Skybox boasts fantastic views of 14th Street and Logan Circle and tasty cocktails, though it’s not exactly straightforward to make it up to D.C.’s newest rooftop bar to scope them out.

First, you enter the Players Club, a basement bar filled with arcade-style games, and make a beeline towards a red sign that says “Skybox.” That’s where you pick up a number (Skybox has been touting this as similar to a deli, where you grab a ticket to get in line for your cold cuts), and wait for the elevator to come ferry you up to the roof every seven and a half minutes.

That’s because in between Players Club and Skybox is Mai Place, luxury apartments that promise residents the “Ultimate Urban Lifestyle™.”

The staggered elevator times are in place because “we want the residents of the building to know the elevator is always available for them every time they come in,” says Jim Abdo, head of Abdo Development, which is behind both Mai Place and the two bars housed on 1400 14 Street NW.

“We’re working all this out,” says Abdo. “We just put new software in the elevator to make sure that we have this program in place to allow people to come directly up to Skybox, but also to allow the residents of the building to have complete access, to be able to come and go without unnecessary delays.”

At the special preview event on Thursday night, it appeared that some kinks still needed working out. On my elevator ride up to the seventh floor, two residents boarded on the first floor and their faces fell when they saw customers on board. One of the residents was trying to get to the third floor, and his key fob didn’t work. “It’s a whole mess,” he grumbled, before getting off at the sixth floor.

Abdo says he’s working working with brothers Eric and Ian Hilton (they’re behind Players Club, Skybox, and a slew of other D.C. nightlife spots) on creating a “VIP component” for residents, so they could “bifurcate the line” to access Skybox. Currently, they need to go down to the Players Club like the rest of us. The 2,490 square-foot floor overlooking the city was always intended as commercial space, per Abdo. (As nightlife blogger Barred in D.C. noted, at least one person who identified as a Mai Place resident in the PopVille comment section is aggrieved that the roof isn’t an amenity.)

But as soon as you make it up to the roof, the expansive, 360 degree views and copious seating options impress. There are four separate cocktails created by Brendan Murphy, one to spotlight vodka, gin, rum, and tequila, and all selling for $13. The tequila drink, “Red Hot Chili Pineapple Batida,” which has condensed milk and a kick, is the standout. There’s also a selection of ciders and wines.

Like Player’s Club, it has a colorful vibe that wouldn’t be out of place in a previous decade, in an inviting way. That’s by design. The bar’s name is a reference to the skyboxes at Capital Centre, the indoor arena in Landover that opened in 1973 and used to serve as the home for the Washington Capitals and Bullets.

Abdo says that Skybox was designed to “create connectivity” with Players Club. “It’s a place to come out and lounge and chill and be able to look out over the beautiful city skyline.”

Skybox opens on April 15 at 1440 14th Street NW. It will be open Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m.-midnight, Fridays from 4 p.m.-1:30 a.m., Saturday from 2 p.m.-1:30 a.m., and Sundays from 2 p.m.-midnight.