Aviation-Themed Bars That Truly Soar

These bars find inspiration in mid-century aviation.

Attention, please: This is your captain speaking.

While it’s no longer possible to fly on now-defunct airlines like Pan Am, TWA, Eastern Air Lines or Braniff International Airways, a growing number of new bars are channeling the nostalgic Friendly Skies of the mid-20th century.

TWA Hotel (New York City)

Perhaps the earliest iteration of the trend was the TWA Hotel, which opened in 2019 in NYC’s JFK International Airport as a full-scale rehabilitation of the TWA Flight Center. The deep-dive homage to the 1962 landmark structure included multiple bars and restaurants, including a red-carpeted sunken lounge with a flipboard-style departures board, and “Connie,” a 1958 Constellation aircraft-turned-cocktail lounge serving classic drinks with cheeky names, like the Control Tower Sour (an Amaretto sour with an optional float of bourbon).

PS Air Bar & Lounge (Palm Springs)

Elsewhere, PS Air Bar & Lounge first opened in Palm Springs, California, in March 2020, an aviation-themed “speakeasy” hidden behind wine store Bouschet. (The pandemic, of course, meant a turbulent opening period; the bar didn’t fully open until April 2021). The brainchild of two former international flight attendants, the space is outfitted with ivory-and-blue seats sourced from Southwest, interiors salvaged from inactive planes and features saucy overhead announcements and drag performers.

“It’s the romance of it all,” says co-owner Dennis Costa about the appeal of what some regard as the Golden Age of air travel. “It’s the original feel of airline flight, when people dressed up to fly, instead of wearing sweatpants everywhere.”

In addition, Palm Springs is noted for preserving and celebrating Mid-century Modern art and architecture, so it felt natural to hone in on midcentury aviation as the theme, Costa adds.

Carry On (Phoenix)

Similarly, Carry On in Phoenix opened in 2023, focusing on the groovy skies of the 1960s and 1970s. “I’ve always been obsessed with old-school glamorous travel that doesn’t exist anymore,” explains owner and operating partner Teddy Myers. He cites the late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner’s private jet—noted for its onboard discotheque, crushed velvet and microsuede lounges, and celebrity passengers—as design inspiration. “People want to experience that grandeur that’s not here anymore.”

At Carry On, that translates as replica boarding passes, flight attendants in ’70s-style uniforms and go-go boots and video monitors built to look like old plane windows depicting takeoff and landing. “We even put rumble shakers under every seat” to mimic the feel of a plane engine, Myers says. In addition, beverage director Jax Donahue developed elevated versions of period drinks, like a Pink Squirrel reimagined as a clarified cocktail with a reposado tequila base.

And when the green neon “Martini Time” light goes on, a vintage Pan Am cart glides through the aisles, dispensing martinis from mini cobbler shakers shaped like penguins: “It’s a bird that can’t fly for a plane that can’t fly.”

Birds of Paradise (Brighton, Massachusetts)

Armchair travelers will also want to add Birds of Paradise to their must-fly lists (the Brighton, Massachusetts bar opened in late 2022). Though you won’t find repurposed aircraft fittings, touches like leather valises decorated with travel stickers make clear the bar is inspired by mid-20th century voyages—and the menu makes the influence even more apparent. The jet-setting “global cocktail menu” brings together ingredients from two different locales (Kingston to Milan,for example, melds Jamaican rum and passion fruit with Italian olives), and another rotating section of the menu explores a “current destination” (most recently, Mexico).

In addition to drawing adventuresome locals, some of these venues have drawn a surprising group of
fans: current airline employees. “We get pilots and flight attendants all the time,” says Carry On’s Myers. “It really blew our minds how many want to come in. But they’re the ones always providing great service, and sometimes they want someone taking care of them.”

However, this particular crowd is trained to spot any inaccuracies among the high-flying details. For example, the bar team’s uniform includes jaunty epaulets with stripes. “One of my team had the stripes slightly off,” Donahue recalls. “A pilot came in and said, ‘You need to flip your stripes.’”

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