(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
Last night I was the boy in the bubble.
No, not like in Seinfeld. I was on the 54th-floor terrace of the Hyatt Times Square, in one of its two new inflatable plastic domes. They’re called The Bubbles.
I don’t have to tell you that domes are one of the few things worth traveling uptown for. (Those and “hot event tubs,” of course.) So when I heard that the Hyatt had put two translucent igloos on Bar 54’s terrace I decided to disregard the prohibitive price of its $20+ cocktails and make like the world’s louchest Eskimo.
To book a bubble, it’s recommended that you snag an Opentable resy a day in advance and include a request to make the dome your home. Each bubble accommodates three tables, or up to 10 people, but if you’re as “lucky” as we were last night, they’ll be so poorly heated that you’ll have one all to yourself.
“You guys are really impressing us, staying out in the cold,” said our waitress, trying to remain bubbly. “We’re like, ‘Are they really going to stay out there?’”
Are you kidding? How often do you get to drink bubbly in a bubble? We’ll totally make do with these tiny space heaters and faux lambskin blankets.
(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
At one point a German tourist popped into our bubble and quizzically asked, “What’s the idea here?”
He retreated back into the warmth of the bar before I could quote Buckminster Fuller.
I have to hand it to The Bubbles: they offer a pretty sweet (if dimpled) view of the Chrysler building and the Conde Nast building (sorry, I am not calling it the H&M building). There’s even piped in (no, they weren’t playing “Tiny Bubbles”), and since the domes only debuted a couple of weeks ago, they still have that new bubble smell.
That said, there’s a huge bubble but: there’s technically a two-drink minimum for these things and you can’t even buy a beer without popping some kind of financial bubble. Luckily one of the pods unzips onto the open-air terrace, so you can throw yourself right over the ledge when the check arrives.
The Bubbles at Bar 54, Hyatt Times Square, 135 W. 45th St., Midtown; 646-364-1234.