Downtown LA's Stunning Spire 73 Is America's Tallest Open-Air Bar

Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

Los Angeles’s skyline just got a whole lot brighter thanks in part to the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, a sky-high hotel with sweeping views of the entire city below. The most impressive looks will come from Spire 73, the property’s new 73rd story rooftop bar that claims title as the highest open-air bar in the entire Western Hemisphere.

The InterContinental is tucked into the massive Wilshire Grand building, which just officially opened to the public last Friday. There are big, bright lights that illuminate the top of the structure, pushing out logos for big building partners like Korean Air, but mostly the glow of the bar will come from the expansive, rolling wave of streetlights below. Where else can one sip a cocktail in the open air while staring directly across at the US Bank Tower’s helipad?

The space itself is a sleek expanse of outdoor seats, lounge cabanas, and fire pits. There’s a long open bar for access to a full lineup of booze, along with runs of bench seating, two- and four-tops, and metal umbrellas for shade. Wind is kept to a minimum thanks to heavy-duty glass that rings the structure, making for a calm, easy evening many hundreds of feet above sea level. The opening menu is below.

Spire 73 officially opened over the weekend. Hours are 4 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., and dress is business casual. Interested parties can make reservations on OpenTable now.

Spire 73
900 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA