Tacoway is also open seasonally. Keeping in gritty spirit, it runs out of a shipping container at Beach 87th Street. They serve fried fish tacos, maybe one of the most surfer-coded meals in existence. This business is also one-half of those responsible for major parties that sweep the area each year. Connolly’s and Tacoway each throw annual fiestas, and surfers get their brews and bites back-to-back through the sweltering summer months. “There’s like a battery of surfer party vibes in the summer,” Cleghorn says.
Not everyone is into the bigger surf community. It’s cliché: this spot is for locals, what do you think you’re doing flopping into my wave? There are personalities in the area, too, who claim being from Rockaway when, really, they’re from somewhere else. In surfing parlance, that’s an even bigger no no than usual.
Krieger says it’s a distance away until Rockaway gets the full Greenpoint or Williamsburg treatment. And the business community is happy to have the traffic. He highlights Almeda Club, a business part-clubhouse, part-surf shop, part-cafe and part-tutoring center in the area. It demonstrates the next generation of businesses coming up that’s Rockaway-born-and-bred, offering food and surf alike. Owners Joe Falcone and Graham Hill aim to make sure underrepresented populations, like kids who can’t afford tutoring for instance, have a place in Rockaway.
From Almeda Club to Super Burrito and back, the service industry and surf communities in Rockaway remain enmeshed. In September, a DIY, invite-only surf contest called Prince of the Peninsula takes over the beach. Waves get big, folks get barrelled, and Cleghorn brings burritos out to the shore. So he’s less surprised than he used to be when he sees a 40% spike in revenue year over year on particular days. It’s almost always the waves. “There are still enough people in New York City who throw on their wetsuits in the middle of December,” he says. “And I think that’s cool.”
Paolo Bicchieri is an associate editor at Eater. Follow him on Instagram.
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