Roofnic is a brand new rooftop pop-up located in the heart of Central London, offering a peaceful retreat from the crowds of Oxford Street below. Launched for the London summer, Roofnic is a garden utopia where Londoners can come for after work drinks, sunny lunch breaks and picnics set against the backdrop of the city’s rooftops.
The new venue is located on the fourth floor of the London Marriott Hotel Park Lane and the project is being led by members of the team who won an internal competition to transform a ‘grey space’ at one of the company’s European Hotels.
Having won the $40,000 funding project leaders Ashley Dawes (Restaurant General Manager) and Stacey Plaine (Senior Marketing Executive) set about transforming the unused space into a brand new F&B outlet for the hotel. Taking on much of the building work himself, Ashley also designed the food and drink menus, drawing on his previous experience working for Jonathan Downey’s Rushmore Group.
The ‘Grey Room’ program by Marriott was launched as part of the global CANVAS Food & Drinks Concept Lab. It involved a search to identify under-utilized spaces in hotels and to unleash hidden talent within hotel teams to transform these spaces into the next F&B hotspots.
With a secret entrance tucked away at the far end of Oxford Street near Marble Arch, guests will be led up a staircase to the intimate roof terrace, decked out with AstroTurf flooring, bright retro furniture and rustic wooden benches. Communal cushioned seating areas are surrounded by herbs and flowers while light bulbs dangle from a marquee for when the English summer takes a predictable turn for the worse.
A menu of small plates, perfect for creating a picnic, is on offer including pulled pork tacos, beef rendang sliders and a ‘manwich’ – a supersized sandwich filled with pulled pork and cheese, as well as lighter dishes such as butternut squash salad with honey, wasabi lime and scorched sunflower, and burnt broccoli, chilli and feta. Of course, no picnic would be complete without a sweet ending; choose from peanut butter jelly cookies, butterfinger cookie dough cheesecake and the pudding cup – salted caramel, smashed oreos, chocolate crumble honeycomb.
Drinks range from the healthy juices such as Dirty Beets – beetroot, apple, carrot, ginger – and the Big Bang – carrot, pear, turmeric, ginger, spinach, matcha root – to hard shakes, cocktails and craft beers from Camden Brewery. Ideal summertime cocktails include the Lady Garden – gin, botanicals, strawberry, ginger – and the signature Roofnic Swizzle – 42 Below, passion fruit, honey, lime – while a selection of affordable wines and prosecco complete the drinks list.
With capacity of up to 100 people, Roofnic will be open 7 days a week from 10am until 10pm come rain or shine.
