New Roosevelt Island cocktail bar has panoramic views of NYC and the Queensboro Bridge
Photo credit: Noah Fecks
New York City is full of rooftop bars, most offering a sky-high snapshot of the Big Apple’s expansive skyline. But a new cocktail lounge on Roosevelt Island is providing an even bigger picture, with 360-degree views of three boroughs and a unique perspective of the Queensboro Bridge. Opening this Friday, the aptly named Panorama Room sits on the 18th-floor of the Graduate Roosevelt Island, the first hotel to open on the island.
Photo credit: Steve Freihon
Photo credit: Steve Freihon
The glass-enclosed bar boasts dramatic high ceilings with a design that mixes Art Deco and futuristic elements. With interiors from Parts and Labor Design, the Panorama Room has an open-air terrace, providing fresh air and seamless movement between indoors and out. The space, which can seat 168 guests, also has a massive red-marble bar with stools wrapped around it.
Anything at All. Photo credit: Steve Freihon
Panorama Room’s menu comes from Marc Rose and Med Abrous of hospitality group Call Mom, the same team behind the hotel’s ground floor restaurant Anything at All.
“Because we felt we were doing something unprecedented in NYC, we decided to really embrace the future,” Rose said in an interview with Vogue. “The future can sometimes be described as cold, so it was important for us to make the space feel chic, warm, and inviting. We want to be a beacon for the island—you’re able to see this moment atop this building on Roosevelt Island, and it gives a sense of intrigue.”
The restaurant, which opened at Graduate earlier this summer, is run by Executive Chef Megan Brown (a Red Rooster, The Standard, and Ace Hotel alum) and Estelle Bossy, as beverage director.
The Panorama drinks menu will include many reimagined cocktails, including a lychee martini, an amaretto sour, and a Long Island Iced Tea, named after the Queens neighborhood visible from the bar, Long Island City, as the New York Times reported.
“These drinks serve as a metaphor for Roosevelt Island itself,” Bossy told the Times. “In plain sight but neglected and underappreciated by New Yorkers for decades.”
The 224-key hotel opened in June as part of Cornell University’s new tech campus on the island, with the intention of serving as a “scholastic retreat” for the university’s community and visitors alike. The LEED-certified hotel was designed by Stonehill Taylor and Snøhetta, the firm also behind the adjacent Verizon Executive Education Center.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said the hotel restaurant Anything at All was run by Executive Chef Ja’Toria Harper and Pastry Chef Lindsey Verardo, but they are no longer with the hotel.Â
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