Brown Derby Lounge's New Patio Overhang Gets Its Awning, Fans and Lanterns While the Walk-Up Lounge Keeps Pouring From the Side Patio

By entgrove · September 1, 2026 · Updated September 29, 2026

The permanent overhang over The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge patio at Disney's Hollywood Studios is nearly finished, with a red awning, ceiling fans, hanging lanterns and new wall lights in place, and the lounge is serving from its smaller side patio in the meantime. Disney lists the walk-up bar at $15 to $34.99 per adult, with a wait list instead of reservations and two Disney Dining Plan table-service meals per person.

Brown Derby Lounge's New Patio Overhang Gets Its Awning, Fans and Lanterns While the Walk-Up Lounge Keeps Pouring From the Side Patio

The refurbishment of The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge patio at Disney's Hollywood Studios has reached the stage where you can finally see what it is going to be. The new overhang over the outdoor patio is covered by a red awning matching the ones already on The Hollywood Brown Derby, and it has been fitted with ceiling fans, hanging lanterns and gold-finished decorative beams, turning what has always been an exposed patio into a permanently shaded one. The lounge itself, the walk-up half of the park's most famous restaurant, is still pouring Derby cocktails from its smaller side patio while the work is finished.

The Hollywood Brown Derby building with the new flat patio overhang beneath its rooftop Brown Derby sign, lanterns and a ceiling fan hanging under it — The new overhang runs along the front of The Hollywood Brown Derby beneath the rooftop sign, with wrought-iron lanterns and a ceiling fan already hanging under it. Two black lamp posts rise above the roof line, and the patio is screened from the walkway by a hedge in wheeled planter boxes. Photo: WDW News Today

Key Details

Location: Hollywood Boulevard, Disney's Hollywood Studios, next to The Hollywood Brown Derby
Type: bar and lounge, American, listed by Disney as walk-up with a wait list
Price range: Disney's $$ tier, $15 to $34.99 per adult
Dining Plan: Disney's listing states that lunch or dinner here on the Disney Dining Plan redeems two table-service meals per person
Admission and access: valid theme park admission required, a park reservation may be required depending on ticket type, and guests may remain in a wheelchair or ECV
Patio work: under way since June; as of August 31 the overhang carries its awning, fans, lanterns and wall lights, and the lounge is serving from the side patio

What has been installed

The overhang framework went up in the last week of August, and the build has moved quickly since. Construction on the patio began in June, and the earlier phases were the unglamorous ones: the pavement was redone and the outer wall rebuilt before any of the overhead structure went in. As of August 31 the overhead work looks like this:

The bare beams are covered by a red awning, color-matched to the restaurant's other awnings
Ceiling fans and dangling lanterns are mounted beneath the overhang
Gold-finished decorative beams help support the structure, a finish detail rather than raw steel
New lights have been added on the wall below the overhang

Close view of the overhang's street-facing edge with a lamp post rising from the roof, a gold brace against the wall, and lanterns and a ceiling fan hanging beneath — A closer look at the overhang's street-facing edge: a brown-painted fascia with beam-end brackets, a black lantern lamp post rising from the roof, a gold-painted brace against the wall, and four wrought-iron lanterns and a ceiling fan hanging beneath. A strip of red shows along the top edge at the left. Photo: WDW News Today

Why a permanent roof matters here

Shade is scarce at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The park has less tree canopy than Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom, and the Brown Derby Lounge patio, one of the best places in the park to sit down with a cocktail and watch Hollywood Boulevard, has always been a sun trap in the afternoon. Central Florida summers alternate between direct sun and sudden thunderstorms, and neither is compatible with a two-hour drink. Awning, fans and lighting together turn the patio from a fair-weather option into a year-round one, and the lighting in particular extends it into the evening.

