Neptune Food and Wine is a primo setting for bunkering down with eats and drinks while avoiding the outdoor chills. What’s more, it boasts a dedicated cocktail saloon and a ‘fireplace lounge’ down the back. 

Once a modest but respectable Italian eatery on Bay Street, Ciao Cielo stepped things up a notch when it updated its digs in 2018. The fine diner reopened in Port Melbourne’s historic courthouse, following a $1.5 million makeover to the 1860s building.

This Collingwood corner pub has spawned many incarnations over the decades — but its latest has seen a couple of the building’s historic wood fireplaces restored to their former glory, cementing its status as a primo winter pub. 

Longstanding classic the Post Office Hotel serves a well-rounded gastropub experience, complete with a bandroom, large terrariums atop tables and an open fireplace that’s hot property when the weather’s chilly. 

Those winter blues don’t stand a chance in the face of Richmond’s Union House, where you’ve got a choice of three different crackling fireplaces to cosy up beside. 

If you’re hoping to team your fireside pub session with a couple of top-notch dark craft brews, then consider South Melbourne’s Palace Hotel your ultimate winter haven. 

CBD cocktail bar Trinket might be best known for its hidden basement den, located through the back of a secret wardrobe. But on a grim Melbourne night, you’ll also find plenty to love at street level. 

Any trip to this Fitzroy North gem is an absolute pleasure, but it’s at its best when its fireplace is roaring up a storm. Neighbourhood Wine is open five nights a week, so almost any crisp evening is the perfect time to pull up a perch at the bar.

The Grace Darling has been a staple of Smith Street for a long, long time — built in 1854, it’s thought to be the second oldest pub in the city. Regulars will have clocked plenty of hours knocking back drinks in the footpath beer garden out front. 

Warm, friendly and inviting, with plenty of tasty food offerings and a variety of local beers, Tramway is always a comfy escape from the cold. Soft overhead lighting matches the pleasant glow of the fire as it smoulders quietly in the corner of the front bar.

Beautifully revamped in 2019, the Carringbush Hotel now boasts a hefty central bar, a sprawling tap list pouring 22 craft beers — plus tap wines — and a popular, largely vegan food menu. 

This St Kilda craft beer bar has winter charms in abundance, thanks to not one, but two great fireplaces. Upstairs, the cosy rooftop beer garden boasts its own outdoor log fire, while the front bar below has an all-weather indoor version.

This Richmond craft brewery is the kind of haunt that delights all year round, with a chic retrofuturistic fitout inside and a lush, foliage-filled beer garden zone out front. And this leafy streetside space is a cosy destination even in the deep of winter.