The new Extreme Wow Suite at the W New York—Times Square is a high-energy party venue. The hotel suite is designed to double as a reception space with room for 85 guests spread over its 1,200 square feet. Much of the furniture has double uses, such as the mirrored console in the entry that functions as a DJ booth and a buffet in the boardroom that is also a bar. The design reflects the Times Square location with features such as a light fixture that looks like a deconstructed Times Square mirror ball, bar glasses decorated with peep-show performers, custom wallpaper of images of Broadway ticket stubs, and framed art featuring Elmo and other costumed characters. Located on the 57th floor, the suite offers views of Times Square, Central Park, and the Hudson River. The suite connects to a double room that serves as a staging area, and catering is available from Blue Fin, the hotel's restaurant.
With everything inside the Minus5 Ice Bar made, appropriately, of ice, the chilly venue makes sense as a holiday party venue. The bar, which opened in July, has hand-carved ice sculptures that depict New York icons such as the Statue of Liberty and Central Park and will update them with seasonal carvings, corporate logos, or other images for private events. As the name suggests, the interior temperature stays at minus 5 degrees Celsius (29 degrees Fahrenheit). Located on the lobby level of the New York Hilton Midtown but with its own street entrance, the venue holds about 60 guests and has a 10-person V.I.P. room.
Michelin-starred chef Paul Liebrandt opened the Elm, a contemporary French restaurant, at King & Grove hotel in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in July. The buzzy restaurant, with an interior from Parts and Labor Design, features a living green wall, exposed beams, and polished concrete. The dining room and bar seat 73, and a private dining room seats 20. In the fall, the restaurant will offer an eight-seat chef’s counter adjacent to the open kitchen that serves a multicourse tasting menu.
Malbec and Tango House opened this summer in NoHo. Available for buyout, Malbec offers two levels of event space. The main level has a 65-seat restaurant and wine bar, and a 70-seat wine bar is downstairs. The floors are attached to Tango House, a theater space that used to be a 1920s cabaret. Architect Orestes Gonzalez designed the venues; highlights include a glass-enclosed wine cellar and a wall of wine corks in the dining room, plus a graffiti mural of the word "Tango" from artist Meres One of 5Pointz in Tango House.
For a downtown party, GoldBar offers a chic lounge in NoLIta with 12-foot vaulted ceilings adorned with gold leaf and crystal chandeliers. The space is divided into two sections: a front area with the bar and high-top tables and the main room with banquettes, cocktail tables, and 2,900 gold-plated skulls lining the walls (they can be covered with gold-hued curtains for the less adventurous). The 2,500-square-foot space accommodates 175 people and includes a DJ booth, V.I.P. space, and kitchen.
Andaz Wall Street reopened its Concourse Level—home to event facilities, meeting rooms, and a spa and fitness center— this month after damage from Hurricane Sandy forced it to close. The renovation expanded the level to 7,000 square feet from 4,000 square feet, allowing the hotel to host larger events. The 4,700-square-foot Gallery room holds as many as 450 people and can be subdivided into four smaller spaces. A newly remodeled open kitchen can serve as pre-function and breakaway space. Three new event spaces called Stock, Bond, and Exchange range from 740 to 1,900 square feet and come with LCD TVs, open pantries with personal espresso machines, and audiovisual equipment. The hotel's spa was also renovated.
Atop the 12-story NoMad Hotel, the rooftop offers all-weather event space with views of the Empire State Building. The rooftop has an 850-square-foot indoor space that can seat 40 banquet-style, 50 theater-style, or 75 for receptions. On the northwest corner, a restored turn-of-the-century cupola can seat 10 for private dinners. In warmer months, the hotel offers its 1,100-square-foot outdoor space for events of as many as 105 people. The rooftop has its own full kitchen.
Chef David Santos, a veteran of Per Se and Bouley, has opened Louro, which means "bay leaf" in Portuguese. The globally influenced menu includes dishes such as lamb neck rillette with Portuguese kimchi; roasted heirloom carrot salad with toasted miso, and octopus Bolognese with house-cured goose pancetta. The neutral-toned interior features white walks and dark leather banquettes, as well as minimalist chandeliers from designer Zach Bliss. The dining room seats 55, while the white marble-topped bar seats 12. Semiprivate dining at a 14-seat communal table in the rear of the restaurant is available.
The Hyatt Union Square, a 178-room hotel, opened in June. The new-build hotel sits behind a restored two-story limestone façade and offers several spaces for events. At 1,400 square feet, Singl is a spacious lobby-level bar that also serves small plates. The two-level restaurant the Fourth, an American brasserie from One Five Hospitality, seats 100 in the dining room and has a 45-person private dining room.
The Garden City Hotel on Long Island debuted a renovated grand ballroom in June. The nearly 6,000-square-foot space includes ornate touches such as golf leaf on the ceiling and crystal chandeliers. The hotel also added new carpeting that extends to reception spaces, Versailles-style chairs, and new tabletop items. The ballroom seats 500 guests and can be divided. Overall, the hotel has 25,000 square feet of meeting space among its 16 function rooms.
