Sky Room

Hell's Kitchen, New York –

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 dapper guests who show up early for Happy Hour hit the glass-topped bar in the Main Lounge first.

Long, coffee-colored banquettes face the windows covering one side of the first floor, but those in the know make for the stairs to the Top Lounge, where even wider views leave older suited gentleman and their designer dress-wearing dates speechless.

Low ottomans and small white tables line one side of the second level, each stocked with buckets begging to be filled with high-priced champagne. A retractable roof makes this area usable year round, but the biggest draw is the opposing outdoor space, decked out with pristine white daybeds where guests can snack on salmon toast and sip fruit-infused cocktails as the sun reflects off the Empire State Building.

A cover charge takes effect after 10pm Thursdays–Saturdays, when DJs hit the decks (also spinning Wednesdays with no cover) and turn up danceable beats from hip-hop and Top 40 to random head thumpers that draw a solid crowd of pretty people willing to pony up for the privilege.

It’s a stone’s throw from the tourist madness of Time’s Square, but Sky Room promises a heavenly escape from kitsch.