Working fireplaces are a luxury for most apartment dwellers — which is why some New York City restaurants keep their fires burning all season long. Call ahead, and you just might snag the best seat in the house.
History lesson
Don’t let its unusual name put you off: Merakia: Greek Mountain Thief Spithouse + Steak celebrates nomadic fighters who stole livestock while battling the Ottomans during the Greek War of Independence in 1821. This Chelsea restaurant’s central fireplace recalls the makeshift spits these militiamen would use to roast their loot. “The ambiance is one of the items that attracts me first,” says David Benick, 45, a financial analyst from Murray Hill. “The interior looked trendy and the fireplace offered a rustic feel, despite being in the middle of the concrete jungle of NYC.” Merakia: Greek Moutain Thief Spithouse + Steak, 5 W. 21st St.; Merakia.com
Hot for Sinatra
The site where Antique Bar & Bakery now stands was once home to the bakery that made the Italian baguettes known as Hoboken Sticks. Native son Frank Sinatra used to pack a suitcase full of them to bring on tour. The hearth here is a 400-square-foot brick oven in the middle of a wall facing the dining room. Chef Paul Gerard cooks or finishes most of the menu in this 1,000-plus degree oven, keeping the place nice and toasty. Antique Bar & Bakery, 122 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ; AntiqueBarBakery.com
Period warmth
Set in a three-story Tribeca town house that dates back to 1810, this bar’s copper tabletops, chipped paint, quaint wallpaper and wood-burning fireplace give it a distinctly “Gangs of New York” feel — minus, of course, the gangs. While the ambience is distinctly old-fashioned, the New American menu is not. Tiny’s & the Bar Upstairs, 135 West Broadway; TinysNYC.com
Goin’ up country
If Henry David Thoreau lived in Brooklyn, we’re pretty sure he’d sip wines and wax philosophical at Black Mountain Wine House. You’d never suspect to find this cabin edifice — with a pile of chopped wood and a couple rocking chairs in front — nestled between Carroll Gardens and Gowanus. You’ll feel downright pastoral sipping a glass of wine to the sounds of crackling logs on the fireplace. Black Mountain Wine House, 415 Union St., Brooklyn; BlkMtnWineHouse.com
Fiery fusion
Mountain Bird is the name, and cooking bird is the game. This fowl-centric Harlem restaurant serves French cuisine with an Asian flair, and clean, provincial interior design to match. If you call ahead on a chilly night, you might be able to save a seat next to their romantic gaslit fireplace, beneath a shimmering chandelier. Mountain Bird, 251 E. 110th St.; TastingsNYC.com/mountain-bird/