Worth the wait: Graham St. Pub & Patio finally opens June 20. First look at full menu, food, cocktails and space

A new casual rooftop bar and restaurant will join the Uptown lineup early next week.

Graham Street Pub and Patio, a highly anticipated and long delayed neighborhood bar located between Bank of America Stadium and BB&T Ballpark, will finally open on Wednesday, June 20.

Don’t be surprised if you see them quietly open this weekend for friends and family.

Graham Street Pub is unique in its offering among Uptown rooftop destinations.

For starters, it’s not soaring 20-some stories above the city. But you’ve got to hand it to them — the view from atop the single-story building is pretty spectacular.

You also won’t find dress codes, elevator lines or formal dining. Those are all great and certainly have their place, but Graham Street, on the flip side, is your new more casual rooftop alternative in Uptown.

There are three hangout zones:

Rooftop Bar – The main attraction, accessible from an outdoor staircase, features an 8-seat bar and about 10 high-top tables. This space is partially shaded but otherwise exposed to the elements. A skyline mural by Andy Rocco runs the length of the building behind the bar and is extremely Instagrammable.

Outdoor patio – A triangular patio on the Panthers Stadium side of the building has a portable bar cart (so you don’t have to go inside or upstairs for a beer) and about 10 tables, including a picnic table with a built in ice trough you can stock with beer. (Side note: I love that they planted two trees on this patio.)

Indoor bar – Inside, you’ll find a long bar with seats for about 20, a few booths and a high-top table and a jackpot counter at the front window that’ll be wide open on nice days.

The menu features a food truck-inspired lineup of handheld items like skewers, sliders, tacos and grilled cheese along with bar favorites like wings, nachos and loaded fries.

Everything on the menu is under $15 with most items in the $8-$12 range.

Side note for my fellow vegetarians: They’ve got several meat-free options, including fried avocado tacos, falafel pitas and even buffalo cauliflower sliders. You don’t have to eat a basket of fries while your friends enjoy themselves.

As far as drinks go, they’ve got prosecco and rose on tap, a number of local beers (including Legion, OMB, NoDa, Sycamore, Birdsong and Catawba) and a selection of 7 dangerously drinkable $10 cocktails.

The cocktails go down like water.

Mango mojito – Bacardi, muddle fresh mangos, mint, fresh lime

Cucumber jalapeno gimlet – Tanqueray gin, muddle cucumbers, jalapenos, lime

Strawberry honey smash – Deep Eddy’s vodka, fresh citrus, strawberries, sugar rim

Here are all the Graham Street Pub menus:

The little building on a jackpot lot at the corner of South Graham Street and East Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard has had a tumultuous last few years to get to this point.

Chupitos, a bizarre all-shots bar concept, dragged along there for two years without ever making headway on construction before the owner pleaded guilty to a $3 million investment fraud scheme in 2016.

New ownership took over the 2,200-square-foot building in May of that year and introduced plans for Graham St. Pub & Patio, a chill neighborhood bar with a rooftop patio. People went wild.

Facing engineering and permitting hurdles, the site sat largely untouched as its projected spring 2017 opening date came and went. Work finally got underway late last summer, but an adjusted fall 2017 opening date also flew right by.

Now, the time has finally arrived and I’m so happy to see this addition in Uptown. It was worth the wait, Charlotte.