Located on the 19th floor overlooking downtown and Sarasota Bay

Westin Sarasota and its rooftop bar The Roof Bar and Eats, located in downtown Sarasota at 1175 N. Gulfstream Ave., had a soft opening July 28 before its grand opening in the fall. But by now you’ve likely already seen photos of the bar’s view on Instagram or Facebook.

I make sure it seems like a nice enough day to visit an open-roof bar and walk from the Herald-Tribune’s nearby building. Westin Sarasota has valet parking, so if that’s not your thing, you may want to park in a downtown lot and walk from there.

Then I make my way to the hotel’s 19th floor, where The Roof Bar and Eats is located. There’s a small actual bar, as well as tables, chic couches and canopy seats.

First, to answer some immediate questions: Is the view really all that? It is indeed pretty stunning, giving you a great look at both Sarasota Bay and downtown Sarasota. The view of the water was particularly nice, with the signs of a looming afternoon storm confining itself to over downtown.

That leads to another important question: How does a rooftop bar deal with Florida’s temperamental weather? The actual bar is covered and several tables have umbrellas, which works for now, but may be a little tougher once it gets more crowded.

You may want to take cover anyway. As you might imagine, an open-roof bar in the throes of Florida’s summer can be rather hot, with the hotel guests-only pool looking pretty tempting after a while. But you’ll also likely want to move around to see all the rooftop’s various vantage points.

I order the Provencal Lemonade ($12), which blends Belvedere vodka, vermouth, pink peppercorn lemonade, basil and lavender bitters. It gives the drink a little bit of sourness, but enough sweetness you feel like you’re drinking lemonade from a stand or your backyard patio. The other cocktails include similarly fruity, summer-appropriate drinks as a citrus spritzer ($11), watermelon and basil martini ($14) and strawberry stormy ($11).

The beers on tap so far are your usual suspects — Stella Artois, Yuengling, Blue Moon and so on — but one nice addition is Tampa-based Cigar City Brewing’s Jai Alai ($5.50). It’s one of the best regional IPAs, and it pairs well with the bar’s summertime outdoor setting.

The bar also has a selection of wines from $7 to $19. And though I don’t get any food this time around, it has a variety of upscale bar bites ranging from olive tapenade ($5) and kettle chips ($6) to lamb meatballs ($15) and local cheese with house-made charcuterie ($15).