Bringing delicious and refreshing drinks with a view to die for!
Rooftop season is here in New York City and there is no better way to beat the summer heat than hanging out with your friends with a drink in hand and looking over at a beautiful Manhattan view. One of the rooftop lounges we have fallen in love with is The Highlight Room which is part of the Tao Hospitality Group.
Located by the border of Lower Manhattan and Bowery, The Highlight Room brings coastal elegance to the concrete jungle. The venue itself is designed like a beach bar in Tulum but also has a sophisticated elegance that makes this bar upscale and classy while also being a place to unwind and relax.
And while we were here, we had a chance to check out some of the drink and food options on their menu. To start we opted for the Golden Hour Spritz, which is a perfect summertime cocktail to get. The drink is made with Veuve Ambal, Botanical Grapefruit Rose, Chambord, Peach Boba, and adorned with Gold Leaf. This drink was visually gorgeous and insta-worthy with the golden hue and the gold leaf shimmering in the drink. Each sip was so refreshing and burst with sweet and fruity notes from the grapefruit, the peach boba, and the Chambord addition.
Despite being a spritz drink, this drink has enough of a kick to keep the party going too. We also loved the bits of herbal and botanical notes that give this drink a bit of dimension and break up the fruity sweet flavors that this drink has. We definitely recommend this drink to start your evening at The Highlight Room.
We also tried the NSFW cocktail which was made with Absolut Vodka, Volcan Tequila, Mango, Passionfruit, Lime, Rooibos Tea, and Red Bull Tropical. The combination of vodka, tequila, and red bull had us interested at first and made us think this would be something of the Four Loko variety. When we tried this drink, we couldn’t have been more wrong. The first sip from this drink brings a beautiful mango flavor forward where the sweetness is accentuated by notes of passionfruit. This sweetness was balanced beautifully by the Rooibos Tea addition where there were hints of herbs and freshness in the drink. And as you probably could tell, the mixture of vodka and tequila in this drink makes it a bit spirit forward.
But, with that being said, a spirit forward mango cocktail in the summer is something no sane New Yorker would ever complain about. For those that love a nice tropical flavored drink, we highlight recommend this one for you.
For food, The Highlight Room offers a few small plates to snack on to which we decided on the Bavarian Soft Pretzel and the Coconut S’Mores Bar to get both a savory and sweet feel. The Bavarian Pretzel was massive and came with a whole grain mustard sauce and a cheddar cheese sauce. This pretzel was crisp on the outside but was so moist and fluffy on the inside.
Personally, the whole grain mustard sauce was calling my name since I love a bit of a kick with a pretzel, but the cheddar cheese sauce held its own and gave a wonderful savory coating to the pretzel bites we dipped in.
The Coconut S’Mores Bar is a sweet tooth’s dream. This dish came with a graham cracker bottom crust, with a chocolate ganache middle, and topped with a coconut mousse. The combination of the coconut mousse and the chocolate ganache was heavenly and felt like an upscale Almond Joy. The graham cracker crust was flakey and buttery which added a lovely decadence to the dish. But what kept us coming back was how perfectly they captured the essence of coconut in this dish. Bits of coconut shaving came through and it was so delightful to get that tropical treat in each bite.
All in all, The Highlight Room has sold us as one of the best rooftops New York City has to offer. The drinks are all bright, refreshing, tasty, and boozy. The ambiance brings a chic and sophisticated vibe. And the food is tasty and pairs well with any cocktail in hand. If you are in search of a new rooftop bar where the vibes are immaculate and the drinks keep flowing, we cannot recommend The Highlight Room enough.
