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Food & Drink

I had drinks at the city’s highest bar. I still haven’t come down

A hand pours champagne into one of two glasses on a small table. In the background, there's a cityscape with buildings, water, and mountains at sunset.
The cocktails at the revamped Cityscape are, in every sense of the word, elevated. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard

Welcome to Swig City, highlighting can’t-miss cocktails at the best bars, restaurants and clubs in the city.

Cityscape, the cocktail bar on the uppermost floor of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, has reopened after a four-month renovation — and it’s ready to reclaim its place as the loftiest and most glamorous bar in town.

Of all the sky-scraping spots to get a drink, none can match its elevation 46 floors above Taylor and Eddy streets, or — maybe more important — lack of visual obstructions. Equinox, the revolving restaurant that’s open only to hotel guests at the Hyatt Regency, is a measly 20 stories up, while Starlite at the Beacon Grand is on the 21st floor. The View Lounge in the Marriott Marquis comes closest, but it’s only on Floor 39. (Once upon a time, the 52-story skyscraper at 555 California St. had a top-floor restaurant called the Carnelian Room, but it closed in 2009.) 

Two cocktails sit on a wooden table: one light-colored with a lemon and herb garnish, and another darker drink with ice, mint, and a garnish.
The Nightfall and Midheaven are among Cityscape's more spirit-forward cocktails. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard

In any case, none of those places can claim Cityscape’s 360-degree views. Up there, City Hall’s rotunda seems practically underfoot, and even the Pacific looks within reach.

As befits the sky-high location, the names of the cocktails are astronomical or astrological. They’re designed — and priced — to be celebratory. Several run toward the sweet side, such as the $20 Strawberry Skies (blanco tequila, strawberry malt, and seltzer) and $22 Rising Sign (Champagne, vanilla, and passion fruit). Fans of more spirit-forward drinks can enjoy the thoroughly stiff $22 Nightfall (mezcal, scotch, Poppy amaro, and lemon-honey) or the amped-up Manhattan that is the $22 Midheaven (aged rum, rye, and sweet vermouth).

A man and a woman are in a lounge area with large windows overlooking a city skyline. The man is seated, looking out, while the woman stands, taking a photo.
You simply cannot beat this view of downtown. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard
The image shows a cityscape with numerous buildings, including a prominent domed structure and a tall tower on a distant, fog-covered hill. The scene is viewed from above.
Oh, and the panorama to the west is similarly unobstructed, too. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard

But the real fun is in the liter-size drinks, like the Galileo Highball, an $80 mix of gin and citrus-ginger soda that serves up to five people. And for a more elaborate solo venture, there’s the highbrow-kitschy Stardust, a $25 Champagne-and-sherry concoction made with lemon oleo syrup, yellow Chartreuse, and edible gold, served DIY-style in a footed “chambong” capable of sitting upright on a table. 

It’s a full bar, of course, in case the urge to order a classic martini proves irresistible. And there’s plenty of Champagne, plus extra-romantic corners in case it’s time to pop the question. “We’ve had an awful lot of proposals up here,” said Cindy Ramesh, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. 

The image shows two vertical, artistic wall panels with intricate carvings. The left panel depicts a stylized figure and patterns, while the right features nature elements and nude figures.
Art Deco panels of Greek goddesses were rescued from a long-demolished theater — but no one knows exactly which one. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard

Cityscape’s elegance doesn’t come just from the romance of the sun setting into a fogbank, or even the hyper-’80s vibes given off by the pink granite and faux palm fronds. The real stunners are the five Art Deco panels that the renovation uncovered, each featuring a stylized Greek goddess. 

“We’re calling them the Celestial Sisters,” said Ramesh. Veteran hotel employees confirm that the panels were brought in from a demolished theater in the 1960s, when the space that’s now Cityscape was a steakhouse called Henry’s. At some point, though, they were covered up. “We’ve done a ton of research and weren’t able to pinpoint exactly which theater,” Ramesh added. “Everybody thinks it was the Fox Theater, but we haven’t proved it. So we say, ‘Legend has it …’”

The image shows a decorative wall with a bronze-colored mural of a woman and child in the center, framed by geometric mirrors. The backdrop features green walls adorned with golden constellations, and pink metal plant sculptures flank the sides.
Glam, 1980s touches like pink marble and oversized leaves abound, as do astronomical themes. | Source: Angela DeCenzo for The Standard

Those five deities — Selena, Astrea, Eos, Aurora, and Nyx — are magnificent sentinels, as wonderful a find for San Francisco as the proscenium arch that the Castro Theatre’s restoration work revealed this spring. Featuring symbols of the moon, dawn, the northern lights, and so forth, the panels are capped by chandeliers dredged from what Ramesh termed “the dungeon” of the hotel. “It’s what we call our chandelier graveyard,” she said. 

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