Perched on top of The MC Hotel, Autograph Collection, The Splendid Rooftop pairs a wide-open Manhattan skyline view with the leafy, established calm of Montclair itself.
It’s Montclair’s only indoor/outdoor rooftop bar: a 3,000-square-foot space with 75 seats inside and another 100 outside, all wrapped in glass so the view doesn’t vanish the second Mother Nature gets a little fickle. On one side, the Manhattan skyline. On the other, the tree-lined hills of one of New Jersey’s most established towns.
The bar’s name comes from Walt Whitman’s poem “Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun,” which is both a very literary flex for a rooftop bar and the most on-brand cocktail menu inspiration since someone named a martini after Hemingway. Between cocktails, be sure to mention that Whitman spent his final years about ninety miles south in Camden, a reminder that New Jersey’s literary history runs deeper than most people realize, and a way to impress your friends.
Inside, the design leans moody with plush seating and enough flat screens to make it a solid pick for whatever game happens to be on. Once the sun’s fully down, that energy shifts into DJ sets and trivia nights, the kind of programming that turns a quick drink into a full evening without anyone remembering that they wanted to have an “early evening.”
Chef Dan Drohan, who also runs the kitchen at Allegory downstairs and the neighborhood hotspot Campofiore, keeps the food doing exactly what rooftop food should. It disappears fast and gets reordered a second (and a third) time. The piri piri wings have their own devoted following, and between a buttery lobster roll and a blistered, saucy Pizza Rossa, it’s easy to see why people avoid making a choice and order both.
The drinks are the real main event. The Lychee Cosmo swaps out the usual cranberry sting for something rounder and more floral, while The MC Margarita keeps things simple with quality tequila only made better by the skyline view. Then there’s the espresso martini, which regulars will tell you unprompted and with real conviction is the best in town. We won’t referee that claim citywide, but on this particular roof, we’re not fighting anyone on it. Rotating pours from Jersey breweries like 902 Brewing round things out for anyone whose loyalty lies closer to hops than agave.
The whole space is built for the long game: golden hour drinks that quietly become last call, in a room elevated enough to feel special but relaxed enough that sneakers won’t get you a second look. For something more private, the Gatsby Room seats up to 45 and comes with its own outdoor deck, ideal for the kind of gathering that needs a name tag and a seating chart.
Hours run limited but loud. Wednesday and Thursday evenings ease into things, Friday stretches well past midnight, and Saturday starts at noon and doesn’t quit until 1am. Sunday and Monday, the roof takes a breather because even rooftops need a day off.
Montclair has long been one of the most desirable towns near the city, all leafy streets, historic homes and a strong sense of its own identity. The Splendid Rooftop simply adds a front-row seat to everything it has to offer.