Birreria, Eataly’s new rooftop brewery and brew pub, is the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post.
One thing I love about New York is how the city makes use of every square inch of outdoor public space. And how the city’s residents embrace this space. The recently expanded High Line, abandoned elevated railroad tracks turned into a park and immediately (and perhaps obsessively) loved by New Yorkers, is an obvious example. But so too are smaller, quieter spaces. On the Upper West Side, the Broadway Mall Association maintains gardenlike median strips with benches at each cross street. Those benches are almost always populated by people enjoying a morning coffee, a bit of sunshine or just being outside.
So I was a little surprised that it took New York, perhaps the most vertical city in the world, so long to discover its rooftops. But discover them it did. Once primarily the domain of water tanks and HVAC units, Manhattan rooftops are becoming prime bar real estate.
The latest entry is Birreria—not just a bar, but an actual brewery, 15 floors above Fifth Avenue. And with views of the Flat Iron Building, the Empire State Building and, well, New York, it could probably get by on looks alone. But with Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and company at the helm, you know the food is going to be good. So is the beer. To find out more about what’s being called the nation’s highest brewery, check out my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.