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" In Annie Hall, young Alvy Singer worries that the universe is expanding and will one day break apart. &amp;quot;What is that your business?&amp;quot; asks his exasperated mother. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.&amp;quot; For a long time, Alvy&amp;#039;s mother was right. Brooklyn was forever Brooklyn\u2014a place to sit out on your stoop on summer evenings, down a slice of pizza or Junior&amp;#039;s cheesecake, mourn the Dodgers, and ride the rickety Coney Island Cyclone. But hip, exciting, and relevant? Fuhgeddaboudit. Grab a subway token and head to Manhattan. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  1 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; As it turns out, precocious Alvy was just a few decades ahead of his time. Today&amp;#039;s Brooklyn is indeed expanding. Not literally: Surrounded on three sides by water, the borough\u2014one of the five that comprise New York City, along with Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island\u2014hasn&amp;#039;t changed its geographic boundaries since 1896. But the population inside those 71 square miles, more than 2.5 million residents, is larger than that of Houston. And within the municipal limits lies a metropolis that is pulsing with cultural and creative vitality. In the last decade, Brooklyn has taken the lead in everything from design and food to music and art. On these leafy, brownstone-lined streets, trends are born, restaurants are conceived, novels are written, and international A-listers, from Maggie Gyllenhaal to Bj\u00F6rk to Martin Amis, are hanging their hats. &amp;quot;Google Brooklyn writer,&amp;quot; the author Colson Whitehead once joked, &amp;quot;and you&amp;#039;ll get, &amp;#039;Did you mean: the future of literature as we know it?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; With boutique hotels opening almost as fast as gourmet pizzerias and bourbon bars, Brooklyn is becoming an affordable and convenient alternative to Manhattan as a base for navigating New York City. This spring alone will herald two new properties. The stylish Hotel 718 will be located near the Brooklyn Bridge on Duffield Street, which is turning into something of a hotel row. And in \u00FCber-trendy Williamsburg, a former 19th-century hub of shipbuilding and sugar refining, the soon-to-open Wythe Hotel will have a restaurant run by Andrew Tarlow, the Brooklyn entrepreneur behind the red-hot Marlow &amp;amp;amp; Sons, Diner, and Roman&amp;#039;s. Three times the size of Manhattan, and with almost a million more people, Brooklyn has a geographic and cultural diversity that is staggering. At Tatiana, on the Brighton Beach boardwalk, you can dine on chicken Kiev and dance to Russian disco. In bustling Midwood, pizzaiolo Dom \u00ADDeMarco has been working his gas-fired magic at Di Fara Pizza since 1964. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  2 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; In Sunset Park, you can breakfast on Hong Kong\u2013style dim sum and eat authentic Mexican tacos for dinner. (For a break between meals, visit the nearby Green-Wood Cemetery, a beautifully landscaped national historic landmark, where Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Louis Comfort Tiffany are buried.) Meanwhile, Flatbush Avenue near Brooklyn College feels like a trip to the West Indies; Bensonhurst has the best cannoli; and Bay Ridge is home to a bargain-filled outpost of the popular discount department store Century 21\u2014without the lines. If it&amp;#039;s your first visit to Brooklyn (and even if it isn&amp;#039;t), there is no better place to arrive than the waterfront. From there you can wave farewell to the Manhattan skyline across the East River and salute the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Come by water taxi and you&amp;#039;ll be greeted by Brooklyn&amp;#039;s latest marvel\u2014a 1922 painted carousel installed last year in a $9 million transparent acrylic pavilion designed by the Pritzker Prize\u2013winning architect Jean Nouvel. At night the horses&amp;#039; shadows are reflected on huge white screens inside the pavilion, which Nouvel describes as a &amp;quot;magic lantern, the horses turning on the four walls.&amp;quot; The carousel and the pavilion were gifts of Jane Walentas and her husband, David, the man largely responsible for transforming the adjacent neighborhood, with its Civil War\u2013era warehouses and cobblestone streets, into DUMBO, Brooklyn&amp;#039;s answer to SoHo. (The district&amp;#039;s moniker is an acronym for its location: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.) Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  --&amp;amp;gt;  --&amp;amp;gt; 3 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; The cacophony of subway trains rattling overhead hasn&amp;#039;t stopped the area from evolving into a charming place to visit, complete with a chocolate factory and shop (Jacques Torres Chocolate), a bookstore with a strong selection of art and design tomes (PowerHouse Arena), and unique stores such as Modern Anthology, which sells a mix of curios, furniture, and menswear. &amp;quot;DUMBO is visually inspiring,&amp;quot; says lighting and product designer David Weeks, who has had a studio in the area since 1995, &amp;quot;with the view of the water and the towering bridges at the end of the streets.&amp;quot; Not everyone in Brooklyn appreciates the rapid pace of change\u2014certainly not the longtime residents displaced by rising rents and real estate values, nor the artists whose studios have been converted into luxury lofts. The latest source of tension is a behemoth that is beginning to cast its shadow across a number of residential streets: the $1 billion Barclays Center, an 18,000-seat sports and entertainment arena that will serve as home to the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. In nearby Fort Greene, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (or BAM, as it&amp;#039;s known), which was founded during the Civil War, is thriving. The academy&amp;#039;s opera house\u2014built in 1908 by architects Henry Beaumont Herts and Hugh Tallant\u2014was falling down and came close to being demolished in the 1960s. A young arts administrator, Harvey Lichtenstein, was hired in a last-ditch effort to save it. He transformed BAM into a venue for avant-garde programming on a monumental scale: Robert Wilson, Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, and Peter Brook have all staged major works here. Now BAM is at the heart of a burgeoning cultural district: The Mark Morris Dance Group is nearby, a new building is in the works for Theater for a New Audience, and a renovated space will hold the artists center BRIC House as well as UrbanGlass, a cutting-edge glassblowing studio. And BAM itself will debut a third venue with a more intimate theater in a converted Salvation Army building. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  --&amp;amp;gt;  --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; 4 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; In 2003, when the Grocery, a 30-seat neighborhood restaurant on Brooklyn&amp;#039;s Smith Street, was listed in the Zagat Survey as one of New York City&amp;#039;s top seven restaurants (alongside Le Bernardin and Daniel), the news made the front page of The New York Times. Nine years later, no one would be surprised. The borough has become one of the world&amp;#039;s great foodie meccas\u2014home to trendsetting chefs who could be helming the stoves at Manhattan four-stars but are instead in Brooklyn dishing up top-notch cuisine in settings that range from casually chic (Battersby, Dressler, Saul) to pointedly bare-bones (Roberta&amp;#039;s, the punk pizzeria with the two-hour wait, located in an old garage in transitional Bushwick). Artists and designers have decamped from the Lower East Side to Brooklyn neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Clinton Hill, where the rents are often lower. You&amp;#039;ll spot them at the Brooklyn Flea, a convergence of vintage furniture dealers, printmakers, jewelers, picklers, and jam makers. The Flea attracts thousands of people to its weekend markets in Fort Greene and Williamsburg (the latter is also home, from April to November, to the Flea&amp;#039;s culinary cousin Smorgasburg). The colorful scene is its own draw, but there are also intriguing wares. On a recent visit to the Flea, Intaglio was offering pochoir prints by the French Deco designer Eug\u00E8ne Alain S\u00E9guy. The Hunters and Gatherers booth was an artful mix of brass objects and natural curios, like oryx horns and porcupine quills stuffed into cloches. And the guy in the dusty Yankees cap, Anthony Franck, turned out to be a walking encyclopedia on tribal carpets. For one of Brooklyn&amp;#039;s most dynamic streetscapes, head to Atlantic Avenue. Long before Barneys \u00ADCo-Op, Urban Outfitters, and Jonathan Adler moved in, this east-west thoroughfare\u2014which stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront to Queens\u2014was a destination for antiques and Middle Eastern groceries (Sahadi&amp;#039;s, at 187, has wonderful spices and hummus). Now those mainstays are interspersed with cutting-edge boutiques. The best blocks are between Hicks Street and 3rd Avenue. Venture into Darr (369), which pioneered the Brooklyn look: country-distressed furniture mixed with vintage industrial finds (the owners also design neo-Victorian fashions at Hollander &amp;amp;amp; Lexer, across the street). The avenue&amp;#039;s highlights also include Holler &amp;amp;amp; Squall (119) for American antiques and oddities; Bright Lyons (383) for vintage Alexander Girard furnishings; Kea Carpets and Kilims (477) for collectible ethnic rugs; and Betty Bakery (448) for red-velvet cupcakes and strawberry-\u00ADrhubarb pie. