‘The most amazing view of the water’: New rooftop restaurant-bars offer spectacular vistas, swanky vibes & strong cocktails
It’s suntanning season again, and waterways from Fort Lauderdale to Delray Beach to West Palm Beach have gained a new suite of swanky rooftop bars with stupendous vistas and strong cocktails.
These four recently opened nightlife dens — Nubé and Escape Rooftop Bar in Fort Lauderdale, Elevate Skye Bar & Lounge in Delray Beach, Bar Capri in West Palm Beach — offer panoramic views of the Intracoastal Waterway and the beach.
While South Florida is already blessed with sky-high rooftop bars galore — ahem, Miami-Dade County — it seems Broward and Palm Beach counties could always accommodate a few more.
Yes, there may be lines, and your rosé or aperol spritz might cost a little too much, but as the seabreeze laps your face and the sunset’s warm golden-hour glow glides across the horizon, can you imagine a prettier drinking companion?
Below are four new rooftop lounges worth reaching for the skies.
Nubé Rooftop
505 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., 26th floor, Fort Lauderdale; above Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort; 954-525-6823; NubeRooftop.com
Arguably the highest new rooftop lounge of the heap is the aptly named Nubé, the Spanish word for “cloud,” which crowns the 26th floor of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. Opening to the public on Friday, April 12, this restaurant-bar features nightly DJs, Wagyu steaks, cocktails served in hand-shaped glassware and a three-sided wraparound alfresco patio that overlooks the ocean and the Intracoastal.
It’s no surprise that Tim Petrillo, the nightlife guru responsible for Fort Lauderdale’s first rooftop bar — Rooftop @1WLO on Andrews Avenue — is also behind the city’s tallest one.
The project, 12 years in the making, is a collaboration between Petrillo (YOLO, Java & Jam), Andreas Ioannou, the CEO of Orchestra Hotels + Resorts (which operates the Hilton) and Hilton developer Jose Luis Zapata. While exploring the Hilton’s top floor looking for storage space for his downstairs S3 Restaurant, Petrillo saw beyond the jumble of air conditioners, storage boxes and ductwork.
He saw promise, craft cocktails and global tapas.
“I was like, why aren’t we doing something up here?” recalls Petrillo, whose hospitality group The Restaurant People runs nine Fort Lauderdale restaurants and clubs and two more in Miami. “I literally walked outside on the balcony and thought: This is the most amazing view of the water. Why is the Hilton using it as a storage closet?”
He says he persuaded Ioannou and Zapata to gut and relocate the plumbing and electrical units to make room for a “top-floor shell that we could actually build,” Petrillo says. The result, what he describes as “the hardest project I’ve ever worked on,” involved four years of permitting and rezoning, then $4 million and several more years to move giant HVAC systems. To funnel new traffic to the 26th floor without inconveniencing resort guests, the Hilton built a second direct elevator to Nubé for an extra $400,000, he says.
“This passion project was a great white whale,” he says. “It took so long that we even got tired of talking about it. I’m glad it’s finally done.”
The 4,000-square-foot bar (60 seats indoors, 60 outdoors) is accented with marble countertops, red rattan chairs and zigzagging green floor tiles that continue outside to the alfresco patio. The patio’s centerpiece: a rectangular, glassed-in fire pit and a hand sculpture throwing up a peace sign.
“At night, the money shot is straight down there,” Petrillo says during a recent tour of Nubé, pointing south along State Road A1A. From this high vantage point, looking down a serene, palm-dotted stretch of the beach, the rolling shoreline seems to caress the rooftops of neighboring hotels.
The menu, mostly bar bites with Asian flourishes, includes a Singapore Salad ($15) with tropical fruits, crispy noodles, red plum sauce and crunchy taro; charcuterie trays ($26); blistered shishito peppers ($11); and oysters in yuzu foam ($21); along with larger plates such as smashed double Wagyu cheeseburger ($24) and Wagyu steak frites ($36) in shallots and garlic confit.
Wines and Champagne are offered by the glass or bottle ($15 to $590), and there are 12 cocktails ranging from Whisk Me Away ($16, with Bulleit Rye Whiskey, spiced pear liqueur, lemon, club soda) to Deuces, a $60 splurge that serves two to four and comes in peace-sign glassware with Grey Goose, St-Germain, prosecco, curaçao and lemon.
