UP on the Roof

UP on the Roof occupies the top of the building at 1 North Main, at the head of Greenville's main street, with the Blue Ridge escarpment visible on a clear day. It is the kind of room a group ends up at, which makes what it pours for the non-drinkers among them more consequential than a specialist bar's list would be.

The Walk the Line is described in the local drinks coverage as a staple rather than a special, and that word is the important one. A seasonal mocktail is a marketing exercise; a staple is something the bar has decided it will always be able to make, which means the components stay stocked and the staff stay trained. Anyone who has turned up somewhere on the strength of a drink they read about and found it rotated off will recognise why that matters.

The build itself is sensibly designed for the setting: lemon and pink grapefruit juices, a blackberry simple syrup and club soda. Two citrus juices rather than one give it real acidity, the blackberry supplies colour and just enough sweetness, and the soda makes it long. On a hot rooftop in the Carolina summer, long and tart is the correct answer, and it is the opposite of what most bars reach for when asked for something without alcohol.

The hours are among the best in this guide. Three in the afternoon to midnight Monday through Wednesday, an 11am start from Thursday onwards, and 2am closes on Friday and Saturday — seven days a week, no closed day, and open through the afternoon when most of Greenville's cocktail rooms are still locked.

It sits a few minutes' walk from Oak & Honey, Crafted and STIR, at the opposite end of Main from Juniper.