Exterior of the new Ace Hotel location in Brooklyn
Brad Wilson, president of the Ace Hotel Group, was living in Brooklyn when his company decided to open an outpost in the New York borough. Maybe the year was 2008. Maybe it was 2012. At this point, he can’t remember. But he knows he was living in Williamsburg, where every cool hotelier wanted to plant a flag.
The Wythe Hotel was already drawing crowds with its twinkle-lit rooftop bar and eye-catching murals, and the restaurants surrounding it had enough buzz to convince food media that Manhattan might, in fact, be taking the back seat in terms of city-wide culinary innovation.