It's a cafe. It's a bar. It's a lounge.

It's all of the concepts rolled into one swanky downtown hang out. Entrepreneurs and musicians Anthony Molina, James Tabbi and Tom Ferrara teamed up to open Cafe Sol and Skyway Lounge at 90 S. Clinton Ave. in the heart of downtown.

The upscale café is set to open Monday, Oct. 29 and the lounge on Nov. 1. It is located in the architecturally significant Skyway Pavilion, which was built to house an elevator, stairways and escalators to connect with the passageways at Midtown Garage.

The partners travel internationally for their work and were inspired by the great cafes and lounges in cities such as Milan and Barcelona, they said. They wanted to bring the concept back to Rochester, Tabbi and Molina said.

The triangular-shaped, glass and steel structure at the southeast corner of South Clinton Avenue and Broad Street, underwent a dramatic transformation to offer the different concepts. The partners are leasing the property from Buckingham Properties.

It is a cafe during the day on weekdays to catch the business crowd, featuring Nespresso brand coffees and hot chocolate drinks, as well as European sandwiches. At night, it turns into a bar with a state-of-the-art music system and dancing on the the first floor.

The Cafe Sol portion will be open at 7:30 a.m., Monday through Friday. It will then transform at 4 p.m. into Skyway lounge, a three-level venue reminiscent of hotel lobby lounges found in New York City, Berlin, Milan and Tokyo. Skyway will incorporate a ground-level bar with a DJ booth, a mezzanine level cocktail bar, and a third-level lounge area called Cielo, with table service.

Clark Johnson of Evoke Lighting Studio, known for his work with Phillipe Stark and Ian Schrager worked in conjunction with architectural designer Peggy Leung of Peggy Leung Design NYC to recreate the downtown structure.

The venue offers patrons service sun up to sundown, catching the sunrise at Café Sol spending a night on the town at Skyway lounge. The bar and lounge portion will open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

MCHAO@Gannett.com