Dining at the Top

With rooftop dining, two Kansas venues offer new ways to enjoy a meal along with a view of the state’s rolling prairies. Here’s an overview of the locations where the atmosphere and the taste are both top considerations.
 

The Nest on Ninth

The Oread hotel sits atop one of Lawrence’s highest points, giving its rooftop terrace, The Nest on Ninth, outstanding panoramic views of the University of Kansas campus, the city’s tree-lined neighborhoods, and the Kaw River Valley. The Nest has live music of various genres on weekends, weather permitting, until the end of the university’s football season. Its menu of appetizers and entrees changes seasonally; previous favorites include the nachos topped with steak, chicken or pulled pork as an appetizer and the strawberry spinach chicken salad.

 

Tallgrass Tap House

The rooftop deck at Tallgrass Tap House overlooks downtown Manhattan. Live music is performed on Thursday evenings until the deck closes because of the weather, typically in October. The brewpub pairs American cuisine with a rotating lineup of at least six craft beers on tap, including the favored Tallgrass 1863 Kansas Wheat. Popular items on the rooftop menu are the house-fried potato chips with French onion dip as an appetizer, the apple-spice walnut salad, and for the main course the salmon BLT, the Tallgrass burger, and the smoked turkey avocado sandwich.

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