Whole Foods rooftop patios

Years ago I wrote about the Whole Foods flagship store in its headquarters city of Austin, Texas, which has a patio, garden, and playground on the second floor. 

From that point forward, the company has developed more inside spaces that function more like restaurants and taverns, although for the most part, these spaces are within the standard footprint of the store.  For example, the new Whole Foods on H Street NE has a tavern on its mezzanine level.

The Roof, Brooklyn Whole Foods.  Photo credit: DNAinfo/Nikhita Venugopal.

A new Whole Foods store in Exton, Pennsylvania (outside of Philadelphia) will have a roof top patio with food and drink service. 

It turns out that they already have such a facility in Brooklyn, called "The Roof," which can even be rented out for special events.

Since 2010, Eataly has a rooftop restaurant called Birreria, with special beers produced on site by Dogfish Brewery.

It would be cool, in the various buildings that have supermarkets on the ground floor, to think about how they might be able to deliver rooftop restaurants as part of mixed use developments, activation, and destination retail.