The sun has passed its peak, and Google says it's still 93 degrees in Brooklyn. It's hot, it's been hot, and it will still be hot tomorrow—facts that might be too much to bear were it not for a bar tucked behind a Duane Reade at the southern terminus of the Shuttle train in Rockaway Park. Attached to that bar is a bobbing dock where you can dip your feet in the water and nurse a frosty Corona. This could be your view:
The view from the dock on a recent Saturday (Emma Whitford/Gothamist)
Here's how to get there, preferably before happy hour: Take the A train toward Far Rockaway, all the way to Broad Channel. At Broad Channel, switch to the Shuttle, and take that all the way to the end, to Beach 116th Street. Turn right on the sidewalk, and walk straight until you can't walk any further—around the back righthand side of a LukOil gas station, adjacent to a Duane Reade with tinted windows.
The Wharf Bar & Grill is the kind of place where two girls in giant sunglasses won't look out of place cracking the crusty tops off their French Onion soups, and your waiter will help you fish your cash out of the bay if it blows off of the table (we saw this happen once). If you feel like it, you can order a grilled chicken breast with a twice-baked potato on the side. There's fried shrimp with thai sauce too, but we've found that the fork-to-mouth routine is completely secondary to the restaurant's uninterrupted view of Jamaica Bay.
There's usually a wait at dinner time, so here's how to navigate: Show up well before you're completely starving, and at least an hour before sunset. Grab a Bud, Coors, Michelob Ultra, or Twisted Tea, and cut through the dining deck to a ramp, which will take you down to the bobbing dock. Here, you can sit, and drink, and even take off your shoes. The Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge is off on the western horizon, the Veterans Memorial Bridge is to the east, and the Manhattan skyline is a shimmering sliver way off north. Last time I visited, I found myself lying on my back, staring straight up at the sky.
"If you Google us, you really can't find us," said one waitress recently, who grew up in the neighborhood, and used to come with her family. "The original owner, if he didn't like you, he wouldn't let you in." Since Bobby Leckie and Jimmy Bulloch took over ownership in 1979 the door policy has loosened up considerably.
Leckie summed it all up for the Rockaway Times last summer: "I don’t think people in general come to the Rockaways for the cuisine, but here, I think they come for the waterside and the beautiful views of the city."
The Wharf is located at 416 Beach 116th Street, at Beach Channel Drive, in Rockaway Park; (718) 474-8807. Tonight, the kitchen is open until 10:00.
The Wharf Bar & Grill (Emma Whitford/Gothamist)
