Kabana Rooftop, the city’s tallest rooftop bar, to be replaced with new concept next year

Kabana Rooftop sits 20 stories above downtown Richmond. (Kabana Rooftop social media)

The city’s tallest rooftop bar is shutting down, but its enviable view won’t be off limits for long. 

Kabana Rooftop, the 9,000-square-foot downtown restaurant and bar atop the Shamin Hotels-owned Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites at 700 E. Main St., will close at the end of the year and be replaced with a new concept to open next year. 

Neil Amin, Shamin Hotels’ CEO, said the new restaurant will be owned and operated by locally based Shamin, and will be integrated with the rest of the hotel’s operations. 

Kabana is currently operated by LX Group, the local hospitality firm from Neal Patel and Kunal Shah, who also previously ran the now-closed Belle & James restaurant at the bottom of the hotel. Patel and Shah weren’t available for comment by press time. 

Amin said that Kabana had a good run but that he’s excited for the new, to-be-announced concept. 

“Kabana’s been great. But just as we refresh our hotels every seven or eight years, we felt it was time to refresh (Kabana’s space),” Amin said.

The hotel was converted from an old office building.

Kabana first opened in 2016 and is the tallest rooftop bar in the city, edging out competitors like Graduate Hotels’ Byrdhouse. 

Kabana’s final day of service will be Dec. 31.

Shamin also envisions a few other rooftop restaurants for some of its other properties. Its planned 270-room hotel at the Springline development in Chesterfield will house a rooftop Asian restaurant, while its planned 12-story hotel that’ll replace a vacant Hardee’s at the corner of Broad Street and Arthur Ashe Boulevard also will feature a rooftop restaurant and bar. 

LX Group, meanwhile, continues to operate Ember Music Hall, a venue that opened in the Arts District last year. It previously owned concepts like Nama Indian Cuisine, Switch Pop-Up Bar and Sonora Rooftop, the last of which it sold a few years ago to become Juan’s Rooftop & Cantina.