If you love the romance of sitting by a fire after a meal, or you’re looking for a way to extend the outdoor season by keeping your patio warmer on chilly nights, you’re going to love having a fire table. Natural gas and propane fire tables like ours are a low maintenance and—if we say so ourselves—beautiful addition to any deck or patio.

We use the term fire table for our rectangular or square concrete fire tables and fire pit for our smaller, circular metal propane fire pit.

A lot of people use the terms fire pit and fire table interchangeably, but we think of fire pits as more portable. You can, provided you follow the placement guidelines in your installation manual, move your fire pit around as needed. A concrete fire table, especially one connected to a natural gas line, would be harder to move.

You light an Ethan Allen fire table or fire pit much as you do a propane grill or gas fireplace. You turn a knob or chrome key to start a slight flow of gas, then place a long-handled match or lighter over the center of the fire table to ignite the gas. Make sure to follow the instructions that come with your fire table. They'll explain everything step by step.

Once your fire table is lit, it’s really important to make sure it’s always attended. If you have our concrete fire table, it’s important to keep that chrome key in a specific place so you don’t lose it—and so you can keep it out of the reach of children.