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  --&amp;amp;gt;  --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; 5 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; Brooklyn may be in flux, but its residents work hard to retain their borough&amp;#039;s sense of history. In 1965 Brooklyn Heights became the first neighborhood in New York City to be protected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Take a stroll through the area, a riverside bluff that became America&amp;#039;s first suburb in the early 19th century when a steam ferry began regular service between Brooklyn and Wall Street. You&amp;#039;ll feel transported to an earlier era as you steal glimpses inside the ornate parlors of the district&amp;#039;s Federal townhouses, Greek Revival mansions, and Italianate brownstones. And then there are the nostalgists. Two years ago, Peter Freeman and Gia Giasullo, a brother-sister team, restored an abandoned 1920s pharmacy in the south Brooklyn neighborhood of Carroll Gardens and turned it into an ice cream parlor straight out of Alvy Singer&amp;#039;s day. In addition to malteds and Tootsie Pop floats, the Brooklyn Farmacy &amp;amp;amp; Soda Fountain serves that native concoction: the chocolate egg cream, which as every Brooklynite should know, has no egg in it, just milk, seltzer, and Fox&amp;#039;s U-bet chocolate syrup. It&amp;#039;s old-school pleasures like the Farmacy&amp;#039;s egg cream, combined with the sense that everything imaginable is now available in Brooklyn, that are helping the borough to turn the tables on its skyscraper-filled neighbor across the river. Maybe that&amp;#039;s why longtime Brooklyn residents like the artist Hugo Guinness are noticing that Manhattan friends who once avoided visits to his home in Boerum Hill are now turning up in droves. &amp;quot;People used to have a complete complex,&amp;quot; Guinness says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d start a conversation about living in Brooklyn and they&amp;#039;d end the conversation and walk away. I might as well have been living in Afghanistan. Now it&amp;#039;s all changed. They say, &amp;#039;That&amp;#039;s wonderful, I hear it&amp;#039;s so nice there.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; And before long, they&amp;#039;re buying the house up the block. Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  --&amp;amp;gt;  --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; 6 --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt;  Essential Brooklyn The area code is 718, unless noted. Bridge the gap. Brooklyn is a short taxi or subway ride from Manhattan. For a scenic arrival, come on foot or bike over the Brooklyn or Williamsburg bridges. Or take a water taxi to the Fulton Ferry Landing (nywatertaxi.com).  Look back. There&amp;#039;s no better view of Manhattan than the one from Brooklyn. In Moonstruck, Cher dreamily kicks a can by the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, renowned for its cinematic vista. Go in circles. Pony up $2 for a ride on Jane&amp;#039;s Carousel (janescarousel.com), the 1922 beauty in Jean Nouvel&amp;#039;s new pavilion in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Then hit the nearby Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (brooklynicecreamfactory.com). Hang with the hipsters. Williamsburg is packed with galleries, boutiques, and bars. Check out the art at Pierogi gallery (177 N. 9th St., 599-2144; pierogi2000.com), or shop for furniture at the Future Perfect (115 N. 6th St., 599-6278; shop.thefutureperfect.com) and Nightwood (111 Grand St., 596-1545; nightwoodny.com). Wrap up with a movie at Nite\u00ADhawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave., 384-3980; nitehawkcinema.com), where cocktails are sold seatside.  WHAT TO SEE Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., 636-4100; bam.org: The nation&amp;#039;s oldest performing arts center is celebrating its 150th anniversary. This spring, catch Harold Pinter&amp;#039;s The Caretaker and DanceAfrica, which includes performances and a crafts bazaar. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 900 Washington Ave., 623-7200; bbg.org: This month the 102-year-old garden inaugurates a new visitor center designed by Weiss/Manfredi. Not to be missed: the annual Japanese Sakura Matsuri festival in late April, when 200 cherry trees explode in pink.  Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy., 638-5000; brooklynmuseum.org: The Beaux Arts building holds New York City&amp;#039;s second-largest art collection. Don&amp;#039;t miss the period rooms and Francis Guy&amp;#039;s early-19th-century Winter Scene for a glimpse of the borough of yore. Coney Island, coneyisland.com: This iconic and gritty beach resort is getting a makeover, but fortunately the old favorites are intact, from Nathan&amp;#039;s Famous hot dogs to the Cyclone roller coaster. Prospect Park, 965-8951; prospectpark.org: This 585-acre preserve, complete with a zoo, leafy paths, and a winding watercourse, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Head to the 1930s band shell for Celebrate Brooklyn, launching June 5 with a free concert by Jimmy Cliff.  WHERE TO STAY  Aloft New York Brooklyn, 216 Duffield St., 256-3833; alofthotels.com: The hip hotel chain recently opened a branch near the Brooklyn Bridge. The property has a splash pool and a lounge where DJs spin vinyl for the sceney crowd.  Nu Hotel, 85 Smith St., 852-8585; nuhotelbrooklyn.com: Stylish, eco-friendly, and filled with art. Grab a complimentary bike and explore the area\u2014the hotel&amp;#039;s location, near the brownstone neighborhoods of Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill, is ideal for a jaunt.  Wythe Hotel, 80 Wythe Ave., 460-8000; wythehotel.com: The new Williamsburg hotel opens this month in a converted 19th-century factory.  WHERE TO EAT Battersby, 255 Smith St., 852-8321; battersbybrooklyn.com: Ambitious new American cooking in a handsome, 30-seat restaurant. No reservations.  Chef&amp;#039;s Table at Brooklyn Fare, 200 Schermerhorn St., 243-0050; brooklynfare.com: Just 18 seats around a kitchen counter, a prix fixe with more than 20 small plates, and one uncompromising chef, Cesar Ramirez, add up to Brooklyn&amp;#039;s only restaurant with three Michelin stars. Reserve far in advance.  Dressler, 149 Broadway, 384-6343; dresslernyc.com: Sophisticated food in a striking space furnished with aluminum chandeliers and mirrored walls. Egg, 135 N. 5th St., 302-5151; pigandegg.com: At this Williamsburg brunch spot, breakfast is served until 6 p.m. There&amp;#039;s always a line, but the Eggs Rothko and candied bacon are worth the wait. Frankies 457 Spuntino, 457 Court St., 403-0033 and Prime Meats, 465 Court St., 254-0327; frankspm.com: The two Franks behind the Frankies empire epitomize the new Brooklyn cuisine. The relaxed Frankies 457 is their love letter to Italian-American grandma fare (meatballs, cavatelli). At German-accented Prime Meats, the chefs rock Black Angus beef and S\u00FCrkr\u00FCt Garnie.  Isa, 348 Wythe Ave., 347-689-3594; isa.gg: Wood-fired cuisine and Scandinavian ski-lodge decor.  Lucali, 575 Henry St., 858-4086: Tin ceilings, &amp;quot;Volare,&amp;quot; and some of the best pizza in the borough. The River Caf\u00E9, 1 Water St., 522-5200; rivercafe.com: Nestled under the Brooklyn Bridge, with an unforgettable view of the Manhattan skyline and refined cuisine (lobster, Wagyu steak tartare, rack of lamb, and the like). Rucola, 190 Dean St., 576-3209; rucolabrooklyn.com: Homemade focaccia and terrific pastas at a Boerum Hill gem on a brownstone-lined street.  Vinegar Hill House, 72 Hudson Ave., 522-1018; vinegarhillhouse.com: Recycled-chic decor and dressed-up comfort food (Red Wattle country chops, farmstead cheeses and salumi) at this charming spot near DUMBO.  WHERE TO SHOP Beautiful Dreamers, 326 Wythe Ave., 388-4884; beautifuldreamers.com: For the stylish hippie, this Williamsburg shop is stocked with ceramics, vintage textiles, and incense from New Mexico. Bellocq Tea Atelier, 104 West St., 800-495-5416; bellocq.com: Named for the photographer E. J. Bellocq, the Greenpoint tea shop\u2014open Fridays and Saturdays\u2014specializes in beautifully packaged organic tea blends. Eva Gentry, 389 Atlantic Ave., 260-9033; evagentry.com: Motorcycles as props and fashions from cult labels like Martin Margiela and Pas de Calais combine in this minimalist shop. Flavor Paper, 216 Pacific St., 422-0230; flavorpaper.com: Watch mod wallpapers being hand-screened and digitally printed, then choose your favorite in the upstairs showroom.  GRDN, 103 Hoyt St., 797-3628; grdnbklyn.com: Pick up fresh flowers, stylish plant containers, or unique pieces like MQuan&amp;#039;s stoneware bells on ropes.  Layla, 86 Hoyt St., 222-1933; layla-bklyn.com: Stylist Alayne Patrick stocks her shop with vibrant textiles, fashion, and jewelry made by artisans in India.  Moon River Chattel, 62 Grand St., 388-1121; moonriverchattel.com: Olde-timey atmosphere with an irresistible mix of hemp pillow covers, architectural artifacts, and penny candy.  And don&amp;#039;t forget to check out ELLE DECOR staffers&amp;#039; guide to Brooklyn!  Click here to see the gallery for &amp;quot;ELLE DECOR Goes to Brooklyn.&amp;quot;  --&amp;amp;gt;  --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; ... --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; --&amp;amp;gt; 7 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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