- The food around Cannabis Cowboy in Richmond Hill is mostly three overlapping worlds: Indo-Caribbean (Guyanese and Trinidadian), South Asian (Punjabi restaurants and sweet shops), and Latin American (Ecuadorian, Mexican and more) as you head toward Ozone Park.
- The heart of it is Liberty Avenue's "Little Guyana," a few blocks south of Jamaica Avenue — roti, doubles, pholourie, aloo pie, cook-up rice, and a bakery case of pine tarts and black cake.
- Jamaica Avenue itself, under the J/Z tracks, is the everyday spine: bakeries, quick counters, coffee, and takeout, so you can eat well without straying far from the 111 St or 104 St stops.
- Cannabis Cowboy is a licensed adult-use dispensary (NY OCM-RETL-24-000068) on Jamaica Avenue, if you're 21+ — an easy stop to fold into a food walk around the avenue.
Richmond Hill doesn't get the food press that Flushing or Jackson Heights do, and that's a little unfair, because the eating here is genuinely some of the best in Queens. The neighborhood sits at the crossroads of a huge Indo-Caribbean community, a deep South Asian one, and a growing Latin American population — and all three cook. Within a short walk of Cannabis Cowboy on Jamaica Avenue you can put together a full day of roti, doubles, Punjabi sweets, and Ecuadorian plates without ever getting in a car.
This is a guide to what's actually around the store, organized by the kind of food and where to find it. It leans on dishes and streets rather than a list of restaurant names, because the specific counters change but the corridors — and what they're famous for — don't.
What kind of food is around Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill?
Three broad cuisines define the area, and they blur into each other block by block:
- Indo-Caribbean — Guyanese and Trinidadian cooking, the neighborhood's signature. This is the roti-and-doubles world, centered on Liberty Avenue a few blocks south.
- South Asian — Punjabi restaurants and Indian sweet shops, tied to Richmond Hill's large Sikh and Punjabi community. Think samosas, curries, tandoori, and glass cases of mithai (sweets).
- Latin American — Ecuadorian, Mexican, Dominican and more, thickest as you move west and south toward Ozone Park. Tacos, empanadas, arepas, and hearty Ecuadorian plates.
Add to that the everyday counters lining Jamaica Avenue under the elevated J/Z train — bakeries, coffee, halal carts, fried-chicken spots, and takeout — and you've got a lot of good, cheap eating in a few square blocks. The rest of this guide breaks it down.
Where's the Guyanese and Trinidadian food?
On and around Liberty Avenue, in the stretch widely known as Little Guyana — a few blocks south of Jamaica Avenue, walkable from the store. Richmond Hill is home to one of the largest Guyanese and wider Indo-Caribbean communities anywhere outside the Caribbean, and Liberty Avenue is its main street: roti shops, West Indian bakeries, snackettes, and grocery stores stacked one after another.
The cooking is a genuine fusion — Indian techniques and spices carried to the Caribbean generations ago and cooked ever since with local ingredients. If you've never had it, this is the place to start. A few things to look for:
- Roti — a flatbread served with or wrapped around curry. Dhalpuri is layered with seasoned ground split peas; buss-up-shut (paratha) is a flaky roti torn up soft. Fillings run to curried chicken, goat, duck, shrimp, or vegetarian channa and aloo (chickpea and potato), pumpkin, or spinach.
- Doubles — the great Trinidadian street snack: two pieces of soft fried flatbread (bara) around curried chickpeas, topped with tamarind, cucumber, mango, and pepper sauce to taste. Cheap, vegetarian, and worth ordering first.
- Pholourie and aloo pie — split-pea fritters and fried potato-stuffed pastries, both eaten with tangy chutney.
- Cook-up rice and chow mein — Guyanese one-pot rice cooked with peas and coconut milk, plus Guyanese-Chinese chow mein and fried rice, a cuisine of its own.
What should you get from a West Indian bakery?
Don't skip the bakery case — it's half the reason to come. Guyanese and Trinidadian bakeries along Liberty Avenue turn out a specific, delicious lineup you won't find in most of the city:
- Pine tarts — open-faced pineapple pastries, tart and sweet.
- Black cake — a dense, dark rum-soaked fruit cake, especially around the holidays.
- Cheese rolls and salara — a flaky cheese-filled pastry, and salara, a soft bread swirled with sweet red coconut.
- Drinks — house-made mauby, sorrel, peanut punch, and soursop, sold cold by the bottle.
A bag of pastries and a cold sorrel is a perfect thing to carry back for later. Bakeries here move fast, so what's on the shelf at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. can look completely different.
Where's the South Asian food and sweets?
Woven right through the same blocks. Richmond Hill has a large Punjabi and Sikh community, with gurdwaras in the neighborhood, and that shows up in the food: Punjabi restaurants doing samosas, chole, saag, biryani, and tandoori, alongside Indian sweet shops (mithai shops) with cases of jalebi, barfi, gulab jamun, ladoo, and rasmalai. Many double as savory counters selling samosas and chaat.
It's a nice contrast to the Caribbean side of the street: where a roti shop is a full plate, a sweet shop is a box of small things to graze on or bring to someone's house. Between the two you can eat South Asian food two very different ways within the same block.
Where can you find Latin food nearby?
Head west and south — toward Ozone Park and along the avenues below Jamaica — and the mix shifts Latin American. Richmond Hill and Ozone Park have sizable Ecuadorian, Mexican, and Dominican communities, so you'll find:
- Ecuadorian — hearty plates like hornado (roast pork), guatita, and encebollado, plus bolón and empanadas from bakeries and small restaurants.
- Mexican — taquerias and torta counters, with tacos al pastor, quesadillas, and weekend birria and menudo.
- Dominican — la bandera plates (rice, beans, stewed meat), pernil, and pastelitos from lunch counters and bakeries.
This is the everyday, no-frills end of the spectrum — counter service, generous portions, and low prices. If you want a big savory lunch between Caribbean snacks, this is where to point yourself.
What about a quick bite on Jamaica Avenue itself?
If you don't want to wander far from the 111 St or 104 St stops, Jamaica Avenue under the J/Z tracks has plenty on its own. It's a working retail avenue, so the food skews toward fast, cheap, and grab-and-go: West Indian and Latin bakeries, halal carts and platters, fried chicken, pizza, coffee shops, and juice and snack counters. It's the strip you'll actually walk down to reach the store, so it's easy to grab something on the way in or out.
A short eating crawl along the avenue
One way to string it into a couple of hours on foot, all within a short walk of the store:
- Start with doubles from a Liberty Avenue counter — one or two, with pepper on the side, to warm up.
- Sit down for roti — dhalpuri with curried goat or channa-and-aloo if you want it vegetarian.
- Detour for something Latin — a couple of tacos or an Ecuadorian plate as you drift toward Ozone Park.
- Hit a sweet shop — a small box of Punjabi mithai to graze on.
- Finish at a West Indian bakery — pine tarts, a cheese roll, and a cold sorrel or mauby to carry home.
Pace yourself — the portions are bigger than they look, and half the fun is following what smells good rather than sticking to a plan.
How do you get to the avenue?
It's an easy trip without a car. The J/Z train runs on elevated tracks directly above Jamaica Avenue, and 111 St and 104 St are the two closest stops — both drop you right onto the avenue, with Liberty Avenue's food a few blocks south. The Q24 and Q56 buses run along Jamaica Avenue too. Standard MTA fare is $2.90 by OMNY or MetroCard. Coming from farther out, transfer to the J at Jamaica Station, which connects the LIRR and the JFK AirTrain. There's a full breakdown in the guide to getting to Cannabis Cowboy by train or bus.
Where does Cannabis Cowboy fit on the block?
Right in the middle of all of it. Cannabis Cowboy is a licensed adult-use dispensary on Jamaica Avenue in [Richmond Hill](/dispensary/richmond-hill) (NY OCM-RETL-24-000068), under the same J/Z line that carries you to the food. If you're 21 or older, it's an easy stop to fold into a walk down the avenue — everything on the shelf comes through New York's regulated, lab-tested supply chain, and the menu price is the final price, since the state's 13% cannabis tax is already built in. You can browse the live menu or order ahead, and you'll need a current 21+ photo ID either way.
A quick reminder for a day out, though: adult-use cannabis is for people 21 and over to use later in a legal private setting — not on the street, the train, or a park bench, and not somewhere you're about to eat with others. Enjoy the avenue for the food; keep the rest for home.
The quick rundown
- Indo-Caribbean: Liberty Avenue's Little Guyana — roti, doubles, pholourie, cook-up rice, and West Indian bakeries with pine tarts and black cake.
- South Asian: Punjabi restaurants and Indian sweet shops woven through the same blocks — samosas, curries, and mithai.
- Latin American: Ecuadorian, Mexican, and Dominican counters toward Ozone Park — tacos, empanadas, and hearty plates.
- On the avenue: bakeries, halal, and quick counters right by the 111 St and 104 St J/Z stops.
- If you're 21+: a licensed dispensary on Jamaica Avenue, an easy stop on a food walk.
Cannabis Cowboy is a licensed adult-use dispensary on Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, serving Ozone Park, Jamaica, Woodhaven and the rest of the surrounding area. Browse the live menu or stop in with a 21+ ID — after you've eaten your way down the avenue.