For those (tragically) unfamiliar, New York City is five “boroughs” — Manhattan, Staten Island, The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. These are that parsed into various neighborhoods like Chinatown or Cony Island. And as Manhattan has more and more transfigured into a gated community of closeted Saudi princes, the artistic community that made that borough a creative cauldron in the 80s and 90s fled the sky-high rents for Williamsburg, a section of Brooklyn just across the East River. If you are even remotely interested in the Hipster/Bohemian life, welcome to your paradise.
Williamsburg being a large swath of real estate, and because Wire gives me only 450 words to get it all in, let’s get right to the point: stick to the fistful of hipsturbia orbiting Bedford and North 7th streets to get the full youthful, if fashionably disheveled, glory that makes this part of town so popular. The Brooklyn Brewery (79 N. 11th St.) spurts out some of the best craft beer in NYC, while Roberta’s Pizza (261 Moore St), the Swallow Cafe (b/t 10th St & 9th St), and Randolph Brooklyn (104 S 4th St) pack in the good eatin’.
And that’s on top of the some indie music venues and quirky-trendy-artsy shops where you can pick up all the up-and-coming street fashion before it gets entirely subsumed into the next issue of GQ. There’s even a store that sells records–the vinyl kind. ‘Member them?
You even have hipster hotels: pretty much dead center of all the art-action is the McCarren. Not far from some of the best street murals in the ‘hood, the McCarren’s haply modern rooms, Frette linens, marble baths, and a rockin’ rooftop bar with kick-ass vistas of the Manhattan skyline go a long way in proving its luxury-cred, but the decor, menu, and staff give the very strong impression of having a good time sans attitude or pretense. This being Brooklyn, the McCarren also has space to move around: the hotel as one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in the Big Apple.
And slowly but surely, the gay life is extending out of Manhattan, too. Gayborhoods are all popping up all over New York, in fact. In Williamsburg, The Metropolitan, This n’ That, and Macri Park are the watering holes you want to hit. But this being Williamsburg, expect everything to be aggressively, and deliberately, down-market. The whole point of Williamsburg was to get away from Manhattan; the vibe is very different, as are the looks: thin builds, man-buns, and “yards” (look it up) rule the runway here.
Manhattan it ain’t.
For more information, go to mccarrenhotel.com and nycgo.com/venues/brooklyn-tourism-visitors-centeror visit Steele Luxury Travel for more travel Indulgence: www.SteeleTravel.com