Downtown Milwaukee is getting a rooftop tiki bar for summer by PufferFish, at Hotel Metro

PufferFish tiki bar was born of necessity in the pandemic, a side project turned hit on Lost Whale’s patio in Bay View.

Now you could say it's reaching new heights: It will have a pop-up Friday on the rooftop of Hotel Metro, 411 E. Mason St. And that will turn into a summer weekend residency stretching into October.

But first: The rain-or-shine pop-up Friday is from 4 p.m. to midnight; just drop in, no reservations required, unlike PufferFish's early days.

The rooftop has a glassy indoor bar and 1,500 square feet of open patio space with views of downtown and beyond.

Visitors will find updated classic drinks like the Zombie (PufferFish will make it with salted honey-demerara syrup).

New drinks will include the Get Lost, a PufferFish tribute to influential Lost Lake tiki bar in Chicago, which closed this year — it's rum and papaya syrup with pineapple, lime and house tiki bitters. Another is the Ocean Eyes, a riff on the Vicious Virgin No. 2: tequila, overproof rum, grapefruit juice, lime, orgeat, blue Curaçao and Jamaican No. 2 bitters.

And Hotel Metro will prepare tropical-ish small plates created by its chef, Aaron Miles, including banh mi sliders and sweet-soy chicken kebabs. Drinks will be $11 to $15; the plates, $15 or less.

The greenery on the rooftop that visitors will see, by the pop-up plant shop Soiled, will be part tropical atmosphere and part plant sale — any of the plants decorating PufferFish can be purchased for home.

To get to the rooftop, enter the hotel's side door on Mason Street and take the elevator to the sixth floor; walk down the hallway to the stairwell, and go up to the seventh floor. (PufferFish also provides the directions on Instagram.)

Come June 23, PufferFish will start a four-month residency on the Metro rooftop, operating Thursdays to Sundays. Hours for the residency will be 4 p.m. to midnight Thursdays and Fridays, 2 p.m. to midnight Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays.

JC Cunningham, who was general manager of Lost Whale for three years, gave up that post to turn his attention to PufferFish full time.

"We’re keeping the band together and just moving it to a new location," he said.

PufferFish popped up in the Third Ward

PufferFish, after closing on Halloween in Bay View, popped up this year in the Third Ward, at the MARN Art + Culture Hub. Cunningham was looking for a space downtown for PufferFish; connections to the hotel's chef led the tiki bar crew to check out Hotel Metro.

"The second we walked in there, we immediately knew it looked and felt like PufferFish," Cunningham said.

The building from the Art Deco era has a look in line with midcentury modern, the era when tiki bars boomed.

It looks of the era but doesn't try to reproduce a Polynesian or tropical theme. The feeling is a combination of vintage and modern; that, Cunningham thought, "was a cool new voice to have" for PufferFish.

It's an atmosphere that allows a visitor to feel transported, he said. "That’s what makes it exciting to me."

Besides having structures that allow PufferFish to operate even in inclement weather, the rooftop's large open-air patio provides impressive views, Cunningham said. "It’s got a straight view all the way down into the Third Ward," he said.

The rooftop, previously known as Zen on Seven, also has a fireplace that straddles indoors and outdoors.

"I think we can do something really neat and really fun" at Hotel Metro, Cunningham said. "I’m also a sucker for a good fireplace."

PufferFish will be adding to its rooftop look gradually over the summer; Cunningham found that preferable to waiting six weeks or so for a build-out to be finished.

"Every time (customers) come there, there’ll be something new," he said.

PufferFish's ambience at Metro will be something of a split personality to accommodate two kinds of customers — moody inside, with low lighting and candles, and a party outside, with bossanova on the jukebox.

The aim, Cunningham said, is to "just make them forget where they are for a second."

Contact Carol at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: PufferFish tiki bar is popping up on the Hotel Metro rooftop