Summer time in Las Vegas means tis the season for rooftop bars!
There’s nothing quite as beautiful when you’re sipping a cocktail and overlooking the Las Vegas strip.
According to Liquor.com, some of the most popular cocktails right now are espresso martinis tequila, mocking birds (tequila, watermelon, fresh lime juice, and jalapeño), rositas (essentially a tequila negroni), Aperol Spritzs and colletti royales (tequila reposado, triple sec, elderflower liqueur, blood orange juice, lime juice).
Add a rooftop and a city skyline to this equation of tasty, sparkly cocktails, and you’ll get an amazing night.
With that being said, the history of rooftops, bars and happy hours is actually an interesting story.
According to Bloomberg News, the origin of the now-popular roof top bar stems from the 1880s. Rudolph Aronson was a New York conductor and musician. He took a trip to Europe and saw urban gardens performing music or theater acts, which attracted a pretty substantial audience.
Upon arriving back to New York, Aronson recreated the situation he saw in Europe. Except, he added a little twist. Instead of creating an urban garden on the street, he created a “Moorish-styles Casino Theatre” on his roof.
Due to no air conditioning, theaters often were excruciatingly hot and unbearable to sit through. Aronson’s rooftop-style theater became an escape for many people, offering a little “staycation” for those who wanted to escape the stuffy city for a few hours, and it was far less hot on the roofs. These rooftop theaters became bigger and better as the money started pouring in.
People came to these rooftop spots to “let loose” with dances such as “The Roof Garden Two-Step” becoming popular in 1885. As time went on, the idea of “tall apartment” buildings became a symbol of class and economic status. If you could afford to live, party, etc. with an apartment building with an elevator then you were deemed as wealthy.
“The crowded city no longer separated its rich and poor laterally by neighborhood,” Bloomberg states in the article.
After a few dips and upticks in popularity, the modern-day rooftop emerged as a vision from excited developers. Rooftops started to become neoclassical city hall with lush gardens, dwindling real estate on the “street level” of cities also created more innovation when it came to rooftop design.
The vision of Aronson’s original rooftop bar isn’t far off from what we see today. Currently, we have tons of beautiful rooftop bars in Las Vegas that offer entertainment, amazing cuisine and craft cocktails that allows people to escape from their everyday cacophony of noise, family, bills, money and more.
Now, rooftop bars are a staple when it comes to celebrations, brunch with loved ones or a night on the town. We love our rooftop bars in Las Vegas because it’s simply a luxurious feeling to drink cocktails while looking at the beautiful glittering light of Sin City.
Below are some of our favorite rooftop bars in Las Vegas that will make you feel like you’re entranced in a different world.