Rooftop Drinking in NYC
With the advent of regular Boltbus service from Penn Station, New York City has gotten a lot closer in the last couple years. Honestly, if you’ve never been on the Boltbus, try it. When you factor in everything involved, their service to NYC is actually faster than flying and much cheaper and easier than driving your own car. It’s also much more economical and flexible than train service and only a few minutes slower. Speaking as someone who’s living without a car, Manhattan doesn’t feel any further away now than Towson.
So that’s what we’re going to do this weekend… run up to New York just for the hell of it. We’re going to visit one of our best friends, hit up some restaurants, chase some skirts, possibly pop over to Brooklyn, and maybe even play a round of golf. One thing that’s definitely on the agenda is getting drunk in a fancy rooftop bar.
This is how we're spending our weekend. The rest of you can go to hell.
Spring is the ideal time for rooftop drinking. The wind doesn’t blow too cold and the sun doesn’t shine too hot. There are leaves and flowers and birds in abundance. Baltimore has always been sorely lacking in good options for rooftop bars, and now that the Dizz Grandview has come and gone and the 13th floor is closed for renovations, the pickings for drinking above street level are slim indeed.
As much as we love and champion Baltimore, we’ll admit it when NYC has it all over us. They give away free food at happy hour. They respect the law of the buyback. And they’ve got some of the best rooftop bars in the world. In fact, they’ve even got an entire website dedicated to rating and reviewing rooftop bars… rooftopdrinker.com.
They’ve assembled brief descriptions and reviews of almost 40 rooftop bars in Manhattan and posted a rating and map location for each one. Their site is definitely worth a bookmark and a second look for the next time you’re on the Bolt to NYC. For now though, it’s our turn. While you’re spending your Friday drudging away at work, take a few minutes to look at some of their gorgeous photos and when you’re fighting beltway traffic tonight, just remember: that’s where we’ll be, getting the weekend started right.
Aaawww. You should have invited me to go.
You mention slim pickings for rooftop bars in Baltimore…where are they? I would love to know!
There’s only one proper rooftop bar in town. It’s on top of the Silo Point building and unfortunately it’s private. They sometimes hold benefits and stuff there though, so you can check it out if you buy a ticket to one of those (or, I guess, if you know a condo owner at silo point).
Like I mentioned, there’s the 13th floor at the Belvedere which will reopen after renovation.
Other closed bars are the former Dizz Grandview and the space at the top floor of the Hyatt downtown.
Not so high, but Woody’s rum bar has a large outdoor deck with a nice view. Tiki barge is not a rooftop, but it kind of has that feel with some nice views as well.Sad to say, that’s about it.
Is the 13th floor at Belvedere actually open air? It’s sad there’s so few! If I were an enterprising bar/building owner…
No. It’s a top floor bar, not technically a rooftop. The windows are gigantic though, and the views are exceptional, even from the middle of the room.