Friday Fun: Best Cities for Rooftop Dining and Drinking

Just in time for summer’s last hurrah, a list of cities with a reputation for rooftop entertainment.

1 minute read

September 1, 2023, 8:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


A group of friends laughs and celebrates with beers on a rooftop with Downtown Los Angeles in the background.

Catch me outside. | Cultura Allies / Adobe Stock

It’s almost time for a holiday weekend, so how about a little fun in the city?

At Planetizen we love a good rooftop bar, but it’s an idea that’s only really taken off at any scale over the last decade or so in our hometown of Los Angeles. Some cities are ahead of the curve, and some are bringing up the rear on this trend, so luckily the website RoofGnome recently published a ranking of the best cities for rooftop drinking to help identify which cities are which.

Richie Bernardo writes the article and explains the methodology for the rankings. “We compared nearly 300 of the biggest U.S. cities based on a cocktail of 18 metrics. We factored in rooftop bar and lounge access and consumer ratings, stirred with data-driven mixers like affordability and climate.”

As for the rankings, the first three cities read exactly like a list of the most populous cities in the country, with New York City taking the lead, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. Number four on the list, San Diego, is where we start to see some deviation. Washington, D.C. takes the fifth spot, but click through the link below to see the rest of the rankings.

Thursday, August 10, 2023 in RoofGnome

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