Restaurants on the Rockaway Peninsula are generally divided into longstanding taverns lighted by neon beer logos where locals in baseball caps talk about boats, and scruffy new establishments where day trippers in board shorts talk about coffee grinders. Bar Marseille is something else, a vaguely Provençal date-night venue at the foot of a high-end apartment building. The menu bounces between stuff you might actually find on the Côte d’Azur, like bouillabaisse, Pastis-scented mussels and olive tapenade, and resort food like tuna burgers. But the cold French whites and rosés are authentic enough, the grilled oysters in warm pools of seaweed butter slide down easily, and the sprawling patio is dotted with propane heaters in case there’s a chilly evening breeze rolling off the Atlantic, a block away.
190 Beach 69th Street (Rockaway Beach Boulevard), Arverne, Queens; 718-513-2474; barmarseille.com.
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