Gowanus

A small storefront on Third Avenue doing pierogies from the owner's grandmother's recipes, boiled or fried, by the half dozen. There are a handful of tables and a short menu that does not pretend to be anything else. It is the cheapest full plate of food within a few blocks of Littlefield.

Mon, 11:30am to 9:30pm. Tue, closed. Wed to Sun, 11:30am to 9:30pm

A 1920s apothecary on Henry Street that sat empty for years and reopened in 2010 as a working soda fountain, with the original tin ceiling and tile floor still in it. Egg creams, sundaes and a short savory menu, ordered at the counter or at the marble bar. All ages, all afternoon.

Mon to Fri, 2pm to 10pm. Sat and Sun, 1pm to 10pm

A dark bar on Third Avenue named for the waterway a block away, with a jukebox, a pool table and prices that have not tracked the neighborhood. Happy hour runs from three in the afternoon to eight, Monday through Friday. It closes at four in the morning every night of the week.

Mon to Fri, 3pm to 4am. Sat and Sun, 2pm to 4am

The Brooklyn branch of the barbecue business John Stage started from a motorcycle-rally pit in Syracuse in 1988. It is a big loud space on Union Street with long tables, a full bar and ribs by the rack or the quarter. You can put your name down and drink while you wait, or eat at the bar on your own.

Mon to Wed, 4pm to 9pm. Thu, noon to 9pm. Fri, noon to 11pm. Sat, 11am to 11pm. Sun, 11am to 9pm

Melissa and Emily Elsen, sisters from South Dakota, started selling pie in 2009 and opened this shop on Third Avenue in spring 2010. It is a counter with a few tables, a slice of salted honey or whatever is in season, and coffee. Nothing about it has scaled up in fifteen years.

Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm. Sat, 9am to 7pm. Sun, 10am to 6pm

A volunteer club that has been putting people on the Gowanus Canal for over twenty years, from a dock at the end of 2nd Street. Walk-up paddling is free, you get a life jacket and a paddle and a short safety talk, and then you are out on the water that the neighborhood is named for. Sessions run on scattered afternoons from late spring into October.

Walk-up paddling 1pm to 5pm on scheduled dates, roughly late May through mid-October. Check the club calendar before going

A bar on Third Avenue at 6th Street with a pool table, a dartboard and sidewalk seats. Its own site describes it as a neighborhood bar among the gritty Gowanus industrial streets, which is accurate and also the whole pitch. The kitchen does toasted cheese sandwiches and not much more.

Mon to Fri, 4pm to 2am. Sat, 2pm to 2am. Sun, 2pm to midnight

A sunny bar at the south end of Third Avenue with a planted backyard and better food than it needs to have. There is live folk on Mondays, karaoke on Wednesdays and a night where people bring records and play them. The spicy mac and cheese sandwich is the thing people order.

Mon to Thu, 4pm to 2am. Fri and Sat, 3pm to 4am. Sun, 3pm to 1am

A corner café on Fourth Avenue at Carroll Street, doing breakfast sandwiches, muffins baked on site and coffee to sit with. It is the daytime counterweight to a strip that is otherwise garages and new towers. Tables turn slowly and nobody minds.

Mon to Fri, 7:30am to 4pm. Sat and Sun, 8am to 4pm

A bakery at the front and a restaurant behind it, on the stretch of Third Avenue that runs past the Bell House. The bread and pastry are baked on site with whole grain flour, and the same counter sells a croissant in the morning and a plate of pasta at night. It opened in 2012 and has kept the same two functions since.

Mon, 7:30am to 6pm. Tue to Thu, 7:30am to 9pm. Fri, 7:30am to 10pm. Sat, 8am to 10pm. Sun, 8am to 6pm

A corner bar at Hoyt and Bergen inside the Boerum Hill Historic District, with a carved mahogany back bar, a pressed tin ceiling and a pool table through the arch at the back. There is no food, no television and no music loud enough to shout over. It is cash only, which is the fastest way to tell how little has changed.

Mon to Wed, 3pm to 2am. Thu to Sat, 3pm to 4am. Sun, 3pm to 2am

A warehouse on Union Street fitted out with ten regulation shuffleboard courts and a Florida retirement-village paint job. You sign up for a court at the desk or you stand at the bar and watch other people play. A food truck parks inside and does the cooking. Sundays are the one day they let all ages in.

Mon, closed. Tue to Thu, 6pm to 11pm. Fri, 6pm to 1am. Sat, noon to 1am. Sun, noon to 8pm

A working brewery on Douglass Street with a long bar under a skylight and a year-round yard out the back. Ninth Street Espresso runs the coffee counter inside from eight in the morning, and the kitchen starts in the late afternoon. Beer is sold to go from a separate shop counter on the sidewalk.

Mon to Sat, noon to midnight. Sun, noon to 11pm. Coffee counter 8am to 3pm. Kitchen from 4pm or 5pm