View along the patio under the new roof, with a gold horizontal beam, plastic-wrapped lanterns, traffic cones on the pavement and red umbrellas beyond — Looking along the patio under the new roof from the side: the dark underside, a gold-finished horizontal beam with a decorative scroll at its center, and lanterns still wrapped in plastic hanging from the ceiling. Traffic cones and a covered cart sit on the new pavement, and the red umbrellas of the side patio show beyond. Photo: WDW News Today

What the lounge serves

The lounge is the walk-up sibling of the table-service Hollywood Brown Derby: a smaller menu, a bar, and a patio you can usually get onto without an Advance Dining Reservation. Disney describes it as a "star-studded tuck-away" for "appetizers, wine and libations like signature Derby cocktails and martinis," which is an accurate summary of the format: a shorter, snackier menu than the dining room next door, built around drinks. The Derby's two signatures, the Cobb Salad and the grapefruit cake, have long been served on the lounge side as well, which turns a reservation-only meal into something you can order on a whim between shows. The current menu is posted on Disney's site, linked above, and it changes seasonally, so treat specific dishes and prices as a snapshot rather than a promise.

Disney files the lounge in its $$ price band, $15 to $34.99 per adult, and notes that lunch or dinner here on the Disney Dining Plan redeems two table-service meals per person. Because it is a walk-up venue, the lounge does not appear in the Advance Dining Reservation system the way the restaurant does. Disney tags it with a walk-up wait list, which means you join the list at the host stand and get called when a table opens. On a busy afternoon that wait can be real, but it is still the easiest way to sit down with a proper cocktail on Hollywood Boulevard.

A row of cocktail tables with Art Deco chairs and red umbrellas on the patio of The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge — A row of cocktail tables with black cloths, red-cushioned Art Deco chairs and red umbrellas on the lounge patio, each table set with an amber candle holder and a menu, with the iron railing and hedges behind, as pictured on Disney's own listing for the venue.

The Brown Derby story

The restaurant this lounge belongs to is a recreation of the Hollywood Brown Derby on Vine Street, the 1929 Los Angeles institution where studio stars ate under walls of celebrity caricatures and where owner Bob Cobb is credited with inventing the Cobb salad in the late 1930s. Disney rebuilt it at the end of Hollywood Boulevard for the park's opening in 1989, caricatures and all, and it has been the park's flagship signature restaurant since. The lounge shares the kitchen and the Golden Age styling but not the dress-up sense of occasion.

The lounge is still open throughout

Neither venue has closed for this work. The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge continues to operate from the restaurant's smaller side patio while the main patio is finished, and the table-service Hollywood Brown Derby remains open as normal. If you have a reservation or plan to walk up during the next few weeks, expect a reduced footprint on the lounge side rather than a locked gate.

Where it sits on Hollywood Boulevard

The lounge is at the far end of Hollywood Boulevard from the park entrance, at the hub in front of the Chinese Theatre, which puts it a short walk from Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and a few minutes from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. That makes it a natural pause point: it is where the boulevard opens up, and the patio looks straight back down the street. Disney lists the guest entrance on Hollywood Boulevard, and the location card above links to its spot on Disney's map.

Guests walk down Hollywood Boulevard toward the Chinese Theatre between pastel storefronts and palm trees under an overcast sky — Hollywood Boulevard at Disney's Hollywood Studios, looking toward the Chinese Theatre: guests walk down the center of the street between pastel Art Deco storefronts, palm trees and green benches under an overcast sky. Photo: Theme Park Tourist via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

How to get a table, and what to expect this fall

Skip the reservation hunt. Walk to the host stand beside The Hollywood Brown Derby, ask for the lounge, and put your name on the wait list. Mid-afternoon on a hot day is when the list is longest, while the first hour after the lounge opens and the last hour before it closes tend to be quieter. Hours vary by day and are posted in the My Disney Experience app, so check there before you plan around it. If the main patio is still behind construction walls when you visit, the side patio is where the lounge is being served in the meantime.

The structural work on the main patio is essentially done. Awning, fans, lanterns, beams and wall lights are all in place, and what remains is finishing rather than building. Once the overhang is complete the full main patio should return to service and the lounge should get its capacity back, ahead of the cooler months, when the patio is at its best and Hollywood Boulevard is at its busiest.