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Dispatches
Deep Within / High Above
The World's One and Only ROLLING STONE Rooftop Bar Opens in Tbilisi
BY SOURCE&FLUENCE
BY SOURCE&FLUENCE
Above all, and at its core, Tbilisi is a paradox. And that is its glory. To walk its streets is to see beauty in contradictions. These are not contradictions that cancel each other. They compose – nuance upon nuance, depth beneath depth, forming a structure that holds precisely because it resists pedestrian simplifications.
The city tilts and teeters between fading and flourishing, where time doesn't flow so much as it folds into itself: medieval arches, imperial facades, Soviet slabs, millennial glass. You can smell the sulfur baths of the Persians, hear the bells of Byzantium, glimpse Armenian merchant houses, brush past the wrought-iron balconies of the German district – and, a block away, stumble into a nightclub where dawn arrives as either revelation or delirium. From centuries-old rituals to illicit pop-up raves. And back again. East vs. West – the compass spins, never quite landing. And nowhere in between.
The city is at once bruised and brilliant, devout and decadent, melancholic and euphoric, rooted and restless, wrapped in its own mythos, yet cosmopolitan, endlessly open to the world. In the right light, these contradictions don't confuse; they illuminate – radiance born of friction. 'One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star' – and does this city not dance!
Which makes Tbilisi the perfect stage for another radiant paradox: the world’s first Rolling Stone Rooftop Bar. A brand born of dissent and rebellion half a century ago, it is now finding poise in its maturity – a high-altitude perch for sublime sundowns and euphonic soundscapes. Part hedonistic lookout, part escapist hideaway – it brims with ritual, revel, and the thrill of being anchored deep in the heart of the city, yet hovering above it all.
The city is at once bruised and brilliant, devout and decadent, melancholic and euphoric, rooted and restless, wrapped in its own mythos, yet cosmopolitan, endlessly open to the world. In the right light, these contradictions don't confuse; they illuminate – radiance born of friction. 'One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star' – and does this city not dance!
Which makes Tbilisi the perfect stage for another radiant paradox: the world’s first Rolling Stone Rooftop Bar. A brand born of dissent and rebellion half a century ago, it is now finding poise in its maturity – a high-altitude perch for sublime sundowns and euphonic soundscapes. Part hedonistic lookout, part escapist hideaway – it brims with ritual, revel, and the thrill of being anchored deep in the heart of the city, yet hovering above it all.
Rolling Stone Rooftop Bar rises from within The Telegraph Hotel, a pinnacle of contemporary luxury that reclaims what was once one of Tbilisi’s most striking incongruencies: A Soviet-era architectural gem, built in the 1960s as the city’s central communication hub and a statement of grand modernist ambition. A beacon of Soviet progress, it faltered precisely when advancement was most loudly promised, in lockstep with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unraveling of the system it was meant to glorify. For decades it squatted over the square like a hulking afterthought, a masterpiece of modernism left to brood on its own obsolescence.
Behind its modernist façade, the building has been masterfully restored and reimagined by renowned design studio Neri&Hu – infusing the form-follows-function logic of its Soviet past with a state-of-the-art expression.
Developed and operated by SILK Hospitality, its spacious rooms and suites open onto interiors shaped by clean lines and warm textures, while its halls lead to restaurants, bars, lounges, and stages alive with music and conversation. More than a hotel, it’s a cultural nexus where travelers and locals converge to meet, dine, and celebrate – within a space that honors both heritage and reinvention.
Developed and operated by SILK Hospitality, its spacious rooms and suites open onto interiors shaped by clean lines and warm textures, while its halls lead to restaurants, bars, lounges, and stages alive with music and conversation. More than a hotel, it’s a cultural nexus where travelers and locals converge to meet, dine, and celebrate – within a space that honors both heritage and reinvention.
The rooftop music program reflects the spirit of the city below, embracing multiplicities rather than resolving them. Curated to evoke both elegance and edge, the program moves through genres and moods with intentional contrast.
This ethos finds its purest expression in the weekly Loose Ends series, which sidesteps the prevailing paradigm of how music is played today – in an era of mechanical reproduction, where DJ sets are often shaped by algorithms, automatic beat-synchronizing, and key-matching. The series rejects genre orthodoxy, rhythmic cohesion, harmonic conformity, single-tempo discipline, and other formulas of compatibility in favor of a listening experience guided by mood rather than the metrics of seamlessness.
The very notion of a set is abandoned in favor of bricolage – a poetic, intuitive assemblage of sound that drifts across genres without allegiance. Ambient, trip-hop, dream pop, world ethno, downtempo, jazz-inflected house, live experimental, neo-classical, spoken word surface not as categories but as fragments that tune into the moment – giving it an extra visceral edge. There’s no curatorial arc, only emotional resonance – intended for an audience anything but uniform in taste, curiosity and temperament.