In Las Vegas, the massive Drai's Beach Club & Nightclub opened Memorial Day weekend at the Cromwell, a new boutique hotel on the Strip. Modeled after the beach club and nightclub concepts in St. Tropez and Ibiza, the 65,000-square-foot concept is spread over two levels. The lower level has two pools, a central wet deck, and 10 V.I.P. bungalows and luxury cabanas that have their own pools. The mezzanine level has a private pool with five private V.I.P. bungalows and another 15 V.I.P. cabanas. Drai's holds as many as 4,500 for receptions.
One of New York's newest rooftop bars is Spyglass, which opened in June on the 22nd floor of the just-opened Archer Hotel in the garment district. The indoor-outdoor space from David Burke Group offers full views of the Empire State Building from sleek highboy tables or tufted purple leather barstools, a design style that mixes in references to the 1940s and 1950s. Sypglass serves small plates from the hotel's restaurant, David Burke Fabrick. It holds 115 people for receptions.
The 7,100-square-foot rooftop venue Touché Rooftop Lounge & Restaurant opened in downtown Miami in April, offering 360-degree views of the skyline. The concept is from chef Carla Pellegrino of Top Chef fame and includes a 50-seat indoor dining room with an open kitchen as well as a 225-seat outdoor lounge with a waterfall wall, fire pits, and a communal table and bar. The space is set up to accommodate DJs and live music and has audiovisual equipment including LED screens.
Bar 54 opened in New York in February with a superlative distinction: Located on the 54th floor of the newly constructed Hyatt Times Square, it's the highest rooftop bar in the city. Span Architecture designed the space, which has views of the Chrysler Building, One World Trade Center, and both the East and Hudson rivers. Julie Reiner of Mixtress Consulting created the beverage program. The 122-seat lounge has both indoor and outdoor space available for events and has outdoor fireplaces at both ends of the terrace.
IO Urban Roofscape—named for its indoor and outdoor space—is on the fourth floor of Chicago's Godfrey Hotel, which opened in February. The 10,000-square-foot venue includes a restaurant, lounge, and event space with elements including a fire pit, water elements, a video wall, and a retractable roof. It accommodates 750 people for receptions—500 outdoors and 250 indoors. A V.I.P. room holds 36.
The Colonnade Hotel’s Roof Top Pool in Boston unveiled a redesign earlier this month. The 12th-floor spot now has white cabanas, lounge seating, bamboo flooring, and a 12-seat bar. The space holds about 200 people for receptions and offers panoramic views of the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods.
At 35,000 square feet, Picnic at the Downtown Grand Las Vegas hotel is a vast space with room for a number of amenities: an infinity pool, a fire pit, a bandstand, a restaurant and bar, and private cabanas overlooking downtown Las Vegas. The rooftop venue opened this spring and holds 1,500 for receptions.
With views of the Atlantic Ocean, the rooftop at the Villa by Barton G. on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive will reopen later this summer after light renovations. The perch atop the former Versace Mansion seats 30 or holds 125 guests for receptions. The property changed ownership and reopened in March following renovations to the 10-room boutique hotel, which also includes the new Mediterranean restaurant Il Sole.
The new hotel CitizenM New York debuted a rooftop venue called Cloud Bar in April. The Midtown space has indoor and outdoor seating and a food and beverage program created by mixology firm Critical Mass. It holds 155 guests for receptions. The hotel also has a ground-floor courtyard and two terraces on the mezzanine level.
BO-beau Kitchen & Roof Tap—a play on its rooftop location—opened in May in a restored 1930s-era Art Deco building in downtown Long Beach, California. It's the first Los Angeles County venture for the San Diego-based Cohn Restaurant Group, which imported the original BO-beau's “bohemian industrial chic” aesthetic. The venue's 14,000-square-foot footprint includes the downstairs kitchen and the second-story bar that has a total of 50 beers, wines, and cocktails. The rooftop seats 161 or holds 200 for receptions.
Overlooking the Hudson River and the skyscrapers of Times Square, the Attic Rooftop & Lounge opened in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in June. The bilevel venue covers 5,000 square feet—an indoor-outdoor rooftop space on the building's 16th floor that holds 450 guests and a glass-enclosed lounge on the 15th floor that holds 150. Each floor has its own bar and DJ booth. The design from Marc Dizon has a silver, grey, and white color palette and incorporates banquette seating that could be used for V.I.P. areas.
Refinery Rooftop, atop the Refinery Hotel in New York's garment district, offers views of the Empire State Building and Midtown skyline. The 3,500-square-foot space has three sections: an indoor area, a terrace, and an indoor-outdoor patio with a retractable glass roof. It is open year-round. The rooftop seats 75 or holds 240 for receptions and has a dedicated kitchen, audiovisual equipment, and an area for a step-and-repeat.
As part of an $18 million expansion, the Inn on Fifth in Naples, Florida, expanded into a building across from the main inn called Club Level Suites. The new space includes 32 suites as well as a landscaped rooftop with a hot tub and lounge seating. The space holds 60 for receptions.
