Imperial Rooftop

• Melbourne's best rooftop bars

You've probably been past the Impy a hundred times even if you haven't had a drink there. It's been a city fixture for 164 years, they do a gut-busting parma and there's always sport on the plasmas. It's the last place you'd expect to find a buzzing rooftop bar.

A December renovation planted a vast, steel-beamed structure on the top of the building, and the new beer garden has space for almost 300 drinkers. After a steep, three-storey climb, you emerge onto an expansive timber platform with glass railings that takes in a dazzling 180-degree sweep over the imposing grey columns of Parliament House and the billowing trees of Bourke Street. It's a killer view. 

In my three visits it was packed with a diverse cast of characters, from tradies to bum-bagged tourists getting on it with gusto on beachy cushioned lounges. The scattering of umbrellas are almost small enough to go in a cocktail, so in full sun or rain it can be unforgivingly exposed.

The shipping container bar has 20 Lion Nathan beers on tap and a cheap and cheerful wine list that's heavy on the Barossa, Margaret River, and New Zealand. A handful of fruity, sweet cocktails can be ordered by jug or diminutive etched jar.

The kitchen is more like a permanent food truck with a very familiar Americana menu – almost everything comes in a red lattice basket. There's a classic burger with "orange cheese" (go hard or go home), and three Cubano sandwiches, including a "controversial" one with salami instead of ham. It's an uninspiring white roll with discs of peperoni on slivers of grilled pork with pickle.

They're all over the deep fry, though, with fried onion rings, fried pickles, fried chicken ribs, fried ham hock nuggets, and fried fries, and nothing is over $15.

While it doesn't quite have the romance of Siglo​ bar, or the metropolis cool of Rooftop Bar, or the urban chic of Bomba rooftop (I could go on), it's a handsome addition to the Imperial, which will probably outlast them all.

Eat this Controversial Cuban, $15

Drink this Jug of Pimms, $26

Say this "Let's do a rooftop crawl."