As warmer weather is just ahead for the U.S., hotels with rooftop bars are setting up extra tables and updating their menus for another season of strong leisure demand.

The rooftop bar allows guests and locals alike to check out the views of their cities while sipping on cocktails and trying out the new summer menu.

Here’s how four hotels with rooftop bars across the U.S. are getting ready.

Of all the hotel rooftops that he has overseen, the one at Mama Shelter Los Angeles is the most egalitarian place he’s seen, said Andrew Jay, general manager of the property. There are diners in their 20s, 30s and 40s as well as people in their 70s who grew up in the Hollywood area who made the bar “their place to be” for lunch.

“I love that they like the energy and the vibe that they get up there on the roof,” he said.

The bar has increased the number of seats and umbrellas available as COVID-19 restrictions have eased, Jay said. The rooftop will gain another bar by the middle of the spring that will allow employees to serve drinks faster on the backside of the roof, which faces downtown Los Angeles. That should cut down on waiting in line for a drink while allowing guests to get their drink and wander around instead of needing to wait at a table for a server.

The demand through the first months of 2022 have been at or above 2019 levels, so Jay expects the rest of the year will follow suit. While that popularity is great for revenue, it also creates an obligation for the bar staff.

“I think part of the challenge you have when you're on a roof is how do you give people an experience that really is worthy of the view,” he said. “A lot of proprietors think that the view itself is enough, and I've never felt that that was sufficient. You had to actually have drinks that were properly made.”

The menu is shifting to what Jay called modern Los Angeles cuisine, emphasizing flavors from Southeast Asia, particularly countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The food will be healthier and lighter so diners, who may want to be a bit indulgent with their drinks, don’t feel heavy and bloated after their meals. There will be less fried food and more roasted vegetables and meats with sauces and condiments that pair well with the drinks.

The rooftop bar at Mama Shelter has a chef who is Cambodian and grew up in Alabama, Jay said. He was schooled in the art of deep Southern barbecue but incorporates the flavors found in foods in Cambodia.

“So, you have both an Alabama white sauce and you have this vinegar herbal dipping sauce that brings bright, really bright acidity to the grilled meat, and it’s delicious,” he said.

The bar’s cocktail menu includes the colorful drinks that were popular in the 1960s, such as Mai Tais and Scorpions, because of how well they go with the food.

The menu will be seasonal, and the bar has the advantage of being near farmers markets and ethnic markets to find ingredients, he said. Those local markets have helped the bar change up its menu whenever ingredients became hard to find.

The Envoy Hotel, Autograph Collection, opened in 2015 as the first hotel in the Seaport District of Boston, said Joe Mellia, general manager of the property. By being the first, the hotel took the ideal location in the entire seaport because its positioning gives guests at its Lookout Rooftop bar views of the Boston Harbor and the city skyline.

The bar initially closed over the winter, but in recent years the staff added plastic igloos using PVC piping with space heaters and speakers for guests to enjoy the outdoor space. Employees later created “ice boxes” by enclosing the bar’s banquets with Plexiglas windows and heaters and sound systems, and the bar has continued to use these during the pandemic to keep guests safe.

“I think people were aggressively hungry to be out of their house and knowing that this was a safe environment where it would just be their party or their friends, they could make sure that they were in a circle of health,” he said.

Heading into spring and summer this year, Mellia said he expects to see similar desire from hotel guests and locals, making the Lookout Rooftop a hot spot again.

“Now it’s about how do we separate ourselves in service and amenities in creating new experiences for our guests, because that’s what it’s all about for us,” he said. “We want to create a memory that you’re going to talk about.”

The Lookout Rooftop’s mixologist creates unique cocktails with clever names, Mellia said. The bar is also working with a company for canned cocktails, which is “a real hot segment that’s going on right now,” he said.

The bar changes its menu in the spring and summer and then for the fall and winter, he said. The bar typically serves finger foods, such as fish sandwiches and burgers, since the rooftop doesn’t have a large kitchen. The hotel’s executive chef, Tatiana Rosana, is a two-time Food Network “Chopped” champion, and she will come up with a creative menu for the rooftop, he said.

The expected high demand at the rooftop bar means it will need to staff accordingly, and labor shortages continue to be an issue, Mellia said. The Lookout Rooftop has been successful in retaining a majority of its staff all year, but it does bring on additional staff during the summer. It has partnered with Boston University to hire students on their summer breaks, and the possibility of earning extra wages and tips has attracted other hires as well, including teachers on their summer breaks looking to add to their nest eggs.

Though it’s on top of the hotel, Upstairs at Caroline functions as a standalone bar thanks to stairs that lead up directly from the street, said Lynn Snyder, general manager of the Aloft Austin Downtown. Diners don’t have to enter the hotel to eat there, which makes it one of the areas more sought-after destinations.

“We’re actually forecasting to have some of the busiest months since we opened our doors in 2017,” she said. “I truly believe it’s because COVID robbed so many people of vacations and holidays, regular happy hour meetups. There really is a sense of revenge in the air. People are wanting to make up for lost time.”

As the bar prepares for its expected surge in demand, the staff is rearranging all its seating back to what it was in 2017 now that COVID-19 restrictions have ended, she said.

Its food menu isn’t “the sexiest,” Snyder said, but "we really just stay true to who we are from a food standpoint, and that's tacos."

Beverages, though, are the bar’s strength, she said. The bar’s manager, Michael Sanchez, is the driving force behind a strong team of talented bartenders.

“He’s always on the floor. He’s paying attention to when he rolls out a new drink. He’s asking the local guests, ‘Do you like this? What do you not like about this? What should we change,'” she said. “That’s truly why we’re able to stay ahead of the curve.”

The pandemic has thrown the rooftop bar some challenges, changing how the team has to operate, Snyder said. The bar’s move to using QR codes instead of physical menus has helped when they run into a supply shortage for certain foods or drinks, allowing them to change up their menu faster to reflect what’s new and available.

“Eliminating the physical aspect of that menu really allowed us to change up our content often without significant impact,” she said. “This really gave us the ability to not just try new things but also combat supply shortages.”

The amount of spring and summer demand will depend on a number of factors, said Malcolm Mitchell, director of restaurants and bars at Donohoe Hospitality Services, via email. Hopefully, the federal government will return to its normal cadence and that leisure travel will continue to pick up.

The Cambria Washington, D.C., Capitol Riverfront and its bar Perch SW are located between Major League Soccer team D.C. United’s Audi Field and the National’s ballpark, so Donohoe hopes the two professional sports teams will draw in new visitors, Mitchell said.

“Based on the cranes we see out our window, we are confident in our strategy to attract various locals and tourists alike,” he said.

Perch is adding a satellite bar to its outside patio to expand customer service and improve the payment process by making it more efficient, Mitchell said. The bar will promote a DJ on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to add some flair.

“We anticipate this to make the vibes here at Perch reminiscent of old D.C. and create a needed destination location for new VIP clientele,” he said.

Mitchell, who is also a chef, updated Perch’s menu ahead of the spring and summer. The new menu includes his pan-roasted snapper with coconut curry tomato sauce, wild apple wood-smoked chicken and orange olive oil cake. Perch will enlist Karl Franz Williams of 67 Orange Street in Harlem to create its spring and summer cocktail menu.

Over the last two years, it’s been challenging to secure stable food costs and maintain labor in inconsistent labor pools, but the hotel staff is confident this year will be different thanks to support from leadership at Donohoe, Mitchell said.

Return to the Hotel News Now homepage.