Little Fino Brooklyn, the new all-day bar and café at The William Vale, offers Italian-inspired dining and cocktails in Williamsburg, from morning cornetti to evening Negronis.

For aperitif lovers, September carries its own quiet anticipation. The air sharpens, evenings stretch a little longer, and somewhere in the background, Campari waits to be poured. Negroni Week [September 22–28, 2025] swept through New York with its usual flair, reminding us why this bittersweet Italian classic has become a global ritual.

But in Williamsburg, The William Vale found a way to make the week feel less like a trend and more like a moment. On September 23, the hotel staged a whimsical, one-night-only elevator speakeasy—clever, fleeting, and emblematic of its willingness to think beyond the expected. Yet the real story unfolded afterward, over dinner at Little Fino.

The speakeasy is gone, Negroni Week has ended. What remains is Little Fino itself—a space that proves The William Vale is not simply a place to stay, but a place reshaping hotel dining in Brooklyn.

Little Fino Brooklyn: Williamsburg’s All-Day Bar and Café

Little Fino Brooklyn is more than an amenity tucked into the lobby. It has quickly become both a neighborhood destination and a hotel anchor. Operated by the acclaimed NoHo Hospitality Group [Andrew Carmellini, Luke Ostrom, and Josh Pickard] with Brooklyn-born chef Anthony Ricco leading the kitchen, the 1,500-square-foot bar-café carries the ease of an all-day café and the finesse of an experience worth seeking out.

Little Fino’s Design and Atmosphere

The design unfolds like a quiet story. Hand-painted murals sweep the walls in terracotta tones, sketching Brooklyn brownstones, the bridge, and street scenes that feel both whimsical and rooted in place. Beneath them, geometric tile floors in muted green and cream ground marble-topped tables and velvet-backed chairs in a pattern that feels both retro and contemporary. Along one wall, deep banquettes stretch into intimate corners. The brilliance of the wooden bar—luminous, flanked by glowing lamps and softened by greenery overhead—holds the room with understated presence.

Details reveal themselves slowly: bottles of wine shelved like books, candles flickering on tabletops. The effect is not theatrical but intimate, a room that encourages discovery. You might settle into a cozy nook for espresso, or slip out to the patio where string lights glimmer above mint-and-white café chairs. On the speakeasy night, live jazz carried across that patio, giving every table the feel of its own private stage.

By morning, the café fills with cornetti, amaretto-filled pastries, and La Colombe coffee, alongside pressed juices like Super Greens, Turmeric Tonic, or Roots & Shoots. By afternoon, freelancers tuck into banquettes, friends gather over cappuccinos, and travelers pause between wanderings.

As evening falls, the glow deepens and aperitivo hour begins. Spritzes, Teeny Tinis, and playful house riffs lead seamlessly to the classic Negroni under low light.

Little Fino is not just a bar and café. It is a living room for Williamsburg—a place where guests do not simply dine, but fold themselves into its shifting moods, from the first espresso to the last cocktail.

A Speakeasy in Motion

For two fleeting hours, The William Vale turned an elevator into a theater. Guests stepped in expecting mirrored walls and numbered buttons; instead, a bartender stood ready, stirring Negronis inside the moving car. Ice clinked, gin and vermouth swirled, and when the doors reopened, a glass was in hand—a cocktail conjured in transit.

It was playful, fleeting, even mischievous, but it said everything about the hotel’s ethos: hospitality that surprises, that dares to reimagine the ordinary.

The speakeasy was never meant to last, but that was its brilliance. In a few minutes of transit, The William Vale showed how whimsy, craft, and imagination can transform even the smallest rituals into memory.

A Dinner in Dialogue with the Bar

The night’s true story began not in the elevator but at a table on the patio at Little Fino, where Leuca’s Southern Italian menu took over the bar-café for Negroni Week. A crossover that blurred the hotel’s boundaries in the best way. I kept the Negroni in hand throughout the meal, curious to see how the kitchen’s interplay would meet the cocktail’s signature tension of citrus and bitterness. The service set the tone early—striking the equilibrium between guidance and ease.

We began with Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with hot honey and garlic—creamy and indulgent, its richness smoothing Campari’s sharper edges. Alongside it, the Crispy Calamari with smoky Trapanese sauce and pickled peppers brought crunch and heat, a playful push against the Negroni’s herbal clarity.

For mains, the Wood-Roasted Branzino with farro and uva conserva arrived polished and composed, its gentle sweetness echoing the Negroni’s citrus with quiet precision. The Black Shells with ruby shrimp and local calamari told a different story—briny, bold, unapologetically of the sea. It was not a dish I loved, though I would try it again, yet it grounded the menu with a depth that made sense in the arc of the evening.

