(Photo: Courtesy of Press)

A hotel-rooftop arms race is raging this spring, with plans for public drinking spaces atop the Trump SoHo, Kimberly, and Fashion 26, among other high-rise guesthouses. But the early pick for most stunning aerie has to be Press, which opens this Friday on the sixteenth floor of Ink48 in Hell’s Kitchen (653 Eleventh Ave., at 48th St.; 212-757-2224). To the east, you get pure midtown cityscape with Times Square as strobe light; to the west, there’s the unobscured Hudson River. The bigger-than-average deck has seating for 172 on stools, couches, and podlike armchairs, all encircling a twenty-foot-long reflecting pool. Get there after it opens at 5:00 p.m., order a martini embellished with pickled ramps ($15) and a small plate of salumi, olives, and grilled bread ($15), and stick around for the sunset.