New Yorkers have an almost embarrassing panoply of culinary choices, but as we pile into one crowded new bistro after another, something is sacrificed. Especially in summer, our pity for towns with fewer restaurants can turn into envy for their picnics, backyard grills, and casual neighborliness. A Brooklyn restaurant – the hottest new thing in Greenpoint – has a solution.

The Queen’s Hideaway is the closest thing to home cooking outside of home. The restaurant occupies an innocuous dark storefront on a quiet, mostly residential street; inside, the bright dining room feels comfortably lived-in, without a shred of pretense. Domestic touches, like a shelf of cookbooks, miscellaneous notes taped to the walls, and charmingly mismatched vintage tableware, establish a cozy mood. Situated near the back of the restaurant is the bustling, semi-open kitchen. Squeeze past it and you’re in the spacious, breezy backyard, which offers additional tables and homey decor and is patrolled for scraps by a friendly dog-and-cat team.

Owner and chef Liza Queen cooks a daily dinner that’s based on whim as well as what produce happens to be freshest. Her palette tends toward Mexico and the American South, but, with no real restrictions, it can range widely. If on one day a beautifully French pate tops the menu, it’s just one in an ongoing line of pleasant surprises. Her cooking is personal and idiosyncratic, with a preference (and knack) for bold, clean flavors. Some elements recur – such as the soft, Italian-style semolina bread that works its way onto many plates – and almost every dish has a healthy sprinkling of black pepper and flaky sea salt, a delicious signature. On a typical day, the handwritten, photocopied menu lists five main courses in a barely believable $10 to $12 range, five dual-purpose “sides & starters,” and a few desserts. As in life, it’s risky to form attachments here: It’s likely your favorite dish will change radically or vanish completely within a day or two. Highlights of the last couple of weeks’ eating at the Queen’s Hideaway include the following.

Halibut – one item that seems to be holding its menu position – is lightly smoked on the premises and piled on corn tortillas with perfect cherry tomatoes, roast-tomato salsa, and rich sour cream ($12). The moist, flavorful fish and fresh produce form a refreshing combination. One evening, the halibut taco shared a surf-and-turf platter with another taco containing succulent little chunks of brisket in a smoky, spicy sauce.

Another night, pork loin ($12) was roasted, sliced, and served at room temperature with a spicy sauce that incorporated whole blueberries; sharing the plate were succulently cornmeal-crusted green-tomato slices and a heap of bacony stewed beet greens. Fileted flounder ($11), fried in a cornmeal breading, was accompanied by savory little examples of the corn fritters known as hush puppies. The fish itself was perhaps my only discovery of a dish with too little flavor. On another occasion, there was crushed pecan in the flounder’s breading, and it was dressed with a lime cream that amply covered any blandness with Mexican zest.

A hearty soup of mixed provenance – its ancestors may have included jambalaya and bouillabaisse – began with a fennel-scented broth and was filled with rice and chunks of albacore tuna and of sand shark ($12). The latter, sometimes considered a trash fish, was surprisingly appealing, with the buttery consistency of Chilean sea bass and a mild flavor. Slap on a new marketing-friendly name and it’s a fad fish waiting to happen. Semolina crostini topped with gorgeous dark-red tomato slices rounded out the dish.

The sides-or-starters often do fare best as sides; they’re cheap and tasty enough that everyone at the table will want a helping. Dense skillet-cooked cornbread ($3) comes with a big pat of a deep brown butter-molasses mixture that gives the bread an irresistible rich, dark flavor. Okra fritters (or one time they were zucchini fritters) coat bits of the savory vegetable in thick gobs of golden fried batter, reminiscent of Indian pakoras ($6); the tart “Hideaway hot sauce” adds kick.

The chile relleno ($5), another recurring item, is roasted, not batter-fried, which spotlights the pale, sweet, supple bell peppers – this is not a dish for pepper haters. The bells, which come three to an order, are lightly stuffed with crumbly, fresh queso blanco, and garnished with crunchy, addictive bits of pork crackling. One evening, the starters offered a surprise jaunt to Europe, in the form of an unctuous chicken-liver pate sweetened with port ($7), accompanied with a gooey slice of ripe raw-milk cheese – Greenmarket favorite Baudolino, from New Jersey’s Bobolink Dairy – whose herby sweetness meets the pate on an equal footing. The ubiquitous semolina bread seems wan and over-refined at first next to these two barn yard beauties, but it turns out to hold its own quite well.

Dessert choices capitalize on the simple grandeur of fresh fruit. A delicate, loose custard flavored with fresh mint and verbena and sprinkled with berries provides sweet, summery refreshment ($3). Daily pies ($5), including blueberry-peach and blueberry-cherry, sometimes fall short of transcendence, but who can quibble with a fresh baked fruit pie? “Blackmarket melon” ($4), perhaps the best option when it’s available, is made with yellow watermelon, cantaloupe, or whatever’s ripest. Then it’s injected with vodka, left to saturate, sliced, and sprinkled heavily with cayenne and fresh mint – an eye-opening, intensely satisfying finish to a meal.

Apart from the melon, alcohol is served on a bring-your-own basis, with a $5 corkage fee. Most tables seem to opt for beer – a tasty Polish import from the local delis, perhaps – but much of the robust, seasonal food calls out for a light red wine.

Summer, with its bounty of local produce, feels like the best time to enjoy this kind of improvisational, ingredient-driven cooking. But as fall approaches, it will be a pleasure to see what the rest of the year will bring. As it stands, the restaurant is a towering addition to the area and a compelling reason to move to Greenpoint. Those who do will have no trouble enticing Manhattan friends to visit, after they’ve seen the Queen’s Hideaway.

The Queen’s Hideaway, 222 Franklin St. at Freeman Street, Brooklyn, 718-383-2355.