Dessert restored harmony with a flourish: the Sicilian Pistachio Cake, paired with olive oil gelato, was nutty and lush, complementing the cocktail’s bitter-orange backbone in a way that felt almost inevitable.

Little Fino: A Quieter Second Act

That meal could have been enough. But a few days later, I returned with my sister for a quieter dinner—again during the Negroni Week crossover, where Leuca’s dishes met Little Fino’s cocktails. This time, I let the bar program lead.

Our server, Ryan, made recommendations too good to ignore, delivered with the same attentive-but-unintrusive approach that makes a meal feel cared for rather than choreographed.

We began with Warm Stuffed Marinated Olives with Marcona almonds. And yes, I ordered the ricotta again—this time out of craving rather than curiosity. It is the kind of dish you only repeat when it lingers in memory.

Then came the “OG” Pepperoni pizza with ’nduja and Fresno chili—fiery, deeply savory, unapologetically fun. The Lumache with lamb Bolognese, ricotta, and mint followed, a bowl that balanced richness with freshness, easily justifying its place on the menu. Dessert, once again, was the pistachio cake—its olive-oil gelato as memorable the second time.

The cocktails cemented what was already clear: at The William Vale, the kitchen and bar are in dialogue. My sister ordered the Basil Boulevardier—Japanese whisky, Suze, and vermouth spun into something herbal and grounding. I chose the Silent Disco, a mix of Malfy gin, Cocchi Americano, and sherry that tilted lighter, layered, almost musical. Together, they underscored the synergy between Leuca’s Italian cooking and Little Fino’s playful aperitivo spirit.

Between Leuca and Little Fino

I had heard mixed opinions before dining at Little Fino, which left me uncertain of what to expect. Both evenings confirmed a belief I hold close: in a city where opinions are endless, nothing substitutes for your own experience. Only when you taste for yourself do you truly understand what a chef—and a place—are trying to create.

For me, these dinners were not just about what I ate, but how those dishes and drinks—and the evenings themselves—felt alive in conversation across spaces. Staged inside Little Fino yet distinctly shaped by Leuca, they offered a glimpse of The William Vale’s cultural rhythm: boundaries blurred, hospitality amplified.

→ Make a reservation at Leuca

Little Fino Brooklyn: Morning Light, Café Flow

To see Little Fino on its own terms, I returned for breakfast. The space revealed itself in a different rhythm—lighter, slower, framed by the ease of an all-day café. By 9:30 AM, the room was alive with espresso orders and the quiet shuffle of early meetings, yet it still carried the softness of morning.

We began with the Overnight Oat Porridge, where apricot preserves and coconut milk lent a gentle sweetness—comfort layered with restraint. The Ronnybrook Farm Yogurt, scattered with berries and cracked nut granola, brought a brightness that cut clean through the richness. A Frittata Fiorentina, warm with spinach and fontina, grounded the table with a savory note—unfussy yet considered.

By 11:00 AM, the transition to the all-day menu was seamless. Filthy Olives—Marcona-stuffed, briny, indulgent—paired easily with the Crispy Polenta Tots, their golden edges brightened by a squeeze of lemon.

Then came the Green Eggs & Ham—a playful, color-saturated plate of herbed eggs and deviled pepperoni, its richness lifted by bright greens and a wink of whimsy. Nearby, the Local Burrata arrived with tomato-fennel jam, its creamy interior meeting the jam’s subtle tang in an unexpectedly elegant pairing.

To mark the transition, I sipped a Root Beer Negroni—stronger than I expected, a playful, bittersweet riff that carried aperitivo into daylight without losing its edge.

That morning offered the truest glimpse of Little Fino: a bar-café built to move with the city’s tempo. From cornetti and savory bites to cocktails easing into midday, it proved itself not as an echo of Leuca but as The William Vale’s everyday heart—where locals and travelers alike fold themselves into its flow.

Beyond the Elevator: Negroni Week Across The William Vale

The speakeasy may be over, and Negroni Week has slipped into memory, but Little Fino’s remains a reason to return. Bar director Darryl Chan takes aperitivo culture as his foundation, then bends it into something both reverent and refreshingly unexpected. Playful riffs like the Root Beer Negroni and Campari Creamsicle take nostalgia and give it a grown-up edge. While the rest of the cocktail list balances reverence and invention—rooted in Italian tradition, refreshed with Brooklyn wit.

