This bar has plenty of breathing room.
A new rooftop bar opening today in Williamsburg will offer simple, summery drinks and small plates for locals and tourists alike. The fifth-floor, vowel-free bar RFTP, atop the Pod BK Hotel, offers an easygoing place for Kings County visitors to mingle with Williamsburgers and sip on drinks they can actually decipher, said the bar’s director of operations.
“Sometimes you go to rooftop bars and they’ve got these fanciful cocktail lists — but you don’t want to read an encyclopedic menu,” said James Stuart. “The idea was to have a very relaxed, laid-back kind of rooftop, as opposed to the pretentious scene.”
The bar serves a modest menu of five $14 fruity cocktails, including a frozen rosé, rum punch in a plastic flamingo cup, and a paloma variation named for English songwriter Paloma Faith. Tipplers can also opt for $12 wines, Pacifico draft beer for $7, and red and white sangria on tap for $9. RFTP also offers thin-crust pizzas and shareable plates, including avocado hummus with pita chips, crudites, and a meat and cheese plate.
The bar, which can hold up to 120 people, will stay open through the fall — but only until 9 or 10 pm nightly, Stuart said, in order to keep the neighbors happy.
“We wanted a place to genuinely fit with the neighborhood, where people can have a quiet early drink and watch the sunset,” he said. “It’s important that we respect the neighbors.”
Stuart said he envisions bar goers from around the world enjoying a drink in the space — outfitted with benches, tables, and a zinc bar — before heading down to the hotel’s ground-floor beer hall and eatery, Clinton Hall, which is open until 2 am.
“We look at this place as a great place to have an al fresco drink and then go down and have a beer and play games at Clinton Hall,” he said. “The unique thing about north Brooklyn — and Williamsburg in particular — is it’s such a diverse crowd.”
RFTP at the Pod BK Hotel (247 Metropolitan Ave. between Driggs Avenue and N. Third Street in Williamsburg, www.thepo
