Elyse Wanshel

There are so many reasons fall in New York is the best: brisk breezes, gorgeous fall foliage, movies you actually want to see. Yet despite the sweat and sunburns of summer, there’s one seasonal aspect we don’t want to say goodbye to, and that’s our ability to down a few with our favorite drinking buddy, Mother Nature. Fortunately, New York has a bevy of bars with porches, patios, gardens and rooftop bars galore, where patrons can chill while enjoying the chill in the air. Here’s our pick of the top 15 outdoor bar destinations to get cozy in all autumn long. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to things to do outside in NYC

Dark spirits are heartier than their clear counterparts, and leagues more complex: mash percentage, grain variety, even soil disparities can profoundly alter the taste of whiskey. That’s a hell of a lot to grasp for a connoisseur, let alone a brown-bottle newbie. Thankfully, the intimate Copper & Oak on the Lower East Side have whiskey enthusiasts covered like the sealed top of an aged barrel. ORDER THIS: Dive deep into the brown stuff at Copper & Oak, from Brandy Library’s Flavien Desoblin, which boasts a collection of hard-to-find Japanese whiskeys including Suntory’s Yamazaki Puncheon, fragrant with vanilla and citrus, or the 12-year-old blended Hibiki, partly matured in plum wine barrels to give it notes of oak and fruit. GOOD FOR: Copper & Oak could pass for a small library, with backlit bookshelves crammed with 600 bottles of dark-hued elixirs—it’s an apt setting for those looking to expand their whiskey wisdom. The booze-geek haven takes its namesake seriously: The walls are made of deconstructed bourbon barrels and the caps from an old copper whiskey bottle act as knobs on the bathroom sink. THE CLINCHER: Not a whiskey drinker? Copper & Oak obliges with one- or two-ounce pours of tequila and rum. There are a few kinks—Copper’s snug space guarantees that the flourescent light outside regularly flashes WE ARE FULL, making for less-than-ideal conditions if you want room to explore their menu—but like a fine rye, this whiskey temple will mature deliciously.

For the white-collared wayfarers wandering the streets north of Madison Square Park, NoMad is a depressingly apt name. Sure, the neighborhood has seen a much-welcome rise in upstanding restaurants, but finding an any-day gastropub that doesn’t reek of postgrad brewskies is harder to come by. Who better to fill the void than Daniel Humm, Will Guidara and Leo Robitschek, the James Beard Award–winning trio behind neighborhood stunners Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad, who expanded the latter to include this elegant saloon inside the NoMad hotel, teeming with lofty pub grub, digs worthy of 007… oh, and $198 cocktails. ORDER THIS: Nope, that $198 ticket is not a mirage. The Vieux Carre—flush with 50-year-old cognac—sits pricey under the Reserve Cocktails list, but there are pocket-friendlier picks for those of us outside the 1 percent: a refreshing, textbook Pimm’s Cup ($16) comes with a sharp snap of ginger, and the gin-and-vermouth English Heat ($16) finishes with a satisfying kick of jalapeño-infused agave. GOOD FOR: A won’t-break-the-bank taste of EMP extravagance. Want to try Humm’s famed carrot tartare without dropping $225? That staple gets tempered down to a $15 clamp-lid jar of ground taproot, dotted with sunflower seeds and a cured quail egg. And the NoMad’s star fowl, the foie gras–and truffle-loaded roasted chicken ($82), also gets a tavern overhaul as a neat potpie ($36) that gets cracked soufflé-style to fit a skewer of seared foie. THE CLINCHER: With a mob-movie ma