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| - Azure may be a Sun Lounge by monicker, by it is a nightcrawler's delight in function. The sweeping, neon-sparkling skyline of downtown CLE (such as it is) has never looked better than from a private corner of this sprawling, elegant rooftop.
There are dozens of stark white booths ensconced in the relative darkness, and one may languish awhile in opium den seclusion as the guitarist twists out the Blues center stage, right up against the knee high pane-glass railing. And/or there's always dancing for those that dare: Azure boasts a breathtaking floor that could easily pack a hundred and some nights the DJ's lay on the club vibe thick.
The drinks are high class as you'd expect ($15 on average: try the Metro Mule for a minty take on a jazzy fav of your reviewer's), but hand-crafted at lightening speed by two bartenders dressed in full-scale mod persona. With their backs turned, these ladies are nearly identical in black leather pants and fresh-clipped pageboys, and they simply don't have time to lend a personal touch to every drinker, leaving some patrons feeling overlooked. It's true however that the the place runs at a staggering tilt on weekends (frequented as it is by Cleveland's top sensation-makers: Johnny Manziel's midnight brawlings becoming, for better of worse, the stuff of minor legend), and the bar itself is tiny, one should expect to feel lost at times in the blank spots between side-eye glances of staff run ragged just trying to meet with demand.
The food, it should be noted, is nothing to write home about, though it is in no way the main attraction.
The bartenders and a server resembling a harried, if nonetheless chic Claire Underwood lend Azure a definite mystique, however, that the aforementioned booths and the whole experience of briskly valeting and whisking your way skyward in cocktail dress on the soundless opulent elevator work to seamlessly bolster.
It all feels, in truth, a little like a gin-soaked hermetic dream here. A neon-cold, indulgently Po-Mo Gatsby. Depending on how you feel about that sentence in diction/content, this place is just for you...or it really, really isn't.
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