First Look: The Roof @ The Wit

By Karl Klockars in Food on May 26, 2009 7:00PM

Imagine how awesome the view will be at night.

The dusty window is because construction was still underway. Presumably they\'ll clean it by opening.

You can get just a sliver of Millennium Park and the lake from the south side of the buidling.

You don\'t realize how stupid the Thompson Center really looks until you see it from above.

Normally only window washers get this view of the sign at the Chicago Theater.

From this shot, you can see how many people are scrambling to have the patio prepared for open.

From 27 stories up, it looks like HO Scale el trains.

The lounge area.

The bar, looking very 80\'s / Max Headroomish.

Are rooftops the new patios? Between the C-View at the Affinia, the Vertigo Sky Lounge at the Dana, the Whiskey Sky at the W and the Terrace at the Conrad among others, hotel roofs are for more than just AC units and gravel these days.

Opening this week is The Roof at the new Wit Hotel at State & Lake. Featuring two outdoor patios, an indoor lounge with full bars, fireplaces, a small plates menu featuring fire-baked pizzas, and a 27th-story bird's eye view of State Street, we got an inside look and managed to keep the vertigo to a minimum in order to bring you a preview.

So...how are the drinks? Who's behind the menu? What's on tap? What pizza oven are they using? The real answer is: who cares? These places are all about the view, and everything else is just icing on the cake. You'll be paying hotel bar prices for the privilege of being at the top of the world, of course - but for one of the best views of State Street available, it's worth a trip.