NYC's best fireplace bars

A lot of restaurants opened in the last few years have had the stated goal of feeling like you’re in an intimate private residence, and Black Mountain has evoked that ambiance in residential Carroll Gardens since 2007. The cozy cabin has Adirondack chairs outside and home fires burning inside, where you can sip excellent varieties of its eponymous specialty with cheese and charcuterie.

Pour into the Whiskey Bar at Fraunces Tavern (the historic spot has a few distinct spaces, including the including the relatively new Piano Bar Upstairs) to sample more than 500 eponymous spirits in old-old-fashioned style. Large leather chairs are like an oversized embrace all warmed up by the elixirs and the fireplace. 

Meet out-of-towners around the handsome mantle at The Bowery Hotel’s elegant lobby bar. Cumulus couches and chairs fill the antique-y, old-money space that seems to require classic cocktails on cold winter nights. 

Choose your McSorley’s Dark or McSorley’s Light Ale and gather ‘round the flames at one of NYC’s most historic–and certainly its most literally named–bars. One of the the oldest in NYC, the Ale House famed for sawdust on its floor is also lined with vintage photos and bursting with local stories.

Low-profile leather banquettes and candle-topped tables line Clover Club up front, its long, excellent bar is in the middle and an intimate, wood-paneled space in the back (often used for private parties) has its very own fireplace. 

This cavernous, bi-level venue zags from the standard fireplace bar category and into old-timey millionaire’s library territory. Snap up a plush sofa or tufted leather armchair seat and sip hot toddies and Irish coffee.

One of NYC’s best bars, Mace has plenty to recommend it year-round. The multi-award-winning bar has relocated a few times to reach this largest yet, West Village address, and its fireplace is particularly attractive when the temperatures drop. 

Rooftop bars are certainly more associated with summer, but the fireplace at Jimmy on the 18th floor of the ModernHaus hotel makes a great case for the season to last all year. Warm up with skyline views and seasonal cocktails like the spiced pumpkin mule. 

This speakeasy-inspired bar is styled after the Prohibition-era, with a semi-obscured downstairs entrance and hooch-concealing teacups to sip your tipples, plus one thing that would have surely been a giveaway back when bars were under wraps. One hint: Where there’s smoke, there’s ____. 

It’s downtown-chic-meets-your-rich-Gen-X-aunt's-apartment at this Lower East Side den, with stylish velvet couches beside a stone fireplace. Cuddle up with warming concoctions like the Muddy Waters, made with rye, absinthe and molé bitters. 

In addition to its fire feature, Flatiron Room has live music, a full menu of snacks, starters and mains and more than 1,000 whiskey varieties. Sip ‘em alone or in specialty cocktails. 

Art Bar’s been open for more than 30 years, and it shows. But its well-worn, bohemian look makes it even easier to sink into lounge chairs around the fireplace in the back room. Select beer, wine and well drinks are discounted at happy hour from 4-7pm and hot cocktails are also known to appear on the menu. 

Every bit of flare and fancy at Fine & Rare harkens back to Old New York, including its mid century-style Chesterfield sofas, Art Deco wallpaper and vintage teller windows sourced from the nearby Grand Central Terminal. Its retro glam truly sparks around the distinctive fireplace.