Enjoy Your Coffee With A View At Brisbane’s New NYC-Inspired Rooftop Escape
Raise your cuppa
By Bianca Licina | 29th August 2025Hey, city slickers – look up! There’s a new spot for you to grab your morning matcha and your midday pastry pick-me-up – welcome to RAISE Rooftop, AKA your new inner-city escape.
RAISE Rooftop has officially flung open its doors, and it’s calling all corporate baddies to step away from their desks and up to Brisbane’s coolest new cafe and events space. Sitting pretty atop 157 Ann Street, this New York-style venue is serving up specialty coffee, artisan pastries, and sweeping 180-degree skyline views that make even the busiest workday feel a little lighter.
By day
By day, RAISE is already proving itself as the ultimate urban sanctuary. Picture this: Coffee Supreme in the grinder, cult-favourite treats from I Heart Brownies, and fresh pastries daily from West End’s Banette – all paired with the city skyline as your backdrop. It’s the kind of spot where inner-city professionals pause, breathe, and actually look up from their screens.
By night
By night, the rooftop transforms into a slick events venue for corporate functions, workshops, launch parties, or milestone celebrations, comfortably hosting up to 60 guests. Whether you’re sipping a cocktail at sunset or raising a glass to a big win, RAISE has the vibe dialled in.
Behind RAISE
Behind the concept are Laura Campion, the brains behind Brisbane’s LCC Group, and Alex Afflick, CTO at Audeara. As first-time hospitality heroes, their goal was simple: bring the energy of a New York rooftop together with the warmth of a local hangout.
“I fell in love with this space the moment I stepped out of the lift,” Laura says. “It’s about creating a neighbourhood vibe in the heart of the CBD – a place where people know each other’s name, smile, and say hi.” Already, in just its opening week, two colleagues who’d worked on the same floor for four years met for the first time at RAISE. Moments like these? Pure magic.
For Alex, the heart of RAISE is coffee. His passion for the brew took him from uni café hopping in Brisbane to the coffee fields of Uganda in 2018. Partnering with Coffee Supreme, Alex has crafted a menu that’s as serious about quality as it is about community.
With a lush, botanical-packed terrace, varied seating, and effortlessly laid-back energy, RAISE is fast becoming the go-to for morning caffeine fixes, casual catch-ups, or relaxed meetings with a view.
So, next time you’re walking the CBD grind, take a second to look up. Your new favourite rooftop escape is calling.
