I took a few of my out of town friends here Tuesday, July 2nd to show them the best view and the best drinks in Asheville. Upon arrival we are told the place was quite full and we may have wait awhile before we had our drinks. Not two minutes later a raven haired beauty comes up and asks us how we are and if we have any questions, we were all a little dumb struck and let her make us all "surprises" I had a martini that had a detailed chocolate flower on the top, my friends each had something crazy, delicious, and different and we all decided they were the best drinks we had ever had. I love this place the servers and bartenders really go out of the way to make each person feel special, add to that the view and you have the best bar in Asheville. I would recommend dinner at curate, go before 7, drinks at sky bar, then dessert at the chocolate lounge.
Review Source:This place seems really cool - atop a nice old office building. Â Old school elevator with an elevator operator. Â It's pretty small outside but great views of Asheville. Â We left without ordering anything as it was too crowded and also fairly cool outside. Â The staff seemed friendly and nice. Â I'd try it again in warm weather.
Review Source:*sighs* Â We walk alllll the way to this establishment only to sit and wait for someone to take our orders for 15 min. Â So we left. Â Looks cool and love the concept, but where is the bar and why didn't anyone come to take our orders when someone told us that they would be with us in a minute.
Review Source:What can you say about this place...it's excellent. Â Frist, you get on an old school elevator to take you to the top which consists of two decks overlooking downtown Asheville and surrounding areas. Â Great panoramic view anytime. Â Drinks are great, and specials are inventively delivered by the friendly waitstaff. Â Probably my favorite bar in Asheville.
Review Source:Step out of the hustle of the street and enter a parlor that time forgot for a ride to one of the best views in all of downtown Asheville, Â complete with hand crafted spirits that are potent but quite well-blended. Â
Skybar is best suited as a first evening stop, to watch the sunset and unwind with a drink and some easy conversation. Â Little more than an outdoor balcony on three levels, the space is unique but serves a singular purpose as you look out to the West and the sun setting between the mountains. Â
A trip begins with a press of the button to call down the old elevator.  No digital displays glowing at you here.  Instead, watch as the ornate pointer  above the doorway slowly winds down to the first floor.  A deftly groomed doorman greets you right away and asks for ID before closing the metal hinged doorway and urging the old elevator on its well-worn trudge up to the eighth floor. Â
You step out into a narrow hallway and a small portico that leads out onto the top floor balcony. Â Not too big, with just a small bar and couple tables, all looking West. Â Find a menu or just wait a minute as a bartender comes to you looking for you drink order. Â
The menu contains many options that range from sangria to infused liquors mixed with a number of different ingredients to create tastes and flavors that are unlike what you will find on any standard bar menu. Â Most of these drinks are quite potent and meant for sipping, not chugging, which fits the mood here just fine. Â At $7 to $10 a piece, the drinks are a good value and well in line with more traditional establishments about town.
You can stand on the top level to look out at the views or take the stairs down to a lower balcony level where there are tables and chairs fit for socializing. Â There is no central "bar" to congregate around, however. Â Servers will come and find you with surprising regularity, even when it gets more crowded. Â
Things do tend to get a bit more crammed as you get closer to actual sunset. Â The fire code person limit is tight and quickly fills up on more popular weekend nights, so it is best to be early. Â They will reach capacity and refuse to take more patrons up once at that point. Â You'll likely rub elbows with others as the magic moment approaches. Â Those with claustrophobia best look elsewhere. Â It is a good way, however, to strike up conversation with other travelers and locals looking to impress their guests.
Once it gets dark, however, the crowds quickly disperse into other evening plans and things die down quickly across all levels of the balcony. Â A ride back down the vintage elevator returns you back to modernity and the bustle of Battery Park Avenue. Â For a unique start to an evening in Asheville, SkyBar gets high marks for its vintage appeal, great views, and well crafted drinks. Â It has done a fine job of capturing the essence of the city below it.
Very cool little place to take in the view and grab a drink in Asheville. I was a little surprised how small the patio(s) were, but it's pretty intimate and easy to make friends because of that. I did have to hunt down our waitress to pay the bill, but they seemed pretty busy.
Good beer and drink selection, plus they also sell cigars there.
If you ask nicely, the elevator operator might let you run the old-timey elevator lever for a bit.
The highlight for me was - if you sneak down to the basement there is an unplugged game of Donkey Kong awaiting you. Plug it in and insert a quarter, jubilation and nostalgia should ensue.
