With New York's Meatpacking District well done and over with, the cool kids have since rolled up their jean cuffs and crossed over the East River to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has become a playground for the wealthy and deliberately unwashed. Reacting to the migration, several small hotels have popped up there in recent years, most notably the Wythe, but arrival of the William Vale literally changes the landscape. Opened in early September, the bold 21-storey tower looms over the neighbourhood, looking like a slice of South Beach was airdropped to sit among the warehouses.
BEST AMENITY
Located along the waterfront of Brooklyn’s East River, the William Vale offers guests a spot of luxury in an industrial neighbourhood.
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A little distance sometimes has its rewards, and the hotel's rooftop bar with its wraparound terrace, may offer the best view of Manhattan you will ever see. If one is of a certain age and physique, the close runner-up may be the pool, which the hotel boasts is New York's largest. When my wife and I were there in September, the hotel threw a pool party. She brought her 530-page biography of the Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik. I asked her what kind of pool party she envisioned, but she brought the book anyhow. As it turned out, it was a "Dayclub" situation, which is a daytime nightclub with more water and less clothing. On the other side of the pool, there were a couple dozen twentysomethings in a yoga class.
EAT IN OR EAT OUT?
James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini, who owns Soho's popular restaurant Dutch, will be running the hotel's food program. It started with the rooftop bar, Westlight, which offers informal fare such as spring rolls with sweet peas and kale – tasty and even a little virtuous. Then the hotel unveiled Leuca, Carmellini's Northern Italian restaurant. (Another Beard-winning chef, Wylie Dufresne, will make doughnuts inside the hotel.) For those who want to venture out for Italian, Williamsburg's Lilia, located in an old body shop, is as top-notch as anything you will find across the East River. And for the red-meat hunters, the storied Peter Luger Steakhouse is about a 20-minute walk away.
DESIGN
Every room in the hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony, though the rooms themselves, in typical New York fashion, are a little cramped.
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The lobby and rooms are resort-casual. And there's a lot of modern lobby furniture that almost looks as if you can fold it and walk away.
LOCATION, LOCATION
Near Brooklyn's waterfront, the William Vale is right in the groove of small shops, cafés and bars, and down the street from a major musical venue, the Brooklyn Bowl.
For those who need their dose of Manhattan, the nearest stations for the L train, (nicknamed the "Hell Train") are a 10-minute walk in either direction. Unless you're heading out to big-ticket events in the city, however, it's almost worth staying put and exploring.
ROOM WITH A VIEW
The William Vale, balcony view from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
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Every room in the William Vale has floor-to-ceiling, quadruple-paned windows (there are a lot of nearby night clubs) and a balcony.
The beds, set low to the floor, are both plush and resistant, but as expected for New York-area hotels, the space is cramped and there is not a lot of storage room. However, the bathrooms are spacious with glass-enclosed rainfall showers and, a little predictably, L'Occitane products.
IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING
For a hotel that will rely in part on a hip kind of conference business (TED Talks on the persuasive power of white-leather sneakers?), the workspace feels like an afterthought. Even in the upper-end suites, you need to call for an attachable desk, and there is no discreet public space to work. Even a dayclubber needs somewhere to open the laptop.
Even in upper-end suites, guests must call for an attachable desk.
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The William Vale, 111 N. 12th Street, Brooklyn, thewilliamvale.com, 183 rooms starting from $375 (U.S.)
The writer was a guest of the hotel.