The best rooftop gardens and urban farms in NYC

This Greenwich Village eatery gets more than half of its produce from its seasonal aeroponic rooftop tower garden, the fruits of which dictate the revolving menu. Recent menu items include house-made burrata with grilled ramps and English peas, an arugula salad topped with crisp pork belly, apple and fennel and a patty melt topped with a rooftop pickle.

Installed in 2012 and operated by Brooklyn Grange, the Navy Yard Farm covers a mammoth 65,000 square feet, making it the largest rooftop soil farm in the world. Visit the Brooklyn Grange website to register for one of the farm’s weekly Wednesday tours or find out about its LIC sister location, Flagship Farm, plus grab tickets to awesome events like botanical soap-making workshops and sunset yoga. Aspiring urban farmers can even sign up for a five-day Sustainable Farming Certificate Program at the rooftop run by the Natural Gourmet Institute. Various times and prices

Photograph: Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm / ©Anastasia Cole Plakias

Head to the roof of the McKittrick Hotel, the home of Sleep No More, and enjoy live music, craft cocktails and an unlimited sweet-and-savory buffet at Gallow Green’s weekend brunch. Don’t worry, there’s some actual gardening going on: In 2014, the restaurant’s aeroponic farm produced 4,000 heads of lettuce. You’ll taste the fresh herbs and vegetables in many of the dishes and cocktails. Brunch Saturdays and Sundays 11:30am–4pm; $38

Gotham Greens set up shop atop Brooklyn's Whole Foods in 2014, opening a commercial-scale, 20,000-square-foot greenhouse. The space produces 200,000 pounds of leafy greens, tomatoes and herbs each year that get sold downstairs in the adjoining market and other grocery stores around the city. Though the garden is usually closed to the public due to food safety laws, Gotham Greens offers free tours of its nearby rooftop deck every Wednesday at 6pm. 

Perched on top of one of the world's finest museums is one of the city’s finest vantage points—from both a sightseeing and cultural perspective. The museum recruits a new rooftop art installation every summer, like this year’s The Theater of Disappearance, an assortment of surreal sculptures by Adrián Villar Rojas. Visitors can sip cocktails while examining the art and taking in spectacular views of Central Park and the Midtown skyline. 

Riverpark, the farm-to-table restaurant from Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and Gramercy Tavern alum Sisha Ortuzar, is serious about locally sourced produce. So serious, that in 2011, it started its own temporary garden in milk crates at the stalled construction site next door. When building started up again a year later, Riverpark simply moved the portable garden to the north side of the plaza. The menu changes seasonally, and dishes like pasta with lamb, fava beans and mint highlight produce from Riverpark Farm and local greenmarkets. Opt to sit outside on the patio for picturesque views of both the East River and the thriving garden next door. 

Though Farm.One isn’t on a rooftop, you would be hard-pressed to find a more ground-breaking urban farm. (See what we did there?) This hydroponic farm inside the Institute of Culinary Education cultivates more than 250 different crops, including rare herbs, edible flours and microgreens. Hourlong tasting tours of the space run every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and budding farmers can also register for classes on indoor farming, hydroponics and plant care. Prices vary