This place was really neat! Â You never get to ride in those cool, old style elevators anymore and Sky Bar has them. Â We didn't even have good weather and still had an amazing view to look at and really enjoyed ourselves. Great place to stop for a drink before or after grabbing dinner somewhere downtown. Â Definitely go!
Review Source:{This review was originally published at The20Somethings.com}
Marble floors and dim lighting awaited us as we stepped away from Battery Park Avenue and into Asheville's historic Flatiron Building - a space that doesn't look to have changed much over the past 90 years. Just inside the door and to the left was a small white sign letting us know that Sky Bar was open and ringing the bell would provide the elevator service we needed. A push of the button, a buzzing sound some eight floors above us echoing through the elevator chamber, and a few moments later, we were greeted by an attractive bearded fellow opening the door and cage of a 1920s style elevator.
"Good evening. Welcome to Sky Bar. May I see your ID's?" was the greeting before the cage and door were closed and the trip to the top of this historic Asheville building began. On the way up, the elevator attendant asked us if it was our first time at Sky Bar, letting us know where to go once our journey together ended.
Just off the elevator and to the left was a small green sign that read "Balcony." Once we passed through, we were in Sky Bar. Red and pink sunset stroked against the Blue Ridge Mountains as the lights of cars and buildings twinkled below and soft classic tunes played on the overhead speakers. Before we knew it a young waitress dressed in all black greeted us with a menu and a warm welcome to our new favorite establishment.
Sweeping views of the mountains to the west of Asheville are all yours as you journey onto the large metal fire escapes hanging onto the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors of the Flatiron Building. Simply dressed with tables and chairs on the 6th and 7th floors and large patio umbrellas on the 8th, Sky Bar is all about the scenery offered by Asheville's surroundings. The scenery, and the drinks.
From on-site infused liquors to reinvented martinis, out of this world speciality cocktails and ever-changing drinks of the day, Sky Bar offers unique beverages available no where else in Asheville. Manager and Operator Katrina Rush loves the place she calls work on most evenings throughout the outdoor-friendly months in Western North Carolina. "I have creative freedom here" she shared as we discussed the fun cocktail offerings, "I love all the drinks, that's why they're on the menu."
Katrina is responsible for the bar's menu and is the creator of such delicious offerings as house-infused pineapple-strawberry tequila, blackberry-mint run, and vodka-soaked pickles. "Fruit soaked in liquor - you can't go wrong" said Katrina, also referred to as Sky Bar's "Momma Bear" for her guidance and leadership among staff and patrons alike.
She even works with a local, certified herbalist for one of the bar's more interesting concoctions - Â Love Potion #9. An infusion of Frangelico, vodka, muira puama, damiana, horny goat weed, lotus, cocoa powder, and maple syrup, Love Potion #9 is a concentrated aphrodisiac elixir available by itself or in the Passion-tini (pictured below, on the right) where it is mixed with Godiva Dark and a splash of coconut milk. Deliciously herbaceous, chocolatey, and light with a slight spice from the cinnamon, the Passion-tini will make you fall in love with the scenery and the person you call lover, all at the same time.
If you're looking for something lighter and more refreshing the bar's most popular drink, the Spring Fling (below, left), is for you. A mint-infused vodka is mixed with muddled mint, lemons, and club soda before being topped with some of Katrina's homemade vodka pickles. "A few of those pickles and you're feeling great," Katrina laughed.
One thing that Katrina is not afraid to admit to is the strength of Sky Bar's cocktails, "We pour a stiff drink here, it's like you're getting two drinks in one." That's part of the reason she's put a one drink maximum on her signature sangria - made with tequila-soaked fruit, Cointreau, apple brandy, red wine, and a splash of Goldschläger.
An Asheville native, college graduate, and almost teacher, Katrina spent many years as a bartender and bar manager about town before settling down at one of Asheville's most popular destinations, "Sky Bar is a magical, hidden place that you can stumble into, watch the sun set, and have a great drink; you take a rickety, old elevator to the top of this building, climb out onto a fire escape, and order a drink - I love it."
And she loves Asheville, a place she calls a "vortex of positivity." "People are more alive here," Katrina shares when she's bragging on her hometown, "the community and people are unlike anywhere I've ever been." Her love of community and positivity play an important role in the Sky Bar experience. "When people come up here, they are awestruck by the view, they let their guard down and relax" said Katrina. "People are more willing to connect" she added. "I love learning about folks who visit us and investing in their lives.
So another night begins to fall in the Land of the Sky and another visit to this funky little drinking space to watch a fanastic sunset.
I've been here a few times and still not sure how exacxtly it works.
Service is "ok" and I've never eaten here.....not sure if I can, but the views make up for everything.
