Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Attract Customers with a Fireplace
What can keep someone interested in staying just a little longer in your bar on those cold winter nights, ordering one more whiskey to warm themselves up? Perhaps, a nice, hot dancing fire?
There are various ways in which you can implement the look and feel of fire in your venue this winter. And the warmth of the aesthetic appeal can be equaled by the cost-savings on your heating bills, should you go that route. There are also flameless options, that serve only to enhance the ambience in your bar without the heat of installs and constant lighting routines.
And a combination of both approaches is ideal; both are safe, simple, and sound investments. Let’s see if we can get you to warm up to the idea. Of course, your first thought, as a property owner and bar operator, is of the logistics. A chimney? A flue? Smoke? Liability? The install process alone would seem daunting, and too much to undertake for an aesthetic endeavor.
EcoSmart Fire™ is an Australian company, with its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, California, that manufactures a high-end, innovative, and environmentally friendly style of open fireplace that perfectly suits bars, lounges, and nightclubs. The company’s goal-”to develop a highly efficient, cost effective, eco-friendly and aesthetically appealing fireplace which is a remarkable, state-of-the-art ‘piece of furniture’”-has truly been achieved, now to the benefit of U.S. bar owners.
The EcoSmart lines allow bar owners to make a late decision on installing a fireplace on-premise. Says Alexander Eburne, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at EcoSmart Fire: “It doesn’t have to be something you included in your original blueprints and designs, because we offer freestanding units that you can change-in just as you would change-in a table or some chairs. So there is a lot of flexibility there.”
A single burner will last anywhere from seven to 12 hours, depending on how high a setting you have it on (which is adjustable by the bar owner). 
The XL Burner is the most popular commercial flame, which lasts for 12 hours. According to Eburne, the EcoSmart Fire significantly improves on other forms of heating you may be using in your venue, such as gas and electric. And unlike traditional fireplaces, they don’t require any form of permanent fixture or fitting, such as a flue for ventilation or a permanent gas connection, as the EcoSmart Fire is fuelled by denatured alcohol, an Ethanol-based fuel that is an environmentally friendly, renewable energy. “There is zero ventilation required,” says Eburne. “We have a minimum room size requirement (200 square feet per burner), and that is to ensure there is enough oxygen flow in the room and that the heat doesn’t build up too quickly. But bar owners would not have an issue with that; it’s more for consideration in small bedroom or bathroom installations.”
The average EcoSmart firebox will heat around 400 square feet per burner, though Eburne points out that a location’s ambient air temperature plays a role. “If you do an install in a bar in the middle of Minnesota, it will work differently than it would in a bar in L.A., as far as how effectively it can heat a space,” he says.
Though not powerful enough to be used as a primary heating source, the EcoSmart fireplaces can do enough to heat an area of a club that is notoriously cold, or can simply attract people to an area of the bar that is usually empty, while perhaps giving your main heating bills a little bit of a cushion as well.
“From an added-value-to-the-business point of view, for whatever reason, we are all attracted to the fire, and these units are a naturally attractive piece,” adds Eburne. “If you visit any public space where our fire is installed, the natural draw is for people to get closer and closer to it. What we’re finding is that a lot of our restaurants and bars that have EcoSmart fireplaces are saying it brings attention to their premises.”
