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Read the press release here.

Here's a First Look at AIRE, the Loop's New 24th-Floor Rooftop Bar (PHOTOS)

THE LOOP — Downtown's newest rooftop bar, AIRE, aims to be a solid destination for drinks after work. 

The 24th-story outdoor lounge opened Tuesday evening atop the new Hyatt Centric The Loop hotel, 100 W. Monroe St. With city views on three sides and seats for 100, AIRE hopes to provide respite for The Loop's office crowd. 


[All photos by DNAinfo/David Matthews]

The menu from Chef Matt Ayala — who's also behind the hotel's ground-floor Cochon Volant restaurant — includes $15 chicken wings, $21 prime tenderloin tartare, and "grand shellfish towers" ranging from a half dozen oysters ($23) to a $195 "deluxe aire tower" with crab legs, lobster, jumbo shrimp, oysters and salmon tartare.

The drink menu includes $8 domestics (Hamm's, Miller Lite), rum cocktails starting at $16, wine and champagne. Among the drinks? A "Ghostface Killah" with three rums, coconut, pineapple and allspice. Table and bottle service are also available.

The rooftop bar opens following the April debut of the hotel, a conversion of an Art Deco office building led by Chicago developer John T. Murphy, who was also behind the new Downtown Hampton Inn that opened in the former Chicago Motor Club building off Michigan Avenue. AIRE joins a growing gaggle of Downtown hotel rooftop restaurants including Cerise at the Virgin Hotel and Cindy's at the Chicago Athletic Association hotel. 

For now, AIRE will be open from 3:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Scroll down for more photos. 

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