Senegalese men selling counterfeit watches might have been the first of the modern Africans to hit town—they certainly had the first West African restaurants, which started out in SRO hotels around Times Square. The Senegalese genre has evolved to include—gasp!—a restaurant founded by Catholic Africans who can sell alcohol, and that atypical place is La Galette, where the fare runs to the national dish of cheb (served all day, rather than just at lunch) and the spring rolls called nems, introduced to Dakar by Vietnamese immigrants 60 years ago. 177 East 100th Street, 212-410-6361, lagaletteny.com (10029)