With summer quickly descending its time for the annual ascent of New York's drinkers to our metropolis's many rooftops. We've already told you some of our favorites, but new ones just keep popping up. In Williamsburg you've got the rooftop of the new Wythe Hotel, and in Manhattan Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group has recently revamped the lovely Terrace above the Gramercy Park Hotel. So yesterday we went and checked the beauty out.
First things first, let's be clear that the Gramercy is not your typical rooftop bar. If you are hoping to use it as an after work hangout, you'll want to keep looking—it is only open to the public for breakfast, lunch and weekend brunches—nighttime is reserved for private hotel events. But that's okay when, unlike many rooftops, you can make reservations as far as 10 days in advance to enjoy a lunch above it all.
Chef de Cuisine Jeff Seizer's menus (below) are pretty much what you'd expect from a brunchy rooftop serving twists on classic American comfort food: breakfast dishes between $12-$16, a slightly larger lunch menu with your standards ($14 cobb salad, $16 lobster roll, $18 burger, $16 buttermilk fried chicken) all served with the friendly addition of a $10 kids menu (Union Square Hospitality knows its stuff). Meanwhile, the spring cocktail menu is filled with exactly the sorts of drinks we'd want to sip while looking out over the last private park in Manhattan.
As for the decor? It's pretty simple, very green, and mostly lets the views speak for themselves. But if you want some fancy art, you don't have to look far. The interior spaces on the Terrace display a rotating selection of 20th century art from the likes of Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.
2 Lexington Avenue // 212-201-2171