Okay, Sky Bar is a bar on the 8th floor of this old downtown building in Battery Park. Â It's almost beside Kilwins.
Once you go in you walk back to the left and get into an old elevator that actually has an attendant. Â :) Â He will take you up to the 8th floor and from there you can walk out of the fire escape and soak in the views.
They have a friendly staff that help accommodate your drink needs. Â I had a vodka tonic which wasnt too shaby.
The ambiance is defiantely what makes this place special. Â You can walk down to other levels (7th and 6th floors) and enjoy a table or you can stay on the 8th floor fire escape and drink and enjoy the views.
On a recent visit to Asheville with friends, we decided to try the Sky Bar after hearing about it from some locals. It started off very promising, but ended less so. You enter on the street level in what seems to be an old office building. An elevator man takes you up to the bar, which is basically on the fire escape of this building. The bar spans three levels of the fire escape. The top level doesn't have tables or chairs, but the two below it do. The actual bar is inside somewhere (not on view). Waitresses just sort of appear from somewhere and run up and down the stairs checking on customers.
The atmosphere and location are very unique and unlike any other bar I've been to--even other rooftop bars. It really feels like you've found some kind of hidden treasure that not too many people know about (the waitress told us that many people who live in Asheville don't even know about this place). There are some great views of the city and plenty of tables. In fact, when our group of six got there, we were the only people on the third level.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere was where the positives sort of end. I ordered a Tom Collins, which is hardly a rare drink and is a classic gin drink. The drink arrived and had clearly been made with vodka. I pointed this out to the waitress and she asked what I wanted it made with. I said gin and she took it back. When she arrived with the remixed drink, she said, "By the way, a Tom Collins is traditionally made with vodka." I said, "Um, no it's not. It's a classic gin drink." She sort of shrugged and walked off. To her credit, she came racing back about 5 minutes later and said the bartender had looked it up and had discovered I was right and that she had been making them wrong all this time (with vodka). While I'm glad the bartender realized her mistake, I found this whole exchange to be rather bizarre. I'm not sure how a bartender at a place like this doesn't know what's in a Tom Collins to begin with.
After this, the service got increasingly worse. I'm not sure if it's because more people arrived and our waitress was dealing with more tables or what, but she took forever to bring us drinks and she forgot the last round completely. Usually when a waitperson forgets about you, they realize they've forgotten once they see you. This woman seemed to have no memory whatsoever of taking our order. At that point, we just asked for the check.
I think this bar has really great potential given the location and the unique space, but they need to improve their service in order to rank more highly in my book. If I'm in town again, I'll check it out to see if maybe the night we were there was just an exception to the rule.
The Sky Bar is located on the top three floors, the fire escape/balcony areas, of Asheville's historic Flatiron Building. You enter the building on the ground floor, where an elevator with an attendant takes you to the top floor. Once you arrive, you will discover full bar offerings and some of the most amazing views of Asheville and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. The décor is sparce, just a few tables and chairs on each level. It's a simple, but very cool concept. Here I enjoyed a Terrapin Rye Pale Ale (Athens, GA).
Review Source:How cool is The Sky Bar?!
You feel like you're in on some secret... following a discreet sign to a old elevator, you're whisked up to the top of a building that looks like it hasn't changed much over the years. Â This place has character. Â As you walk out to The Sky Bar which you may soon realize is just a large fire escape, you quickly realize it's much more. Â Great drinks (albeit a bit overpriced), help you relax and enjoy one of the best views in Asheville. Â No other bar or restaurant in downtown Asheville has anything close to the view at the Sky Bar. Â Enjoying a drink on the balcony at The Sky Bar in the spring/summer is something I look forward to whenever I visit Asheville in the winter. Â It's a fun experience (if you're not afraid of heights) - that anyone over the legal drinking age should indulge in.
Tremendous location; for that alone, Sky Bar is one of the best bars in Asheville. The staff are courteous and the house-infused liquors impress. A little bit pricey, but worth it for the views of the surrounding skyline and the Blue Ridge Escarpment beyond. Also, I find myself wondering if I could toss a baseball from the roof across Wall Street, over Patton and onto the roof of the Thirsty Monk. But, realistically, I don't think my arm's that good; it's just the Highland beer and height playing tricks on me.
Review Source:I thought this place was phenomenal. Â The only thing better than drinking is drinking in a cool place and this definitely qualifies. Â Up the old elevator, through the tight hallway and then wham! you feel like you're just hanging out on your apt's fire escape. Â Expect crowds at sunset. Â I prefer later hours.
Review Source:
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