Hotel of the month: The Hoxton, New York

It may have just opened, but The Hoxton in Williamsburg is already causing quite a stir. It’s wow-factor view might have something to do with it - look to the left and there’s the Williamsburg Bridge; straight ahead, Manhattan, silhouetted at sunset against a yellow-orange sky. This can be best appreciated from the hotel's rooftop bar Summerly, serving knockout cocktails alongside New England-style lobster rolls and bowls of fried calamari.

Downstairs, many of the 175 rooms come with a similar view (others have Brooklyn vistas) meaning it’s possible to see the Empire State Building through the floor-to-ceiling windows from your bed. The interiors, which are by Ennismore Design Studio, feature plenty of local touches, from the graphic monochrome print duvet covers by Brooklyn-based Dusen Dusen to the ceramic vessels by artist Elana Noy. Each room also has an individual collection of ten books, chosen by a ‘Hox friend’ (mine, which was curated by Hannah Gluckstern, co-owner of Brooklyn lifestyle store Concrete + Water, included Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Men of Steel: The Story of the Family that Built the World Trade Centre, by Karl Koch III).

The hotel's building is a new-build (a first for the group), designed by Perkins Eastman on the site of what was once the Rosenwach Water Tower Factory, where the water towers that dot the New York skyline were made. On walking downstairs from the hotel’s front door, you'll see the shell of the old brick carriage house that has been repurposed as the entrance to the chef’s table at Klein’s, the main restaurant. Tan leather bar stools are lined-up around a U-shaped, marble counter where a Molteni stove and wood-fire grill take centre stage (the restaurant is named after the Klein blue of the stove).

The restaurant also has a wrap-around bar and an outdoor courtyard with bleacher-style seating that will be used for summer film screenings and performances. The mostly-American menu is full of classics, including seriously delicious spaghetti and meatballs, and a fried chicken sandwich. More casual bites will soon be available at the second-floor terrace bar Backyard, which has strings of festoon lights, ping pong tables and scallop-edged double day beds (it officially opens in 2019).

As with all the Hoxton hotels, huge importance is given to the social spaces: here, they have been designed in collaboration with Soho House. The light-filled, living room-like lobby is seemingly always full of both guests and locals, tapping away on laptops, drinking a morning latte or meeting friends for an early evening glass of wine. The furniture is a mix of one-of-a-kind pieces and vintage finds (a curved mint green and cream striped sofa in front of the electric fire, for instance, was found in a Williamsburg loft and re-upholstered), as is the artwork which lines the walls and corridors.

By check-in (which is tucked away at the back of the lobby), there is a gallery of local art which will rotate every three months and a few ‘Best of Brooklyn’ limited edition items for sale: currently these include leather purses by Lillian Farag, candles from the Brooklyn Candle Studio and ceramics by Helen Levi. From the fun, large-scale mural on the side of the building by Brooklyn-based illustrator Jing Wei to the handy neighbourhood tips in the rooms, this is a hotel designed with a real sense of place.

Cosy rooms from $159 per night; thehoxton.com