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Baby, it’s cold outside
The quest for fireside dining in Boston
BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD

Hot tips

Where to find other fires in town

Caveau at Marché Mövenpick, Prudential Center, 800 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 578-9700. Never mind what the Web site says about Caveau opening at noon; this ample and cheery room with a big multi-sided stove in the middle, French-influenced fare, and live jazz most nights makes for an ideal after-work and dinner spot.

Clerys, 113 Dartmouth Street, (617) 262-9874. This neighborhood staple straddles the Back Bay and the South End, welcoming denizens of each for pub fare and a bustling bar scene; the fireplace is on the lower level, with cozy couches nearby.

James’s Gate, 5 McBride Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 983-2000. An honest-to-goodness beer, more beer, and beer-battered-food pub, it has a fireplace with a stone hearth and a multitude of fans who reflect the diversity of Jamaica Plain.

Parker’s Bar, 60 School Street, Boston, (617) 227-8600. This is where you want to go when you’re feeling especially grown-up, or at least world-weary and jaded. Sink into a high-backed chair and ponder the fire while sipping a bourbon.

Tapéo Restaurant & Tapas Bar, 266 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 267-4799. This jubilant tapas bar has a fire in the dining room, but its excellent food and flowing sangria will also heat things up.

— DVG

 

It shouldn’t be this hard. That was my thought, one recent winter night, as my friend and I trudged out into the chill, leaving yet another restaurant that didn’t have a fireplace. I was on a quest to discover the best places in Boston for coming in from the cold and sitting by the fire while enjoying a good meal. Imagining that I live in a Currier & Ives world governed by the maxim "where there’s ice, there’s a fire," I assumed — as did several eager companions — that my search would be easy. I mean, we’re talking New England in winter, which means a blazing hearth around every corner, right? Wrong.

Perhaps my vision came from three once-lovely fires that still crackle in my memory. Upstairs at the Pudding had fireside dining in a room that made you feel like an old friend and a member of an exclusive club all at once; Boston’s first Ritz-Carlton had the kind of elegant, Old World hearth that you see in movies; and the original Grendel’s in Harvard Square offered a welcoming fireplace that drew the huddled, chilly masses. But alas: Upstairs at the Pudding is homeless, the Ritz is closed for renovations, and Grendel’s has been reduced to a basement-level pub.

Still, with restaurants opening at a furious pace in the last half of 2001, I figured these old haunts must have been replaced by plenty of new venues. Instead, I found that restaurants-of-the-moment tend toward the sleek and cool: homey elements like fireplaces are apparently out. Nonetheless, I persevered and discovered that there are still a few places in Boston where a diner can cozy up for a warm meal by the flames.

My first find was Beacon Hill Bistro (25 Charles Street, Boston, 617-723-7575). By day as much brasserie as bistro, it occupies the narrow space that once housed Rebecca’s on Charles Street. Bundled in a scarf, I swept in from the cold for an early meal one weekday and scanned the empty room for my companion. Due to a traffic snare, she wouldn’t arrive for another half-hour, but the host and waitress cheerfully let me lurk about. They checked in on me from time to time and even relayed messages from my friend, displaying one of the key ingredients I hoped to find during my quest: human warmth.

The comestibles lived up to the welcome. Soup is good food, as they say, and Beacon Hill Bistro offers both a traditional French onion and a Chantenay-carrot soup. The latter is a vegetarian’s dream (no chicken broth) that would please even a carnivore’s taste buds: it has an undercurrent of fennel and is punctuated with potato, celery, and turnip. The bistro’s burger is ample and beefy, appropriately hearty for winter, but it’s overshadowed by the savory garlic-potato chips. A spinach omelet with Cantal goat cheese manages the rare trick of keeping the vibrant spinach flavor at the forefront.

There was only one drawback: our table was in the long dining room, far from the fireplace and (like nearly half of those in the bistro) near the window. That meant we had a nice view, of course, but it also brought the inevitable chill that comes with being separated from the elements by a mere pane of glass. By the end of the meal I had donned my scarf, not quite what I imagined when setting out in search of a fireplace meal, though the service and food were more than enough to keep my guest and me content.

Patrons seated in the smaller dining area nearer the fireplace might not even notice that it is gas, not wood. The flames, of course, are real, but the logs and embers (they think of everything!) are decorative. Only lit during dinner, it is one of the better gas fireplaces I’ve seen, and exudes that magical look-into-the-flames spell that I crave in cold weather. A good first find, indeed.

Flushed with success, I set out the next night for the Oak Bar at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. On the Net, and in an ancient Zagat guide, I had read about its fireplace; one enthusiastic Web user had posted the wisdom that "the seats by the fireplace are best for [the bar's] interesting martinis!" Sadly, when my husband and I arrived, there was no fireplace, and, as far as the hostess knew, there never had been. (The part about the martinis was true, but that’s for another article.)

Back on the sidewalk in the freezing rain, we flagged a cab to take us to the Bristol Lounge at the Four Seasons (200 Boylston Street, Boston, 617-351-2053), where the existence of a gorgeous fireplace was never in doubt. For the most romantic and relaxing evening, you want to be seated on one of the cozy couches directly surrounding the fireplace in the Bristol Lounge. (This is also one of the best places in town to enjoy high tea.) With firelight complemented by soft lighting, the entire room (whether you sit on the park side, or face the back courtyard as we did) feels hushed and inviting. The gentle ministrations of a jazz pianist add to the feeling that all is right with the world, as a sort of sleepy delight steals over you.

Of course, when you see the menu and realize that a burger is $15, you may wake from the dream, but I say go with it. You’ll never have a juicier burger, a more perfect pickle, or finer mustard. The rest of the menu includes nods to New England, like clam chowder, and other winter fare, including lamb shank. I had the crab cakes, which are small orbs of lightly packed crabmeat that have been deep fried to a caramel-brown crisp. And you shouldn’t resist the cocktails, like the Tanqueray Ten martini, which a room like this fairly screams for. (Imbibing may also help you digest the tab when it arrives.)

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Issue Date: January 31 - February 7, 2002
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