GETTING HIGH
Four new rooftops to visit this summer
Garden variety: The Brooklyn Beer Garden has filled the fourth floor of the William Vale
hotel in Williamsburg with street art murals.
COURIER L 36 IFE, MAY 31-JUNE 6, 2019 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks:
“The New Me,” by Halle Butler
The creep of economic preinto
precarity
and labor insecurity into
the
ble
of
in
o
e
the millennial generation of the
upper middle class, the notable
absence of men in the lives women, and a potent strain
of social hostility combine to
make “The New Me,” the
novel you must read to understand
many young professional
women. Butler does
not pretty anything up: not
the ambivalence about b---
---- jobs, the professional
striving, the materialist hunger unger for
lifestyle and unearned satisfaction, or the clinging
depression and noxious hope that drive this novel’s action.
It is a book full of private shame made public and almostguilty
admissions, perfect for readers of Ottessa Moshfegh
or Alissa Nutting. Our heroine — and she is mine — is even
named Millie — the millennial. Just perfect.
Jeff Waxman, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang
The second story collection
llechind
from the master behind
hich
ilm
ndng
“Stories Of Your Life” (which
was adapted into the film
“Arrival”), is just as mindblowing
as the first. Chiang
is
h
y
continues to carry off his
impeccable synthesis of high
literary style and intensely
informed speculative fiction.
Think an elegant mix
of Borges and Phillip K.
Dick.
— Samuel Partal,
43
Carroll Street and
Community Bookstore 43
Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and
Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.commu
nityb ookst ore.net .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “A Devil
Comes to Town,” by Paolo Maurensig
“A Devil Comes to Town”own”
is an intriguing novella that
alludes to multiple literary
rary
and artistic traditions, from
rom
dark fairy tales and Gothic
hic
fiction to Goethe’s “Faust”st”
and even horror movies like
ke
“The Exorcist.” It is tense,e,
paranoiac, and well-crafted
d
in its short length.
— Geo Ong, Greenlight
Bookstore 686 Fulton St.
between S. Elliott Place
and S. Portland Avenue in
Fort Greene, (718) 246–
0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
tore.com.
TBy Bill Roundy hese 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.thebrooklynbeergarden.com).
Open Thu–Fri; 4–10 p.m.; Sat–Sun,
2–10 p.m.
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.clintonhallny.com). Open Thu–
Fri, 4 p.m.–10 p.m.; Sat, 11 a.m.–10
p.m.; Sun, 11 a.m.–9 p.m.
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 pingpong
tables.
Summerly and Backyard at the
Hoxton (97 Wythe Ave. at N. 10th
Street in Williamsburg, www.thehoxton.
com). Mon–Thu, 4–11:30 p.m.,
Fri, 2–11:30 p.m., Sat–Sun, noon–
11:30 p.m.
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, between
Canal and Bayard streets in Manhattan.
(646) 630–8057, www.thecrownnyc.
com. Open Sun–Wed; noon–midnight;
Thu–Sat; noon–2 a.m.
Up high: The Clinton Hall Rooftop Beer
Garden, on the fourth floor of the Pod
Hotel in Williamsburg, offers lobster rolls,
beer, and enough picnic tables for 125
people.
/www.thehox-ton.com
/www.com-munityb
/www.com-munityb
/www.com-munityb
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.thebrooklynbeergarden.com
/www.clintonhallny.com
/www.thehox-ton.com
/www.thehox-ton.com
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.thecrownnyc
/www.wordbookstores.com
/ore.net
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/tore.com
/www.thebrooklynbeergarden.com)
/www.clintonhallny.com)
/www.thecrownnyc