Restaurant of the Week: Vue

When we pulled up to Hotel Le Bleu I felt like I'd been transported not to Brooklyn but to some faraway vacation spot. On that quiet, fall night, disco lights flashed from the airy roof deck bar and music blared as if this were the only party in town -- and perhaps it was. Were we in Miami Beach? Hotel Le Blue, a towering (for that area) white building, feels mismatched with brownstone Brooklyn. It has that hot, sultry beach-y feeling -- not Fourth Avenue on the demarcation line of Park Slope and Boerum Hill. Yet, from what the waiter told me, it's a bustling hotel, accommodating parents of students living nearby and houseguests who'd rather not sleep on the couch. The hotel's restaurant, Vue, is a floor below the lounge. The modern dining room is appointed with white tables and chairs and two flat screen televisions that broadcast the hotel's highlights along with old footage of Coney Island. The terrace out back has a view of downtown Brooklyn, a setting fit for cocktails and the bar menu. The American food, under the helm of native New Yorker Chris Cheung, celebrates the city with a New York strip steak ($26) crusted with the trappings of an "everything" bagel. For appetizers, we ordered Kobe sliders from the bar menu as well as the Asian-accented pan fried noodle wrapped chicken ($9), served on skewers with a dipping sauce. There are only four desserts -- molten chocolate cake, crème brulee, espresso cheesecake, and fruit & sorbet -- but Vue is not for lingering over dessert and coffee, but more a place to eat and run upstairs to the lounge for another cocktail.

Vue
370 4th Ave., Brooklyn
(718) 625-2177