The weather outside is frightful—and so are the throngs of tourists overtaking our home for the holidays. While hitting one of the city’s ice skating rinks can be both a cherished winter pastime and a classic New York moment, it can also be a total drag thanks to both the icy cold and those thickets of out-of-towners (oh, and falling on your assets). One way to dull the pain? By warming up and winding down après skate with these hot drinks within walking distance of the rinks.
THE POND AT BRYANT PARK
Between 40th and 42nd Sts. and 5th and 6th Aves., 866-221-5157
For its fourth season, Bryant Park transforms into a winter village of tented holiday shops surrounding New York’s only free-admission ice skating rink (don’t get too excited, skate rentals will cost you $12) through Jan. 25. After looping around the 17,000-square-foot rink, get loopy at one of the following spots...
Celsius: A Canadian Lounge
212-661-6640 ext. 107
Overlooking The Pond, this rink-side two-story lounge boasts great views and an outdoor terrace with heated lamps from which to watch skaters passing by from a snug, smug post. The glass-enclosed space takes on a Canadian theme (um, because it’s cold there too?), as evidenced by The Canadian ($13), a toasty tipple of Canadian whiskey, warm spiced cider, lemon and mint.
Blue Bar
59 W. 44th St., 212-840-6800
Post-skating, hit this popular pre-theater spot in the historic Algonquin Hotel, made famous as the meeting grounds of noted writers Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Harold Ross, who later went on to create The New Yorker. Though the bar has its own street entrance, it’s still undeniably a hotel bar: Brass bells on the tables allow you to summon your hot cider spiked with rum ($15) from the nearest bow-tied, blue-vested server.
Bookmarks Lounge
299 Madison Ave., 212-204-5498
Cold winter days are meant for curling up by the fireplace with a good book, so no place could be better suited for defrosting than the Library Hotel’s rooftop bar. While you could conceivably grab a classic from the shelf and settle in by the hearth, the only reading you need do here is off the best-seller list of drinks “hot off the press,” which ranges from a Hot Apple Toddy to Café and Cachaça, made with coffee bean-infused cachaça, Coole Swan liqueur and Cointreau and garnished with freshly grated nutmeg ($13.50 each).
KATE WOLLMAN RINK
Near Parkside/Ocean Ave. entrance of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 718-287-6431
After 47 years of family fun on ice, the 26,600-square foot rink in Prospect Park opens for its final season through March 15 before a new Lakeside Center (with two brand spanking new ice rinks of its own) replaces it late next year. Until the upgrade, enjoy some cheap skates at just $5 for entry and $5.50 per rental.
Cocoa Bar
228 Seventh Ave., 718-499-4080
By day, this sweet little Park Slope shop offers Belgian chocolates, homemade pastries and free Wi-Fi. By night, the comfy space transforms into a dessert and wine lounge, where the vino pairs particularly well with decadent pralines and truffles. For a sophisticated take on the de rigueur post-skating hot chocolate, warm up to a White Out or French Hot Chocolate ($12 each), which adds port wine and white or dark chocolate, respectively, to the mix.
Franklin Park
618 Saint Johns Pl., 718-975-0196
This chilled out Crown Heights beer garden from the brains behind Southpaw, the popular music venue in Park Slope, gets winter-ready with a new 2,000-square foot indoor annex, complete with a second bar and working fireplace. The bar has also begun serving hot toddies and Irish coffees for $6 a piece, but be sure to hit the ATM beforehand—it's cash only.
12th Street Bar & Grill
1123 Eigth Ave., 718-965-9526
If your fingers and toes have frozen, waddle over to this casually elegant spot just a stone’s throw from Prospect Park (a mere block). Located in the carriage house of a landmark building, the bar and restaurant are actually separate from one another, with the former situated on 12th Street and the latter on Eighth Avenue. Whichever you stumble into, request the spicy, potent Vino Natale, made with mulled Cote du Rhone wine, B&B, cinnamon and cardamom ($12) that’s sure to warm much more than your belly.
TRUMP WOLLMAN SKATING RINK
Central Park at 63rd St., 212-439-6900
Central Park’s storied rink was run by the Wollman family, who donated $600,000 for its construction in 1949 (and apparently had a thing for ice skating), before The Donald purchased it in the 1990s. Today, it sees skaters year round, from the 4,000 aspiring Nancy Kerrigans who visit daily through March to in-liners who prefer to roll with it in warmer months.
Club Macanudo
26 E. 63rd St., 212-752-8200
Fires aren’t the only things being stoked at this cigar-centric bar that’s one of the few establishments in the city to get an exemption from Bloomberg’s ban on smoking, and it’s not just stogies that are the only warming agent in ample supply: Macanudo carries an extensive selection of scotches, whiskey and bourbon, which they’ll happily slip into your coffee any way you like it, from Swiss coffee with Godiva liqueur to American coffee with bourbon ($12 to $18).
Park Avenue Winter
100 E. 63rd St., 212-644-1900
When this seasonal restaurant does its quarterly quick-change into a winter menu and décor, beat frostbite with a selection of “Hibernation Beers,” such as Smuttynose Winter Ale and Victory Storm King Stout ($7 each) that are toasty in body and flavor, rather than temperature. For oenophiles, there’s also a list of wines inspired by the winter season.
Aureole
34 E. 61st St., 212-319-1660
Charlie Palmer’s Upper East Side institution is certainly having a hot moment: not only did the restaurant recently celebrate 20 years in business, it also wooed chef Christopher Lee from Gilt to helm its kitchen come January. Therefore, it’s only fitting to raise your glass with The Snow Bird ($16), made with Quinn-infused vodka, hot vanilla tea, white port and fresh nutmeg, to toast not being left out in the cold.
