The word “rooftop” does a lot of work in the Piedmont Triad, and it does not always mean the same thing twice. At one downtown Greensboro address it means two full floors of open-air bar stacked above a live music stage. Two blocks away it means a nightclub level that opens when there is an event on the calendar and stays dark when there is not. In Winston-Salem it can mean an enclosed hotel lounge with floor-to-ceiling windows, or a purpose-built deck with firepits and rentable cabanas. And at a long-running Greensboro pub it means an upper deck over an 1890 building, which is a lovely place to sit and is not technically a roof at all. That distinction matters most from late October onward, when the region’s open-air season closes and only the enclosed and heated spaces stay usable. What follows is what each of these places is, with hours and prices where listed.
One Thirteen Brewhouse + Rooftop Bar: two open-air floors on North Greene
At 113 North Greene Street in downtown Greensboro, the rooftop here is two stories rather than one. The building holds four floors and four bars: a ground level with a large stage and a custom bar behind a glass garage door that rolls up to the street, a second-floor bourbon and whiskey bar with a private room that overlooks the stage, and third and fourth floors that are both open-air rooftop space with their own bars and their own live music. It opened on March 10, 2021 in the gutted shell of the former Greene Street Club, a project taken on by a partner in Craft & Vine over in Oak Ridge. The venue’s own site lists hours of Sunday 1 to 7 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday 3 to 10 p.m., Thursday 3 to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 2 p.m. to midnight, with a phone number of (336) 808-5309.
Limelight: a rooftop that runs on the event calendar
Limelight sits at 113 South Elm Street in Greensboro, a coincidence of street numbers with One Thirteen that is worth knowing before you put an address into a phone. The Greensboro visitor bureau describes it as a lounge, rooftop and event space across three distinctive levels, and the rooftop is real: ticketed rooftop day parties and similar events at the address turn up regularly on Eventbrite and on event platforms that sell entry. The event calendar is the schedule, and the club posts on its Facebook page, listed above and by the visitor bureau. The listed phone number is (336) 455-1868.
M’Coul’s Public House: an upper deck over an 1890 building
M’Coul’s, at 110 West McGee Street in Greensboro, is the entry that most needs its label read carefully. What it has is an upper deck with outdoor seating and views down historic Elm and Greene, plus a ground-level patio strung with wrought iron pub lights the owners imported from Ireland. It is elevated, not a roof, and on a warm evening the difference will not bother anyone. The pub opened in April 2002, is female-owned, and occupies an 1890 building whose original clawfoot bathtubs now sit out front as planters. The kitchen is scratch Irish-American: shepherd’s pie, Guinness-battered fish and chips, corned beef and cabbage, Irish whiskey wings and house-smoked salmon tacos. There are more than twenty taps, including Guinness, Smithwick’s and Harp alongside rotating American craft. Call (336) 378-0204 for current hours before you plan around the deck.
Otto and Blue: a High Point rooftop patio under a new name
This one is in High Point, at 1807 North Main Street, and it changed names without changing addresses. The restaurant that operated here as Magnolia Blue now trades as Otto and Blue, with a menu that leans Italian rather than Southern: whipped ricotta, tagliatelle, salmon puttanesca. The upstairs space is described in its reservation listing as a patio, rooftop and balcony, offered subject to availability, which in practice means weather. That listing gives dinner hours of Monday through Thursday 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5 to 9:30 p.m., with a typical per-person spend in the $31 to $50 range and a phone number of (336) 885-2583. Several review sites still carry the old Magnolia Blue name marked closed; that is the rebrand, not a closure.
Top of Fourth: the enclosed hotel rooftop in Winston-Salem
Top of Fourth sits on top of the Courtyard by Marriott Winston-Salem Downtown at 640 West Fourth Street, and it is the answer to the cold-weather question. The lounge runs about 1,100 square feet and splits between an indoor room with floor-to-ceiling windows and covered outdoor seating, which means the skyline view over Fourth Street and the Historic West End survives a November evening in a way an open deck does not. The hotel bills it as the city’s first hotel rooftop bar. Its published hours are narrow: the hotel’s dining page lists Thursday through Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m., and closed Sunday through Wednesday, with a casual dress code and a phone number of (336) 917-3038.
The Rooftop at ROAR: firepits, heaters and cabanas above Liberty Street
ROAR is a four-story entertainment complex at 633 North Liberty Street in Winston-Salem’s Downtown Arts District, with bowling, mini golf, an arcade and dining underneath, and its rooftop is built specifically to be sat on. The deck offers a panoramic view of the skyline over Artivity Park with a mix of tables, firepits and heaters, plus private cabanas that can be reserved in advance. Food comes from self-service kiosks rather than table service, alongside craft cocktails and wine. Published hours are Friday from 5 p.m. with the bar running to midnight, Saturday from 11:30 a.m. with the bar to midnight, and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the space is available for private bookings seven days a week. One correction worth carrying: several regional guides describe ROAR’s Mayfair Club as a rooftop bar. ROAR’s own page places the Mayfair Club on the second floor, as a prohibition-era themed cocktail lounge open Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. It is a good room. It is not the roof.
Before You Go
The single most useful habit here is calling ahead, because rooftops close for weather. Four questions cover almost everything: is the roof open tonight, is there a cover charge or a ticket, is the upper level 21 and over, and is food served up there or only downstairs. The seasonal answer matters too. From late September into October the Triad still gives you reliable open-air evenings, but once the weather turns, Top of Fourth is the enclosed option and ROAR is the heated one, while One Thirteen’s third and fourth floors, M’Coul’s deck, Limelight’s roof and Otto and Blue’s upstairs patio are all genuinely outdoors.
Older roundups can be out of date. Bar Piña, which opened in 2017 at 770 Liberty View Court and is widely credited as Winston-Salem’s first rooftop bar, appears to have closed and is listed as closed on review sites. The city’s dining directory credits Pangaea Bistro & Bar at 230 South Elm Street in Greensboro with a rooftop view, and the restaurant describes outdoor dining, so ask about the rooftop when you book.
Finally, set expectations by what is underneath the roof. A hotel lounge and an entertainment complex deck are built for lingering over a drink with a view. A four-story music venue with bars on every floor is built for a night that moves, and the roof there is one stop on it. A pub deck is an extension of the pub. None of these is better than the others, and picking well is mostly a matter of matching the building to the evening you actually want, then confirming by phone that the part you want is open.
