The Revolving Restaurant Is Back Again (and Again)

Long considered a midcentury novelty, rotating restaurants are spinning back to life in cities across the United States.

When your ears pop on the elevator ride up, that’s how you know you’ve arrived at the View, the revolving bar and restaurant on the 47th and 48th floors of the New York Marriott Marquis.

On a recent Saturday evening, the restaurant thrummed with families, groups of friends and couples sipping Champagne and devouring seafood towers as they admired the changing skyline. Every 45 minutes, just enough time to leisurely imbibe a cocktail, the lounge makes a full rotation.

Opened in Times Square in 1985 and closed in 2020, the View is the latest in a string of rotating restaurants to make an unlikely return, this one shepherded by the restaurateur Danny Meyer and the architect David Rockwell. Gone are the outdated pleather dining chairs and gaudy carpet, replaced by blue velvet banquettes, a black marble bar and elegant Art Deco-style glass installations.

“This is one of the best views,” said Joseph Mirrone, a former New Yorker who had stopped by with his son for a post-theater coffee and dessert. “You can sit in one spot and the whole city revolves around you.”

Mr. Meyer, who has his own warm childhood memories of Stouffer’s Top of the Riverfront, a revolving restaurant in St. Louis, was eager to update the form. “When Marriott approached us, it felt like, OK, well, that’s something we’ve never done before,” he said. “When else is someone going to say, ‘Would you like to do a revolving restaurant in the theater district?’”