The air smells of salt and sunscreen, cumin and lamb, the Silk Road and the boardwalk. Out front is a surf rack slapped with stickers for Futures Fins and Mucho Aloha beer; inside are hulking Central Asian meat pastries the recipes for which reach back to the time of the Khans.

Uma’s opened last summer in Rockaway Beach, Queens, within a sprint of the sand, if not in view of it. It might be the only Uzbek restaurant in the United States (or the world) with surfboard parking, the Velvet Underground blaring and organic kale salad as an occasional special. The owners, Conrad Karl and his wife, Umida, known as Uma, are locals, residents of neighboring Belle Harbor, but he grew up in Philadelphia, she in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. (She’s the chef.)

For those who live in the Rockaways year-round, the cuisine of the steppe no doubt brought comfort during the long winter. The surprise is how well it suits this indolent, sun-stunned season, when the peninsula’s fair-weather friends come slouching back on the A train.