The Sandbar & Grill hangs off the side of Pier 2 in Monterey harbor. You walk half-way out the pier, smelling the creosote from the timbers, hearing the seagulls calling overhead and watching dive boats putter toward open water while their passengers strap on scuba gear. Then you walk slowly down a flight of wooden stairs. Very slowly, that is, because an elderly patron is in front of you, gripping the stair rail for dear life while three relatives grip her to guide her down.

The restaurant sits at boat level below this commercial wharf because the space was originally a fuel pumping station for the marina. Walk in and you go back in time. It feels as if it might almost be the 1940s, certainly no more recent than the 1970s (even though I found out later that the restaurant is fairly new). The Sandbar & Grill welcomes a largely local clientele in a town teeming with tourists. You don’t find the Sandbar on the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf; it’s on the next pier down.

We arrived at noon for lunch on a chilly, breezy Saturday and found the place humming. After a 15-minute wait at the bar and a round of Bloody Marys, our window table was ready. We sat down and ordered fragrant mussels steamed in sherry with lots of garlic and marjoram, and fish and chips, which boasted the most tender fish (red snapper?) and lightest beer batter I can remember. So the cole slaw was too sweet? We weren’t complaining.

Unsual for me, I didn’t order any wine. I was content to finish my Bloody Mary and soak up the purely local, dockside ambience and the good, homey food. I love detailed, cutting-edge, sophisticated food, which this wasn’t. But I also love authentic, unfussy, good-old local cooking, which this was.

Places like this are easy to find in Europe. I don’t mean seafood restaurants on a wharf, necessarily, but long-lived indigenous, family-owned restaurants that emphasize good traditional dishes, friendly service and unique locations.

In Burgundy it could be a small restaurant tucked along a curving stone alley in Beaune, serving mustard rabbit with noodles and a good red Monthelie. In Bordeaux it would be the Lion d’Or near Chateau Margaux grilling choice chunks of lamb and beef to go with a great selection of clarets at good prices. Places that have been there for generations and still draw crowds — I can think of numerous restaurants in Italy that fit the description.

But this kind of place is somewhat rare in America. Unique high-end restaurants are much easier to find. Looking around home for good, affordable restaurants with local color, I like Restaurant Pearl, for chicken with chile verde sauce, and over in Sonoma The Girl & the Fig bistro, for nice country French food and a great Rhone-style wine list. But neither is more than one generation old.

New York, Chicago and New Orleans surely have their share of local treasures. Any tips on these and other destinations are welcome.

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