Choose your location
Wed / Feb 20
20s / 80s Music / Affluent / DJ / Pop
Party Earth Review Hidden behind an austere façade by the West Side docks is Hudson Terrace, one of the most sought-after hotspots in the city for twenty-somethings with money to burn. Unless they have a table reservation, hopeful guests can expect to wait in line before being escorted up a long flight of stairs into one of three destinations ... more
621 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
All Ages / All Types / Couples
Party Earth Review In a city dominated by towering steel and buzzing neon, the Roof Garden Café and Martini Bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a welcome cultural escape from the hard-edged bustle of New York. Museum patrons and couples in need of refreshment can head through the South Wing and take an elevator to the Iris and B. Gerald ... more
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10028
30s / 40s / Affluent / Ambient Jazz
Party Earth Review A rooftop beer garden with picturesque views, a menu of hearty Italian favorites, and a selection of craft ales pumped straight from the cask, Birreria at Eataly appeals to erudite foodies as well as dyed-in-the-wool beer fanatics. Located on the fourteenth floor of Eataly’s Chelsea headquarters, this al fresco beer-vana ... more
200 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
20s / 30s / Balcony / Burgers / Chic / DJ
Party Earth Review Fashionable patrons taking in the unobstructed view of the Empire State Building from this twentieth-floor hotspot will understand why Gansevoort Park Avenue Rooftop chose “always on top” as its motto. Sleek and sexy, the space features floor-to-ceiling windows and plenty of sitting areas with suede sofas and wingbacks ... more
The Gansevoort Park
420 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
20s / 30s / Affluent Hipsters / Bar
Party Earth Review The Delancey provides hipsters and hops chasers with a three-floor hang that features a gritty rock venue, an intimate night club, and a rooftop bar with breathtaking views of the Williamsburg Bridge, all tucked into an unassuming nook on the Lower East Side. Once past the imposing, but not impossible doorman, laid-back ... more
168 Delancey Street
New York, NY 10002
20s / 30s / 40s / Affluent / Ambient / DJ
Party Earth Review Sophisticated night owls looking for an upscale venue with breathtaking views won’t want to miss 230 Fifth, a luxurious lounge and rooftop bar that offers high-class excitement with a refreshingly unpretentious attitude. Well-dressed business types and out-of-towners stepping off the elevator on the twentieth floor will ... more
230 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
20s / 30s / Affluent / After Work / DJ
Party Earth Review Set atop the aptly named Dream Downtown Hotel, PH-D is a penthouse bar decked out in glass, glitter, and enough celebrity-studded luxury to make even the most moneyed Manhattanite blush. Arriving on the twelfth floor perch via mirrored elevator, sleekly-dressed jet-setters and barely-dressed trust fund girls make ... more
Dream Downtown
355 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
40s / Bottle Service / Brunch / DJ
Party Earth Review Once past the velvet ropes and up the elevator, chic patrons find themselves at Sky Room, one of NYC’s highest rooftop bars where the cocktails are as fine as the views. The expansive bi-level venue is composed of multiple rooms featuring plenty of private VIP tables and open dance areas, though most of the ... more
330 West 40th Street
New York, NY
30s / Club Music / DJ / Dance / EDM
Party Earth Review Perched on the twelfth floor of the elegant Empire Hotel – home to one of the main characters on the TV show Gossip Girl – is the exclusive Rooftop Bar and Lounge, an upscale nightspot where pumping DJ music sets a sexy tone for the stiletto-wearing cosmopolitan set sprawled on the leather banquettes. Consisting of both ... more
The Empire Hotel
44 West 63rd Street, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10023
20s / 30s / 40s / Artists / Couples / DJ
Party Earth Review The Hudson Hotel’s stone fortress façade and single flickering torch over the neon green door give no hint of the whimsical complex of bars inside, but after beaming up from the foyer via two phosphorescent escalators, the upscale clientele will find a playground of drinking options and parties. The ... more
356 West 58th Street
New York, NY 10019
20s / 30s / After Work / Ambient
Party Earth Review Situated eighteen floors above SoHo in the ultra-modern James Hotel, Jimmy is a don’t-miss rooftop hang with a 360-degree city view and a fashionable clientele of successful local artists and creative professionals. Sleek and chic, the space features soaring windows and a busy bar serving premium beers and mixology creations ... more
James Hotel
15 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10013
30s / 40s / Blazers / Burgers / DJ
Party Earth Review A Murray Hill mainstay since 2003, Rare Bar & Grill combines upscale diner fare and sweeping rooftop views, allowing its dapper patrons to enjoy their steakhouse burgers with a side of the Chrysler Building. The south side, to be exact. Attached to the boutique Affinia Shelburne hotel, Rare’s street-level restaurant performs ... more
303 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Nothing beats drinking in the open air – except doing so while surrounded by the New York City skyline. That chance to drink among the glittering diadems of the world’s greatest city is exactly what NYC rooftop bars offer their lucky guests.
No matter what, rooftop bars in New York involve a certain sense of luxury – there’s no such thing as a rooftop dive – which means that trendy neighborhoods like Chelsea and the Lower East Side are the name of the game. Birreria on top of Eataly goes for a terrace dining atmosphere, its guests getting fine Italian specialties and craft beer at tables beneath a lavish retractable roof.
Other places, like Jimmy at the James Hotel and PH-D atop the Dream Downtown, use the surrounding skyscrapers more as scenery, viewable from leather couches on the other side of glass walls. But it’s the sprawling terraces of celeb-studded spots like 230 Fifth that do it best, with their massive outdoor bars equipped with private booths, heat lamps for the winter, and enough top-shelf liquor to placate even the thirstiest jet-setter.
Those who dislike upper-crust fanfare should keep their feet on the ground, since New York rooftop bars involve lots of velvet rope, private elevators, and jacked-up prices. But for guests with the coin and the connections, these high-flying hot spots are a perfect place to get a cocktail and relax among the stars.