Enjoy cocktails and plane-spotting at this '60s-inspired chalet-style bar
Jan 16, 2020 • 2 min read
TWA Hotel Runway Chalet at The Pool Bar interior - red fireplace on a round white foundation with red cushions
The fabulously retro TWA Hotel at New York’s JFK airport boasts midcentury modern touches galore, from the vintage departures board clacking away in the Sunken Lounge to the wall-to-wall Twister Room to the former terminal’s overarching Eero Saarinen design. Now the property has transformed a rooftop infinity pool overlooking the runway into a cozy winter chalet, just in time for a post-holiday pick-me-up.
Dubbed The Runway Chalet at The Pool Bar, the 1960s ski lodge–themed space channels the après experience with cozy beverages (think: hot toddies and spiked hot chocolate) and snacks like salt and pepper fries, cheese and charcuterie plates, and chocolate fondue.
The bar is tented and heated, its centerpiece a vintage fireplace kitted out with electric logs, and there’s enough skiing gear strewn about that – if not for the jet fumes, and for the planes themselves – you'd almost forget you were gazing out on the airport’s Runway 4 Left/22 Right and not the slopes themselves.
Even if it seems too cold for a dip, the “pool-cuzzi” is open for swimming, with water set to a steaming 95℉. But if stripping down to your skivvies in sub-zero temps doesn’t appeal, there’s always a more seasonally appropriate activity: ice-skating.
The 56ft by 44ft Runway Rink is built around the hotel’s tarmac-level cocktail lounge, housed in a 1958 Lockheed Constellation Connie airplane, and requires 3500 gallons of frozen New York City tap water to keep it in business. There’s open skating daily through February, weather permitting, at $15 for adults and $10 for kids, and a free skating show too, with performances on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The TWA Hotel opened in mid-May after three years of construction and renovations. The Runway Chalet is open from 11:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, and reservations are accepted. For more information, visit twahotel.com.