This ethos finds its purest expression in the weekly Loose Ends series, which sidesteps the prevailing paradigm of how music is played today – in an era of mechanical reproduction, where DJ sets are often shaped by algorithms, automatic beat-synchronizing, and key-matching. The series rejects genre orthodoxy, rhythmic cohesion, harmonic conformity, single-tempo discipline, and other formulas of compatibility in favor of a listening experience guided by mood rather than the metrics of seamlessness.
The very notion of a set is abandoned in favor of bricolage – a poetic, intuitive assemblage of sound that drifts across genres without allegiance. Ambient, trip-hop, dream pop, world ethno, downtempo, jazz-inflected house, live experimental, neo-classical, spoken word surface not as categories but as fragments that tune into the moment – giving it an extra visceral edge. There’s no curatorial arc, only emotional resonance – intended for an audience anything but uniform in taste, curiosity and temperament.
The nights unfold like a narrative of ever-shifting emotional registers: beginning with soulful live acts or slow-burn electronica at sunset, lifting into a more dynamic register by midnight, and gradually dissolving into ambient and minimal textures toward the end.
Each phase in the RS music program invites a different kind of presence through the night – contemplative, convivial, playful, ecstatic – easing out by 3 a.m. It's a program designed for those who treat music not as background, but as atmosphere.
The Rooftop Bar menu follows suit – with each signature cocktail striking its own chord: favorably paradoxical in composition, vibrant in effect, and unmistakably Rolling Stone. It doesn't just reference the brand – it interprets it: Purple Haze swirls with coconut-washed rum, pineapple, and sesame oil – tropical yet smoky, dreamy yet grounded, like a sunset hallucination you can hold. Keep It Coming blends coffee-infused bourbon with banana and bitters: comforting yet provocative, slow-burning yet sly, a paradox in a glass for late-night plotting or poetic spirals. Sympathy for the Devil mingles elderflower sake, Tanqueray gin, and citrus – seductive yet stinging, delicate yet potent, charming while carrying a hint of danger. Gimme Shelter balances smoky mezcal with grapefruit and agave – a shelter in name, bracing in flavor, soft yet uncompromising, built for rooftop winds and daring hearts.
The culinary program mirrors the rooftop's wonderfully paradoxical spirit – a reflection of the city's own fabulous contradictions, inside and out. Each dish is a study in contrasts: Japanese Wagyu meets Caspian Ossetra caviar on a French brioche. Comfort food collides with haute cuisine: a trio of burgers with crispy fries shares the table with lobster rolls, seared scallop ceviche, and fried goat cheese balls topped with pineapple chili marmalade. Sweet and spicy, hot and cold – every plate a miniature performance.
Even the sweets embrace paradox in the menu: creamy avocado parfait, salty caramel macarons, and tart frangipane, where richness and brightness tango on the tongue.
The culinary program mirrors the rooftop's wonderfully paradoxical spirit – a reflection of the city's own fabulous contradictions, inside and out. Each dish is a study in contrasts: Japanese Wagyu meets Caspian Ossetra caviar on a French brioche. Comfort food collides with haute cuisine: a trio of burgers with crispy fries shares the table with lobster rolls, seared scallop ceviche, and fried goat cheese balls topped with pineapple chili marmalade. Sweet and spicy, hot and cold – every plate a miniature performance.
Even the sweets embrace paradox in the menu: creamy avocado parfait, salty caramel macarons, and tart frangipane, where richness and brightness tango on the tongue.
The Rolling Stone Rooftop Bar officially opened on September 16, launching a week-long celebration that resonated with the city's multiple overlapping rhythms. The debut night was a tapestry of experience, unfolded in layers, featuring funk-rock priestess Nik West and her band, a constellation of global talent, electrifying the crowd with bass-driven grooves and soulful vocals. As the night deepened, Hazy Pockets beckoned the crowd into other dimensions with a DJ set that moved through rhythms and moods – the hallucinatory swirl of acid-funk currents, the neon glide of liquid disco and boogie, the shimmering mirage of Balearic daydreams and sleek four-to-the-floor robotic vibrations – keeping the energy fluid well into the early hours.
From Tuesday through Sunday, the city's frequencies shifted as the rooftop became a sanctuary of sound and interaction – welcoming a genre-spanning lineup of international DJs – Jaime Fiorito, Camilo Miranda, Salimata and Fiona Jane – and an invitation-only crowd that brought together artists, cultural figures, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and other VIPs. Each night unfolded as a distinct chapter, yet together they set the tone for a venue defined by curated multiplicities – where various cultures, structures, styles, stories, and sensory experiences converge, creating a richly textured, resonant whole.
From Tuesday through Sunday, the city's frequencies shifted as the rooftop became a sanctuary of sound and interaction – welcoming a genre-spanning lineup of international DJs – Jaime Fiorito, Camilo Miranda, Salimata and Fiona Jane – and an invitation-only crowd that brought together artists, cultural figures, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and other VIPs. Each night unfolded as a distinct chapter, yet together they set the tone for a venue defined by curated multiplicities – where various cultures, structures, styles, stories, and sensory experiences converge, creating a richly textured, resonant whole.
