Four of America's Rooftop Venue Owners
Share Their Secrets of Success

The old appellation “dog days of summer” originates from the fact that during the hottest nights of the year, people can stare skyward and see Orion’s dog star, Sirius, at his feet. If Orion were to look down upon Earth, he might see the happenings of people a little more clearly in these midsummer’s nights, as well, since across the country, rooftop bars fill just as quickly as the sun seems to set.
    Nightclub & Bar took a look around the country at four successful venues — four different markets, four different environments, one common thread of industry success. What makes a successful rooftop concept? These four prove that it isn’t the location. It isn’t the heat — or lack thereof. For those romantics, maybe it was the blessing of Sirius, but more likely, it has been their careful cultivation of a fluid space with a solid concept, tending to challenges destined to occur and having a management system flexible enough to handle it all under the ever-changing whims of Mother Nature.

Lounging in the Sky With Diamonds: B.E.D., New York City
    Opened in July of 2005, just six months after the original space below it debuted, B.E.D.’s rooftop cabana attracted New York City’s — and America’s — A-list personalities and holds them spellbound, still.
    “Basically, one of the reasons we took this building — which was highly unusual because you have got to come up in an elevator — was because of the rooftop,” says Co-owner Dirk van Stockum. “It is an urban oasis, for want of a better term. The view is the outer west side, as they call it. It still retains some of that unique, New York kind of skyline of manufactured buildings that are original architectural-wise as opposed to 400 condos.”
    The ideal, 300-person, 7,500 square-foot space, however, did not arrive without its share of challenges.
    “It is really just the nature of trying to do something on a roof,” van Stockum says. “You are going into outdoor construction. There are only certain windows of opportunity open to you. And, you are operating six floors up. Everything has got to come in through a freight elevator. And, obviously you have to re-engineer the roof to get increased live load up there. Those things are time-consuming and awkward.”
With a concept that hundreds of venues have imitated but never truly duplicated, B.E.D. pulls in $150,000 a week in the winter.
    “During the off months,” van Stockum says, “it has an elaborate retractable roof that goes up and down.”
    This is nothing to when compared to the season when the Big Apple is baking. “In the summer, there is a huge spike to $275,000 a week,” he says. This is punctuated by the space’s private rental fee of $35,000 at minimum and the popularity of promotions such as Breakfast in B.E.D. — the Sunday afternoon rooftop party which runs from 2 p.m. until midnight. “After all,” van Stockum says, “What’s better than laying down on a bed outdoors?”
    It seems being on top in B.E.D. has its benefits.

Riverside Rising: Chez Nora, Covington, Ky.
    Twelve years ago, Jim Gilliece and his wife Pati purchased a corner saloon in Covington, Ky., with a 50 square-foot kitchen. (That is not a typo. It was really that small).
Building upon a good location, the couple expanded to a 500 square-foot kitchen, but with dining for 45 and only 18 seats at the bar, the constant requests by patrons for more remained.
    “We kept doing a marketing study at the door,” Jim Gilliece says. “People would ask, ‘Can we sit in the non-smoking section?’ I would say ‘No, we don’t have one.’ Then, ‘Can we have our rehearsal dinner at your place?’ I would say ‘No.’ So, we decided we would go get those two things.”
    The purchase of the adjacent building gave Chez Nora a first-floor, non-smoking dining room, a second-floor private function room and a third-floor Jazz lounge.
“Then, since we had to put a roof on it anyway, we decided it would be a rooftop terrace bar,” Gilliece says.
    With seating for 70 at small cocktail tables, the rooftop portion shares a common wall and bar with the Jazz club, as well as the music.
    “Theoretically, the terrace is open year-round,” he says. “We selected faux marble table tops with polymer bases because of the weather, wrought-iron chairs for the weather proofing of it and wrought-iron, swiveling bar stools. They are free-standing and moveable.”
    This is crucial for Chez Nora’s climate and absence of cover upstairs. “We do get snow, and we are capable of getting a tornado, but we have not had one yet,” Gilliece says.
     Chez Nora’s setting is a benefit even in the face of inclement weather. Overlooking the Ohio River with views of Covington’s quaint rooftops and neighboring Cincinnati, Ohio’s elegant skyscrapers, Chez Nora hosts a profitable Happy Hour every day and well-respected Jazz bands every night.
    “I think it is sort of a value-added thing,” Gilliece says of his terrace. “We find that it is a buyer’s market. The bands now contact us.”

