip or the 32oz bone-in ribeye for two, finished with café de Paris butter, make the case for the parrilla on their own. Finish with the flan casero, dulce de leche and whipped cream, or the chocolate olive oil cake with blistered grapes.

05Wine and drinks

The underground cellar holding more than seventy labels was part of the original brief, conceived alongside the restaurant's wine programme and a cocktail menu first devised by Westlight beverage consultant Sami Hamarneh. The list today stays close to Argentina — Mendoza and Salta Torrontes, Trivento and Trapiche Malbecs, a Tupungato Chardonnay — rounded out with Italian Lambrusco and French brut by the glass. The cocktail list carries its own South American accent, from a pisco-based Paso del Sol to a mezcal-and-tequila Bandolero, alongside a straightforward R40 espresso martini and a Patagonia spritz built on Aperol and strawberry.

06When to go and booking

R40 is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 11:30am to 3:30pm; dinner runs Sunday to Thursday from 5:30pm to 9:30pm and Friday and Saturday from 5:30pm to 10:30pm, as published by the restaurant in October 2026. Reservations go through the restaurant's own address, with a separate line for events and full buyouts of the dining room and backyard. The Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue subway station sits a short walk away, making the restaurant an easy stop on the same strip as Madera, the sister restaurant that started it all.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.