NYC Hospitality Innovator Sponsored By Heineken: The Wythe Hotel's Peter Lawrence, Encouraging Us To Wake Up In Williamsburg

I think your hotel is giving Williamsburg this new sophistication that someone like me really craved in this area. “There’s definitely that idea that people have when you talk about Williamsburg that it’s full of 23 year old hipsters. It’s not just that.” I need you guys to take me around – your guide to Brooklyn. Porter Hovey (photographer): “I think it’s just better than the city. The restaurants are better, the people are nicer.” Peter: "It’s just a couple of degrees turned down. And you know Williamsburg has grown up – it has elegant grown up places to eat and shot and drink and play and it’s not all designed toward 22 year-olds drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon.” Name me some of your favorite places here around the neighborhood. “Hotel Delmano – it’s not a hotel but a fabulous old school cocktail bar. My friend Leif has Donna which is another great great bar. And then food wise there’s a long list. Marlow & Sons are up at the top, Bakeri, Walters Foods, Egg, Five Leaves, Hotel Delmano (great cocktails with food), Isa, Vinegar Hill House (not W'Burg - but super great), and the Frankies. Shopping wise, Beacon’s Closet is sort of the brains of the second hand world memory, Moon River Chattel does spectacular home wear, Jakes, and then there’s a couple of really great stores that are really almost like art galleries and show off all of the new designer’s things. Generally every one has the same mentality: it’s better if it was designed, conceived or made less than fifteen minutes from here.”