“We wanted to give this place character,” says Ali Zaman, one of the people involved in running Blue Hour, about their choice to recently open a fast-casual spot nestled inside an unassuming BP gas station on Myrtle Avenue. Now it’s been lovingly covered by everyone from Brooklyn Magazine to the New Yorker, whose Helen Rosner has labeled it a symbol of Bushwick’s “friendly, lived-in grit.”
“Alhumdulillah, people really love it. We made sure to keep the prices very fair and the hours long, while striving to have really consistent and compassionate service,” Zaman tells me, via email.
The name, which Zaman says was inspired by the brief, magical moments just after sunset and before dawn, intends to evoke a sense of cinematic charm and nostalgia — a feeling that may come to you when you’re ambling through the streets late at night in Bushwick. Situated inside a gas station, it’s an idea that marries the familiar with the unexpected.
Zaman says “there’s a lot of shock and humor in the concept, so there’s an initial spark for people, but once they try the food, they realize we have a lot of serious skill and thought behind everything.” While there, passerby and people filling up their gas tank alike can pick up items like a “Cwunch Wap Supweme,” a $10 riff on the popular Taco Bell dish.
The story behind Blue Hour is rooted in Zaman and Mohamed Ghiasi’s collective backgrounds growing up in families that operated renowned halal restaurants. Zaman’s family runs Sami’s Kabab House, an Afghan spot that was written up in the New York Times in 2017 and featured as a place to be seen in New York’s “Look Book” just a few years later. Ghiasi’s family is behind Dunya Kabab, near Prospect Park, a different Afghan place that has landed write-ups from The New York Times and from the New Yorker’s Hannah Goldfield. (“What Afghanis Eat,” reads Goldfield’s headline.)
Behind the counter at Blue Hour, Zaman designs the menu alongside Devlin Claro, a childhood best friend who now oversees the place’s graphic design and photography. Ghiasi oversees day-to-day operations with Yusuf Zaman, younger brother of Ali and who is also involved in operating the two Sami’s Kabab House locations.
For this idea, the group decided not to go with Afghan food. Instead, they pivoted to well-loved New York late-night classics, like making the kind of $9 chop cheese they found lacking local bodegas that have not been written up in the New Yorker.
“We created what we’ve always wanted to eat,” says Zaman. “In a way, this was inspired by the bustling gas station and the pace at which everyone in the city operates. We’re all born and raised in NYC so we just move with impatience naturally.”
The menu is intentionally concise, unlike the dizzying array of options at competing local bodegas. Well-executed halal cart classics like their “chicken over rice” go for $12 here; more interesting additions include a “Dragon Boy” hot chicken sandwich that goes for $8 and a smashburger that runs for $7 and has already started rivaling the city’s best. Zaman tells me that they’re thinking of moving into selling merch next.
Blue Hour is located at 1525 Myrtle Avenue, inside the BP station, open 7 days a week, from 4pm to 2am.
All photos taken by Seth Gilgus for Bushwick Daily.
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