It's not hard to figure out what you’re getting yourself into as you pass the Ferrari dealership en route to Salon de Ning, in Midtown East. Same goes for the Charvet dress shirts and Ferragamo loafers worn by your Hotel Peninsula elevator-mates. But we bravely pressed the “R” button to the rooftop to determine whether it's a sky-high Shangri-la for the last gasps of summer, or just a shmancy hotel-guest watering hole two dozen stories up. (Quick answer: It’s a sky-high Shangri-La for shmancy hotel guests.)
Digs: The former Pen-Top Bar & Terrace, notorious for its garish, turf-like carpeting and dockside-style barroom, has been stripped and reshaped into a regal simulacrum of Hong Kong. An elegant wooden frame shelters the bar, while a thin encircling balcony offers no more than a chest-high ledge to keep you in. Inside, the gleaming wood has an Asian mountain feel, with short tables and block cushion chairs for the wall-to-wall patrons. Splashes of reds and purples further channel an Eastern paradise, as do the replica paintings and sculpted trees adorning the deck. There’s also more than a bit of Miami, with the daybeds and dainty tables for two. A few tables with umbrellas offer larger groups a chance to sit, but with the teeming crowds you’d be lucky to snag seating of any kind. And anyone with sub-par night vision will need to move especially slowly, as the roof gets darker than the inside of a quilted Chanel clutch once the sun goes down. But if you need something to see, the skyline offers a smashing "Metropolis"-like view of Midtown East.
Crowd: While there’s a sprinkling of brokers, salesmen and PR types, the crowd is mostly hotel guests, which means a swanky yet not-so-chic group with the means for, if not necessarily the execution of, the fashion plate thing. Think sundresses and dress shirts. (If you enter from the street, however, the desk attendants will stop you if you’re not appropriately attired—one woman got denied for her flip-flops.) The age range runs from the young 30s to the happy 50s, with a healthy dose of Euro visitors creating a rich (and loud) buzz of multilingual banter—you’d hear all about Mediterranean weddings, trips to France and which best friend is “positively tacky.” Meanwhile, the mini-balcony around the bar serves as the smoking lounge, where groups of shy, tie-wearing lads watch pretty young things kick it to older men who have no problem placing their martinis on the wall, mere millimeters from the edge.
Sounds: People talking—that’s all. Somewhere in the background there’s a CD playing sambas and Latin lounge stuff, but the volume has apparently been set to “negligible.”
Service: The bar is drowning in patrons (just getting near a bartender is a test of patience), but the staff is spot-on with table service. The beverage selection is surprisingly long on signature drinks, like The Baojing a la Ning (Baojing vodka, hard-shaken with lemon twists) and the Shanghai Sunset (Malibu, Chambord, pineapple juice, lime and club soda). Remember your Black Card, though; The drinks start at $22, with beer the vaguely cheaper alternative at $12. Teeny plates of chocolate and artisanal cheese go for $33 to $45 a plate.
Net results: what folks are saying online
[Shecky’s] "Party like a Shanghai socialite high above glittering Fifth Avenue at this sexy new incarnation of The Peninsula Hotel’s 23rd floor rooftop bar.”
[NY Mag] "The design suggests Shanghai Triad, but there's also touches of James Bond in the vested waitresses patrolling the tables like super-villain minions, as well as Spaghetti Westerns in the crumpled napkins blowing around like tumbleweeds in the high-altitude wind.”
[Time Out New York] "The Peninsula hotel’s former Pen-Top bar gets an Asian makeover (look out, Suzie Wong)."
[NY Times] “Out-of-town visitors easily shocked by pricey martinis can join locals who are never shocked by pricey martinis in being shocked by the even pricier cocktails, but at least they’re good.”
Salon de Ning
700 Fifth Ave. at 55th St.
212-956-2888
Photo by Sam Horine
