Directly across the street is the longstanding Greek seafood restaurant Taverna Kyclades, whose superstar reputation has earned it lines down the block. Those wearying of the wait might want to consider a slight shift in palate. Egypt and Greece are separated by a little less than a thousand miles; here, it’s a matter of about 200 feet, with Ditmars Boulevard a stand-in for the Mediterranean Sea.

Note that it can get crowded on this side, too. As at other neighborhood seafood spots, you start at the counter, where you select your seafood and method of preparation. Only then are you alloted a number and ushered to a table. Sometimes there’s a pileup as diners dither over the jewelry-case array of silvery orata and branzino, wild red snapper with blushing tails and striped bass on mounds of ice, alongside smaller mullets and sardines, trays of plump shellfish and octopus tentacles draped as if poised to escape.

All come from the fish market in Hunts Point, the Bronx, and are treated by Mr. Abuker, the chef, with a wisdom that, Mr. Mansy said, is the inheritance of anyone who grows up in Alexandria. (Mr. Abuker’s name tells half the story: His uncles on his mother’s side are fishermen from Abu Qir, a tiny town on Alexandria’s northeastern edge that draws pilgrims solely for its seafood restaurants, which range from temples that seat hundreds to tables on the beach.)