The Rockaways

A bar and grill on the Jamaica Bay side at the foot of the Cross Bay Bridge, with a deck over the water and boat slips off the end of it. Fish tacos, crab cakes, burgers and a raw bar, plus live music on the deck through the warm months. It trades year round, with the indoor side carrying the winter and the deck closed when it is cold.

Sun to Thu, 11:30am to 9pm. Fri and Sat, 11:30am to 10pm, bar until midnight. Open year round

Thirty-six acres of tidal marsh on the bay side of the peninsula, reaching northeast into Jamaica Bay between Sommerville Basin and Grass Hassock Channel. The Red Trail starts at Bayfield Avenue and Beach 65th Street and runs out along the shore, with Manhattan visible about fifteen miles off on a clear day. It sits on the Atlantic Flyway, so egrets, herons, hawks and ducks are the usual company, and swimming is not allowed.

Daily, dawn to dusk

Jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat and ribs sold off a counter on Amstel Boulevard, one block from the cinema. Plates come with rice and peas and a side, most of the trade walks out with a foil tray, and there are a few seats if you want them. The Rockaway Film Festival's own neighborhood guide names it as the West Indian food to get on the peninsula and points out that it is around the corner from the Arverne Cinema. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Tue to Sat, 11am to 8:30pm. Closed Sunday and Monday

A café and board storage run by the two men behind Locals Surf School, on Beach 69th Street a block off the sand. Espresso and drip from the bar, pastries in the case, and beer and wine if the coffee is not what you came for. People come in still damp from the water and nobody minds, and the racks of stored boards along the wall are the whole explanation of the place.

Daily, 7am to 5pm

Five and a half miles of city beach and rebuilt concrete boardwalk running from Beach 9th Street in Far Rockaway west to Beach 126th Street in Rockaway Park, with a bike path the whole length of it. The section at Beach 73rd Street is a straight walk south from the cinema and is one of the quieter stretches, well away from the concession islands. The boardwalk itself is open from six in the morning until ten at night all year, and lifeguards work the water only between Memorial Day weekend and the Sunday after Labor Day.

Boardwalk open daily, 6am to 10pm, year round. Lifeguards on duty 10am to 6pm from Memorial Day weekend to the Sunday after Labor Day

A yard behind a garage door on Beach 87th Street with picnic tables, a bar, murals on every wall and Tacoway Beach serving Baja-style tacos out of the kitchen at the back. It runs art shows and markets alongside the drinking, and it is where a lot of the peninsula's creative trade ends up on a summer evening. It is open May through October only, so it is no help at all in the winter.

Seasonal. Daily mid-May to October, noon to 11pm, weather permitting. Tacoway Beach serves 11am to 8pm. Closed November to April

An independent coffee shop on Rockaway Beach Boulevard doing espresso, cold brew, pressed juice and acai bowls, with pastries and savory croissants from the case and sandwiches made to order. It opens at seven on weekdays and eight at weekends and shuts at three, so it is a morning and early-afternoon operation. Surfers come in wet, which tells you how seriously the counter takes a dress code.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 3pm. Sat and Sun, 8am to 3pm

A narrow tiki bar in the storefront strip under the Beach 67th Street station, so thin that the bar runs most of the length of it. Frozen drinks, rum, a short beer list, and a back patio when the weather allows. It opens at four in the afternoon most days and noon on Sunday, and it stays open through the winter when a good deal of the peninsula does not.

Tue to Thu, 4pm to 11pm. Fri and Sat, 4pm to midnight. Sun, noon to 11pm. Closed Monday

A Black-owned wine bar on Rockaway Beach Boulevard with a beer garden in the back and a kitchen running tapas until one in the morning. There is live music most weeks and a Sunday film screening in the garden, which is a fair indication of who drinks here. It opens at two in the afternoon and runs to four on Friday and Saturday, the latest hours on the peninsula.

Sun to Thu, 2pm to 1am. Fri and Sat, 2pm to 4am. Kitchen until 1am

Uzbek and Central Asian cooking on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, open since 2013 and run by the same family since. Plov, lamb samsa, manti and skewers off the grill, with a long tea list. It is open every day of the year from noon to ten, which on this peninsula is the thing that matters most: almost nothing else near the beach keeps that schedule in February.

Daily, noon to 10pm, year round