Last week, the team behind the new AC Hotel by Marriott – which is currently under construction at 110 2nd St. N in downtown St. Petersburg – announced that Cane & Barrel, a Cuban-inspired restaurant and lounge, will be taking up residence on its eighth-floor rooftop space when the hotel opens next year, effectively transporting guests and visitors to old Havana.
“I think every hotel developer is looking for that next great rooftop bar that they can build, and you kind of see them popping up everywhere,” says Michael Rosen, vice president of food and beverage for OTO Development, the South Carolina-based hotel development and hospitality management group behind the project.
“We thought that when we had this space we truly had an opportunity in St. Pete to build this as a destination, quite frankly. It pays homage to a little bit of the area’s past. The design is pretty dramatic in the sense that it takes you back to Havana – from the decor – it’s really kind of distressed, really cool old Cuba.“
Meanwhile, the restaurant and lounge itself will be cocktail-forward, and the “food is almost kind of secondary,” says Rosen, with rum, a signature spirit from the region, taking center stage.
“Rum is having a resurgence in food and beverage; and not just in sweet cocktails like Pina Coladas and those kinds of things, but truly, barrel-aged rums that have been sitting in oak for 20, 30, 50 years that are out there,” says Rosen. “So our cocktails will be focused in the sense where you could almost use rum as you would bourbon. It just has those traits – that smokiness, those earthy tones – you see in bourbon, those are kind of what we’re looking for in the rums that we will feature from around the world.”
According to St. Pete Rising, which first broke the news of the restaurant last Monday, Oct 17, the space was designed by Ellis Adams Group out of California, and “will be inspired by Cuban heritage and…with the flora and fauna of Florida in mind,” adding, “the interior of the bar will reflect the colorful energy of Havana nights mixed with ‘an old-world charm,’ according to the designers.”
For a more full-service restaurant experience, there will be two other restaurants in the hotel’s lobby, aptly named the AC Lounge and the AC Kitchen.
