Food & Drinks

At a roof top bar, drinking whisky alone

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Pomme Pomme cocktail of homemade pomegranate syrup, at the Rooftop Restaurant at The Curve by the Park. FILE PHOTO | NMG

I took the lift to the 15th floor, the very top of The Curve by The Park off Mombasa road. Fifteen Rooftop sat at the very top. A restaurant on one side and a small bar— the Sunset Lounge—on the other.

All around was the skyline of Nairobi and the Nairobi National Park. It’s so high up you won’t see an animal in the park, however you go to experience the perspective of a city.

The scale of it. At night, Nairobi is light and shimmer; of meandering roads and tall buildings. From the top of this building, Nairobi is a mirage, a deception.

The decor features pinks and blacks and on the walls are pictures of men and women in uniform. A waiter I asked about what that was about didn’t have a clue.

Their cocktails also featured military names like the M16, their signature. There is a chef’s table. I sat at the Sunset Lounge and had a meeting that didn’t go very well but I consoled myself with the view after.

As I had whisky, I looked down at a fire burning at the deck of Ole Sereni bar, dwarfed by the height of this bar. It felt inviting and warm.

I drank alone and felt lousy for a bit. I fantasised about birds and where they could be sleeping at that moment. I wondered about the men who build tall buildings, hanging high up in the air, and those who climbed up to clean the glass windows. The windows of the Sunset Lounge were stained.

Perhaps we are humans and are generally drawn by flames, I couldn’t resist going down to Ole Sereni bar to check out the fire but it was too cold and windy out at the patio, I looked back up at Fifteen Rooftop, a testimony that the grass looks greener on the other side.