Eating along the 2 line: Guyanese dishes, Caribbean juices and homestyle soup await off this Bronx stop

Renovated in 2006, the Gun Hill Rd. subway station in the Bronx is surprisingly impressive, a glass-walled house with high-rise escalators to the 2 train. Be sure to take a peek at the neighborhood of Williams bridge when you’re on the platform, then head to one of these three spots.

Guyanese family recipes

For George Vasili, good food is in the genes: His grandfather and great-grandfather were both bakers in Guyana, where he grew up in the region of Bernice, while his mother was a caterer.

He puts both sides together at 7 Spices, the pretty, five-year-old Guyanese bakery and restaurant he created in a former Kennedy Fried Chicken location after moving to the U.S. in 2003.

On the left are Silvana baked goods: dense, sweet and earthy rum cakes ($3); crumbly coconut buns; flaky, savory bright orange cheese-filled pastries with buttery crusts; Guyanese style beef patties ($2).

And on the right, you’ll find Guyanese style chow man, served with baked chicken and a few of Silvana excellent vegetables (like coconut creamed spinach, curried pumpkin, sweet plantains, sauteed Chinese long beans) for $10. There are also flaky flatbread called rot, filled with curried goat, beef or codfish, or curried chickpeas and potatoes ($7 to $10).

Urban oasis

Divided by the elevated subway tracks, the four-lane stretch of White Plains Rd. at Gun Hill Rd. isn’t the most welcoming of thoroughfares. That’s what makes

 Brother Roy’s Green Garden Health Food, a 32-year-old health food market, even more special.

Originally opened by Roy Mitchell across the street, the shop moved into its current home three years ago. It’s now a beauty — a cross between a cafe with Caribbean-style juices instead of caffeine and an old-fashioned pharmacy. There are wooden-topped stools along the soda fountain-style counter, and in back, retro shelves and drawers filled with supplements like elderberry and cod liver oil.

Regulars come hang out for an hour or two, sipping creamy, nutty “peanut pep” smoothies ($12 for a two-cup size serving) or a purple-pink vegetable juice blended up with beets, celery, carrots and ginger ($5).

In addition to pantry items and frozen food, the store — still run by the Mitchell family — also has snacks like chicken patties ($2.50), banana cake ($2.50), and sweet potato pudding ($3). And crafts are sold there as well.

Soup, for starters

When Frank Ward opened up his restaurant on a hilltop corner in the North Bronx in 1981, he says, he was one of three Jamaican spots in the neighborhood. Now

 Frank’s Soup Bowl is the only one left from the bunch, his home style, made-from-scratch menu still pleasing regulars for 34 years.

Part of his success is offering many options. He makes seven kinds of soup — including pigeon pea, pepper pot and goat head — usually with two or three offerings available per day. Small servings are $2, a medium is $3.50, a large, $7.

For breakfast, there are a dozen options, including codfish fritters, the custard-like fruit called akee, plus thick, cinnamon and sugar-spiced hot porridge made from sweet corn and hominy, banana and peanuts, or yams, depending on the day. (Like soup, prices are $2, $3.50, and $7.)

There are also plenty of entrees — $6 to $13, usually served with rice and red peas cooked in coconut milk — including jerk chicken, oxtails, and brown stew fish, a whole snapper fried and then smothered in a deeply flavored sauce loaded with vegetables and sweet peppers.