Bars, breweries & distilleries / Downtown
Bar Rotunda (Book Tower)
An all-day café and wine bar in the Book Tower lobby, under a century-old art glass dome.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
Coffee and pastries in the morning, small plates through the day, wine and cocktails at night: Bar Rotunda takes its cues from the grand cafés and hotel bars of early 1900s Paris. You sit in Book Tower's three-story rotunda under the restored Keppler glass dome, a cast-iron and brass frame holding 6,000 glass panels and 7,000 jewel embellishments. The Book brothers built the tower to Louis Kamper's design, and at 38 stories it was Detroit's tallest building when it opened in 1926. Twenty-nine caryatids line the facade. Method Co. runs the bar.
- Three-story rotunda under an art glass dome
- 6,000 glass panels and 7,000 jewels in the dome
- Coffee, pastries, small plates, wine and cocktails
- Styled after the grand cafés of Paris
- Inside Louis Kamper's 1926 skyscraper
A closer look
Photos were taken at different times; images are resized and cropped on cards.
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¼ · Stay
Sleep right around the corner
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-10-23
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.
Nov 7, 2026, 1:00 PMBlack History by the People that Lived It: Downtown Detroit Walking Tour
City Institute public tours leads a downtown walking tour with Glen Hendricks on Saturday, November 7, at 1 p.m. at Book Tower – Rotunda Bar in Detroit. Hear first-hand stories of Black Bottom, Hudson’s, Coleman Young, and Black businesses. Donation-based tickets.
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