BULLITT HOTEL’S NEW ROOFTOP BAR SET TO OPEN NEXT MONTH

31 new bedrooms to also be added and 30 new jobs created, all part of a £1.75m expansion

As Belfast’s Bullitt Hotel approaches its first anniversary, the hotel has announced that its brand new rooftop bar and garden 'Babel ' will be opening on October 20th as part of the hotel’s planned £1.75m expansion. Work is progressing fast on Phase II of Bullitt, which will also see 31 new bedrooms being added this year including the hotel’s first twin rooms. The expansion will create 30 new jobs, bringing the total number of people employed by the innovative hotel to 130. Babel, the new rooftop bar and garden, will have capacity for 250 people and will include an open-air terrace with panoramic views over the city. The bar and garden will also have a number of unique features including an interior living wall made up of 300 fresh plants and herbs and a vertical exterior garden wall that can be seen from ground level.

Shaking up Belfast’s cocktail scene and a first for the city, Babel’s drinks menu will be based around ‘Shrub Cocktails’ with the bar’s living walls providing a fresh supply of herbs, to be used as ingredients and garnishes, for the cocktails. The venue will also be available for private hire and will have its own food offering, influenced by South and East Asian cuisine. Named after the Steve McQueen movie of the same name, Bullitt Belfast has gone from strength to strength since it opened in the heart of the city last year with consistently high occupancy rates. In addition to the positive economic impact and job creation the hotel will bring to the city, the expansion will assist in fulfilling the demand for additional hotel bed space in Belfast. The 2016 annual industry survey from ASM Chartered Accountants recorded a high occupancy rate of 83.5% for Belfast. Commenting on the announcement, Conall Wolsey, director of Beannchor, said: “Bullitt Hotel has been hugely popular since it opened last October. The vision behind the hotel is for it to offer much more than a bed space, we want it to be a place where people come to work, come to relax and come to socialise.

“The addition of the new rooftop bar and garden will only add to this vision and the stunning views across Belfast were the selling point for us when deciding how to utilise this space.

“We continuously want to push the boundaries and the living walls, which provide a fresh supply of herbs that will be used as ingredients and garnishes for our drinks, will enable us to introduce a new cocktail-led concept into Belfast for the first time.

“As well as the rooftop, we’ll be extending the bedroom offering with 31 new rooms being added this year. This will include the hotel’s first twin rooms, increasing the bedroom capacity to 74 and opening the hotel up to new customers and markets. “We are also proud to be creating 30 new jobs, providing people with rewarding long-term careers.” Babel will host a calendar of events throughout the year, kicking off on Sunday October 22nd with a special Belvedere Vodka Tasting as part of Belfast Cocktail week. Be one of the first to experience the newest rooftop bar in the city just days after its launch and enjoy an evening sipping on an array of premium Belvedere cocktails and serves.

Team GNI popped into Babel today to get a peak at the progress, prepped with hard hats we were given a tour, it was immediately apparent the shear size of the rooftop bar, by a clear mile the largest purpose built rooftop bar Belfast has seen. Allot of work was underway and so much was to be finished though from the plans we have no doubt that Babel is due to become Belfast newest hot spot.

In terms of food offerings less is definitely more, 8 small plates will be the on order to accompany cocktails. Watch this space for more info..

After our tour we had the pleasure of sampling canapes (available during private parties/functions) and enjoyed a beautiful Belvedere cocktail, so refreshing with Sage and Grapefruit, here are a few snaps