These new spots are up and coming!
Three new rooftop spaces have opened in Williamsburg in the last few weeks, so those who want to spend the summer looking over the city and enjoying a fresh breeze have a bunch of new options. Here are the details on the three Brooklyn spots — and one across the river!
Garden party
The Brooklyn Beer Garden, a graffiti-filled outdoor spot that opened in an empty lot in Bushwick last summer, has gone upscale — with an annex on the fourth floor of the swank William Vale hotel in Williamsburg. The relaxed green space, previously used for weddings and private parties, is now filled with artsy murals, local beers, and furniture built from shipping pallets and cinder blocks.
“We’re looking to bring that local artist’s vibe to the William Vale,” said Gabriele Maurello, who created the Beer Garden with his partner Tyagi Schwartz. The Bushwick native spotted the underused space on William Vale’s fourth floor and pitched the beer garden to the hotel’s management.
The space is now filled with street art, painted on mobile, seven foot-long murals. Each artist also created a smaller piece of art, which is on display — and for sale — by the bar.
“We’re a beer garden, and an outdoor gallery with pieces that people can buy,” said Maurello.
The bar offers a selection of $8–$10 beers, all of them brewed in Brooklyn, along with $12–$14 glasses of wine from Redhook Winery, and one mixed drink made with mead from the All-Wise Meadery downstairs. There is also a limited selection of snacks, including hot dogs and fries, though more food will be added throughout the summer, according to a bartender.
Maurello also has plans for acoustic bands and art projects in the space, but nothing will go too late — after all, he noted, hotel guests will be trying to sleep nearby.
Brooklyn Beer Garden at William Vale (111 N. 12th St., fourth floor, www.thebr
Beer pressure
Williamsburg’s Pod Hotel has reinvented its vowel-free rooftop cocktail bar RFTP into a chill, solar-powered beer bar. You can access the fourth-floor Clinton Hall Rooftop Beer Garden through a dedicated entrance, to the left of the ground floor Clinton Hall beer hall. That stairway leads you past a series of street-art style murals, before emerging onto a rooftop space lined with plants and filled with communal picnic tables, with space for 125 people.
Beneath a canopy of solar panels, the bar pours local craft beers — including Clinton Hall’s own high-octane Gigawatt India Pale Ale, along with a handful of cocktails, and two frozen drinks, one of which will always be frosé, said the bartender. The kitchen turns out light, summery bites, including three kinds of lobster roll, hot dogs, and a watermelon-and-feta salad, among other dishes.
And, just like the beer hall below, there are board games and Jenga sets to keep you busy between bites.
Clinton Hall Rooftop Beer Garden (247 Metropolitan Ave., fourth floor, at N. Third Street in Williamsburg, www.clint
Summer sights
The Hoxton hotel, a relative newcomer to the Williamsburg scene, has just opened its seasonal rooftop restaurant. Summerly offers stunning views of the waterfront and the distant isle of Manhattan, along with a seafood menu that includes lobster rolls, clam pizza, and fried calamari, along with $16 cocktails and a broad selection of wines. On the hotel’s second floor, a more casual spot called Backyard features pitchers of beer, small bites, and a pair of ping-pong tables.
Summerly and Backyard at the Hoxton (97 Wythe Ave. at N. 10th Street in Williamsburg, www.theho
Crown height
Each of the above rooftops offers a view of the Manhattan skyline — but what if you want to look at glorious Kings County? Then your best bet is to cross the Manhattan Bridge, turn left onto the Bowery, and then ascend to rooftop bar the Crown. The 21st-floor space offers two terraces — one looking out over the Brooklyn Bridge and the Dumbo waterfront, and the other with a view of Manhattan skyscrapers. And if it start to rain you can retreat to the bar inside, which has floor-to-ceiling windows.
You’ll know that you are in Manhattan by the $18 cocktails, but you can also get a great burger for just $12, along with music from a dee-jay every Sunday afternoon.
The Crown (50 Bowery, 21st floor, between Canal and Bayard streets in Manhattan, (646) 630–8057, www.thecr
