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New Yorkers are used to waiting in lines — for burgers, sneakers, the latest tech gadgets. But on a recent Sunday morning, the line at the Japanese teahouse Nippon Cha in Bayside, Queens, was different. For one thing, people weren’t hunched over, staring at their phones. They were too busy chatting about the intrigue of the pop-up inside.

One young woman asked how quickly the products sold out. (“I think within the first two hours” came the answer from somewhere farther up.) An older woman joining the line announced that she was here with a specific order from a friend in the hospital. Japanese families at wide wooden tables briefly looked up from bowls of ramen to survey the crowd gathering at the entrance. Two French bulldogs who had tagged along with their owners were squatted on a bench made for humans, but no one seemed to mind.