Wythe Hotel

It’s rare for a hotel to so completely exemplify the character of the neighborhood it calls home. Here, at Williamsburg’s Wythe Hotel, that means a location between McCarren Park and the gentrifying waterfront, in a 1901-vintage factory building that’s been lovingly (but not too thoroughly) renovated. And in the kitchen, it means a bit of Brooklyn culinary royalty: Aidan O’Neal and Jake Leiber, of the beloved Chez Ma Tante, are the chefs behind Le Crocodile, a neighborhood brasserie serving earnest French fare in a setting inspired by their Parisian and New York favorites. (They’re also responsible for Bar Blondeau, the 6th-floor bar with an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline.)

Rooms are comfortable, even spacious by New York standards, and while they stop well short of proper luxury-hotel territory, they’re perfectly suited to the setting and clientele. Poured concrete floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, distressed brick walls and subway-tiled bathrooms strike just the right note. And there’s a lot of pleasure to be found in the tactile details of the place — the fixtures, the finishes, the bath products and even the minibar items display an admirable attention to detail.

We could go on cataloguing the details in an effort to make the case, but at a certain point you’ve simply got to see it for yourself. (You can hardly miss it, what with the fifty-foot “Hotel” sign that towers over Wythe and North 11th.)

How to get there:
Wythe Hotel is a quick 7-block walk from the Bedford Avenue subway stop, which is less than 10 minutes on the L train from Union Square in Manhattan.