al fresco, part 1 - JCT kitchen's rooftop bar

There is just something special about enjoying a meal or drinks (or both) in the sunshine!  Not a novel concept, I know, and I doubt I'd be able to find very many people who disagree, but my roommates and I spent some time on the patio of a new bar/restaurant in our neighborhood yesterday, and it inspired me to make a list of my favorite outdoor imbibing establishments.

I'll start with an Atlanta favorite - JCT Kitchen's rooftop bar.  This spot strikes the perfect balance between swanky and cozy, with a beautiful view of Atlanta's skyline, an inventive bar menu (angry mussles. do it.), and, for the mixology-suckers among us (ahem, myself), an awesome array of artisinal cocktails (that menu is left over from the winter, but the "figgy pudding"?? yes PLEASE).  Plus, the acoustic soloist will almost always try to play Night Moves, which earns this spot an automatic win.

In a perfect blogging world, this would be the point in the post where I display a number of artfully-shot, high-resolution photos of my casually beautiful friends and myself recently enjoying a sophisticated outside aperitif at JCT.  Unfortunately, I'm working with a camera whose most exciting feature is the "tan" setting, and as beautiful as my friends truly are, we're not quite sophisticated drinkers yet.  I have no photos taken at JCT, and photos I do have from nights that started at JCT tend to look like this:

gotta love the tan setting

So, I'll leave you with some classier photos from the interwebs:

source

 

source 

If you find yourself in the A this spring/summer (or any time of year, really - they've got some pretty serious heat lamps!) and you're feeling a nosh/sip under the sun (or stars), BE SURE to check out JCT Kitchen's upstairs bar.  It will not disappoint.