Tequila & Moonlight: Coyote Cantina, Santa Fe, N.M.
    From thermometer-melting temperatures in the summer to icy roads and skiing in the winter, the environment of New Mexico is in a constant state of seasonal flux, and rooftop venues here become a greater challenge.
    Open from middle of April until the finishing days of October, Mark Miller’s Coyote Cantina serves up Oaxaca Mexican-inspired cuisine in an open-air, laid-back Southwest style. The 2,105 square-foot venue is true Santa Fe with exposed adobe stucco walls, a painted concrete floor and potted Agave plants. Located directly above his renowned Coyote Café, Miller’s lighter concept often has longer lines — serving more than 700 meals on a good night out of only a 340 square-foot kitchen.
     “Almost all of it has a tin roof, and then a quarter of it has a canvas roof. But, it is all open air,” says General Manager Tori Mendes. “We have these roll-down flaps and heaters. They help us when it is really windy or rainy, because we are able to stay open without exposing the customers to the elements.”
    The effects of pre-planning on Miller’s part are palpable — more than $1 million dollars in just six months of operation a season.
    The main space seats 105 with an additional 66 cocktail seats around the perimeter where guests can enjoy both views of the street and the smells from the kitchen. “There is something to be said for fresh air in a restaurant,” Mendes says. “The food wafts and there are flowers everywhere. The atmosphere and the attitude are really good up here — all the time.”
    Miller’s staff is another catalyst for the success of the rooftop space. Turnover is rare, and according to Mendes, the Coyote Cantina moves more El Tesoro tequila and more Bacardi Limon than any other place in the state.
    Unlike B.E.D. and Chez Nora, however, Coyote Cantina is not designed to withstand the winter, and as such, the entire place was designed to be portable.
    “Everything comes out, and it’s hard,” Mendes says. “We take out all the equipment, because we can’t leave it exposed to the elements.”
    This being the case, Miller must acquiesce to unique budget allocations. “Most every year we replace all of our piping and all of our plumbing,” Mendes says. “At the end of the year, it takes us about three straight days of eight to 15 people working daily just to break it all down.
    “But, the cantina literally keeps us alive,” she says. “The café does well, but the cantina is a different volume. On Cinco de Mayo Friday, we had 630 covers for that night  –– and that doesn’t count all the people coming up just to have cocktails.”

Endless Summer: Canes Bar & Grill, San Diego, Calif.     
    A full-service restaurant, a 900-person capacity nightclub and a live entertainment venue featuring acts from Linkin Park to Snoop Dogg — Canes Bar & Grill may be adjacent to the Pacific ocean, but it holds a world of options under its roof. And, like a perfect cherry, on top of it all, is the spectacular view from a 250-seat Sky Bar.
    However, opening Canes in 1996 meant facing not only the crystal blue waters, but also the daunting track record of the former tenants.
    “There had been four previous businesses that went out of business before us,” Owner Eric Leitstein says. “A lot of other people think that it is a great location, but it is still a little bit of a destination spot, and it is a little bit seasonal. So, we still need to have something going on here.”
    While the total capacity on the Sky Bar is 1,400, Leitstein is able to seat 250 for dinner comfortably, making Canes a frequent selection for private parties.
    “We probably do about a couple dozen parties a year,” he says. “We do everything from Bar Mitzvahs to weddings. When they have the ASR (Action Sports Retailer show) in San Diego, we rent it out to two companies. The Sky Bar was always here, but no one really utilized it to its fullest potential.”
    The décor is purposefully sparse to let the view do the talking. This year, Leitstein added additional palapa umbrella tables and repainted the space.
    “I put earth tones up there to keep it kind of chill,” he says. “From floor to ceiling, there is an 8-foot wall, so it is pretty protected from the wind. You can see islands by Mexico on a clear day.”
    Half of the wall is glass, so the view is never obstructed. Even in a location where rainfall is minimal, views are maximum and there is no winter season, challenges still linger.
    “The salt air eats away everything out here,” Leitstein says. “So, we have gone through a trial basis with a lot of different types of equipment and furniture. Now it is just a cost of doing business. We replace it pretty much annually.
    “Every year, we do some sort of improvement to the building,” he says. “This year, we put in additional drink machines on the deck, bought some new furniture, and we are redoing the menu.” NCB