Nubé expects to launch a happy hour in May.
Escape Rooftop Bar
2900 Riomar St., eighth floor, Fort Lauderdale; above Kimpton Shorebreak Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort; 954-908-7301; ShorebreakFortLauderdale.com
Towering high above a sea of mid-beach condos and low-slung hotels is this eighth-floor oasis perched on the rooftop of the Kimpton Shorebreak, where sunset views are not only commonplace but built into the bar’s branding.
“Serving Sunsets” is the slogan written on the menu of craft cocktails, rosé by the glass and bottle, craft beer and Italian tapas at Escape, which opened to the public in mid-March. Escape overlooks the Intracoastal, and the beach and patio furniture frame a swimming pool, which is open to the public with an optional $50 day pass.
Seven cocktails and two frozen concoctions ($15 to $23) lead the menu, spanning from Pineapple (pineapple-infused Beefeater, orange, lime, vanilla, cinnamon) to Pear (cachaça, Hennessy, pear, lime and sugarcane). Meanwhile, 12 tapas, offered on a menu different from La Fuga downstairs, includes fried calamari with a dipping sauce of Calabria pepper marinara ($15), prosciutto bruschetta ($9) and a mezze plate of garlic hummus, olives, figs, dates, pita and grilled zucchini ($17).
Daily happy hour (well, “Sunset Hour”) is offered 30 minutes before and after sunset, with discounted rosé by the glass and a special Sunset Hour cocktail.
Elevate Skye Bar & Lounge
10 N. Ocean Blvd., second floor, Delray Beach; above Opal Grand Resort & Spa; 561-274-3289; OpalCollection.com/opal-grand/restaurants/elevate/
The inspiration for Elevate came to Scott Luper on a hot windswept afternoon standing on the balcony of the Opal Grand Resort & Spa, when Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s seafaring song “Southern Cross” popped into his head.
“I’d seen this schooner on the water and thought to myself, ‘Man, I wish I was on that boat right now,’ ” recalls Luper, vice president of food and beverage for Ocean Properties, which owns Opal Grand. “I heard the song in my head and right there decided that Elevate would be just like the vibe of being on that boat.”
The second-floor rooftop bar, perched atop Drift Kitchen & Bar, quietly opened in early February with panoramic views of the Delray Beach coastline. At 180 seats, the alfresco Elevate offers nautically inspired furniture on Astroturf, roll-out awnings and fire pits, and covered pergolas on the southwest and southeast corners overlooking the bustle of Atlantic Avenue traffic.
Along with beers, wines, bubbly and mocktails, the bar serves 15 cocktails ($16 to $20) — including Levitate (rum, banana syrup, coconut water, pineapple juices) and Mile High Club (reposado tequila, grapefruit liqueur, lime, agave, blueberries) — and a menu distinctive of its sister kitchen Drift downstairs. The slim, 12-item, bar-bite menu ranges from barbecue short-rib tacos with green chili crema ($26) and ahi tuna tostadas with edamame hummus ($26) to poached jumbo shrimp ($23) and a Roman-style margherita flatbread with San Marzano sauce ($26).
Elevate, also open for private rentals, offers daily 4:30-6:30 p.m. happy hour with discounted wells drinks, beer and wine.
Bar Capri
185 Banyan Blvd., third floor, West Palm Beach; above Elisabetta’s Ristorante; 561-342-6699; Elisabettas.com
Given a felicitous location, even the third floor will suffice at this sprawling new boite perched above Elisabetta’s Ristorante — a restaurant that already has the Flagler Drive waterfront, megayachts and Palm Beach island as its backdrop.
The 75-seat bar and lounge from Big Time Restaurant Group, which runs Elisabetta’s, offers the same menu as its coastal Italian counterpart downstairs. Several plush avocado-green sofas lining the lounge are covered in prints of lemon trees, plenty of room for drinkers to sip palomas ($14) or hibiscus-spiced margaritas ($16) with a slice of pizza bianca topped with prosciutto, arugula and ricotta ($23.50).
Happy hour (sorry, “Aperitivo Hour”), from 4 to 7 p.m. daily, has $2 off all drinks, $8 select cocktails, $4 select beers, $8 select wines and half-priced pizza.
Staff writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @p.v.guide and X/Twitter @PhilValys.