During Negroni Week, both Little Fino and Leuca, the hotel’s Southern Italian dining room, featured the same trio of variations: the bright, herbal Bianco [gin, Lillet Blanc, Suze Gentian] that leaned zesty and refreshing. The smoky Mezcal Ilegal [Campari, Carpano Antica] with its sultry, smoldering edge. And the celebratory Sbagliato [Campari, Elena Vermouth, Prosecco] that sparkled with effervescence. Each reshaped the Negroni’s familiar silhouette into something new— crisp, sultry, or sparkling. Showing how The William Vale carried one cocktail across two very different settings.

Some nights, the bar channels classic structure, honoring the Negroni’s clean, bitter-orange backbone. Other nights it leans playful, layering spritzes with inventive twists that spark as much curiosity as they quench. But the drinks are never throwaway; each is crafted to carry a story, much like the food.

And that was the point: Negroni Week may have been the excuse, but Little Fino remains a reason to return, season after season. Provided in partnership with Campari and Imbibe, every Negroni sold directly supported Slow Food’s global mission to secure good, clean, and fair food across more than 160 countries—a reminder that even the most stylish rituals can carry meaning far beyond the glass.

The William Vale as a Williamsburg Destination

Since opening in 2016, The William Vale has helped redefine what a Brooklyn hotel can be. Its angular architecture may punctuate the Williamsburg skyline, but what keeps it alive in the city’s imagination is its ability to program culture as much as hospitality. Winter brings ice rinks that crown the rooftop; summer stretches into film screenings under the stars. Art installations, culinary collaborations, and neighborhood events animate the property, keeping it tied to Brooklyn life rather than apart from it.

Food and drink have always been the foundation of that story. Leuca, Andrew Carmellini’s Southern Italian restaurant, anchors the hotel with wood-fired pizzas and rustic pastas. Westlight, the rooftop bar, remains one of New York’s most coveted vantage points, where sunset cocktails meet panoramic views. And now, Little Fino adds a new register—an intimate bar-café that moves with the day, equally welcoming to locals in search of an espresso as to travelers who let the evening unravel around spritzes and shared plates.

It is here, in Little Fino, that The William Vale’s character feels most complete: a bar-café that shifts with the time of day, meets guests where they are, and offers a reason to return beyond the skyline views or seasonal activations.

With Little Fino, The William Vale’s identity comes into sharper focus: a hotel that engages the city not only through bold programming and skyline views, but through spaces that fold seamlessly into daily life.

Plan Your Visit to Little Fino Brooklyn

Little Fino opens early and carries its flow into the evening. The menu shifts with the day. It is the kind of bar-café where you can slip in for a quick espresso or let the day unravel into dinner and cocktails.

The best way to experience it is to follow the arc of aperitivo culture itself:

• Begin light: olives, ricotta, or a spritz to open the evening.

• Move into depth: shared plates or pastas as the night gathers pace.

• Extend the experience: take in rooftop views at Westlight with a cocktail, or settle into Leuca for wood-fired pizzas and rustic pastas.

Good to Know:

• Reservations are recommended in the evening, especially for dinner.

• Daytime café service is designed to be casual and walk-in friendly.

• The William Vale is fully ADA-compliant, with ramps, elevators, and accessible seating across all venues.

→ Make a reservation at Little Fino

Little Fino at The William Vale: A Brooklyn Experience Worth Returning To

Williamsburg has no shortage of places to eat and drink, but Little Fino threads something rare: the intimacy of a neighborhood café with the imagination of a destination. The William Vale may stage fleeting moments—an elevator speakeasy, a rooftop rink—but its real legacy is here, at a table where food, cocktails, and conversation converge. It is the kind of space that folds itself into the fabric of the city, less a trend than a ritual waiting to be repeated.

Negroni Week may have been the frame, but Little Fino is the lasting note. It anchors The William Vale with presence rather than spectacle. A bar-café that carries the city’s tempo from cornetti at sunrise to spritzes at sunset. It is intimate without being insular, imaginative without being fleeting, a place that makes the hotel feel less like a landmark and more like part of the neighborhood’s daily life.

Because in Williamsburg, dining is never just about what is on the plate. It is about how food, drink, and space converge into memory. At The William Vale, that convergence now has a new voice—quietly confident, rooted in ritual, and designed to bring you back again and again.

📍 Little Fino
111 North 12th Street — Williamsburg, Brooklyn
🕒 Bakery Cafe | 7 AM – 3 PM
Early Birds | 7 AM – 11 AM
Bar & All-Day | Sun-Thurs: 11 AM -11 PM; Fri & Sat: 11 AM – midnight
Brunch | Sat & Sun: 11 AM – 3 PM
Happy Hour | Sun – Fri: 4 PM – 7 PM
🌐 littlefino
📸 Instagram: @LittleFinonyc