October, the best month of the year, is more than halfway over (cry-face emoji). Have you felt the spooky vibes to the fullest? Beyond rocking goth-adjacent looks (just channel Winona Ryder), listening to the Monster Mash on repeat, watching scary movies nightly, and dabbling in ~basic witchy~ activities, another way to feel the spirit is to drink at bars with a ghostly ambience. Here are seven haunts where you can get loopy this Halloween season, until you scare yourself sober.
For most of the year, the neighborhood pub along Fort Greene’s main drag is just a low-key spot to grab a craft pint and a burger. But around Halloween, the bar transforms into a haunted lair, from the massive clown face looming over the entrance, to the cobweb-strewn interior, with suspended monster dummies and murdery-red lights. Stop in for drinks any night of the month, or get started early on Sat., Oct. 28, after watching The Great PUPkin dog costume contest in Fort Greene Park.
To enter House of Wax, Alamo Drafthouse’s dual bar/wax museum, you have to walk across a rug patterned after “The Shining.” If that doesn’t get your mind weird, once you wander the glass cases filled with Victorian-era wax renderings of busts and medical oddities, from wart-covered limbs to a death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, you’ll feel sufficiently creeped out. A stage with a red curtain adds a Black Lodge vibe. Go see “It” or one of the throwback horror films screening at the Drafthouse this month, then partake in the macabre cocktail menu, which includes bitter potions like the Death Mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, with cynar, cognac and cardamaro.
It’s Halloween year-round at this Tim Burton-inspired bar and restaurant in the East Village, with menu items that nod to his oeuvre, like a steak called the Sweeney Beef, or a chocolate cake made out of Wonka Bars. The cocktail menu of “poisons, potions, and elixirs,” includes concoctions like This is Halloween! (fireball, Pumpkin Liqueur, sour apple pucker, apple cider). If that all’s not enough, the decor will do you in: skulls on the tables, cobweb-strewn chandeliers, a tombstone that reads “Here lies Betelgeuse” behind the bar, and even an actor/host dressed as Beetlejuice himself.
“In ancient times when werewolves roamed the land there was an old pub called The Slaughtered Lamb.” That’s the legend behind this West Village pub, which is actually the bar’s second location: The original Slaughtered Lamb Pub, in London, is famous for appearing in the horror film “An American Werewolf in London.” The dingy-gothic tavern on W. 4th St. sets the mood right away, with a sign depicting a sharp-fanged wolf on a moonlit night. Inside, enjoy a pint fireside in the Werewolf Lounge, play darts in the Dungeon Game Room, or feast on fish and chips in the Pub Room.
The South Slope divey-tavern has somewhat of a spooky vibe year-round, even if it’s just because of its resident albino frog fish creature. From Oct. 26 through Oct. 31, the bar is hosting “Drink or Treat,” a six-night celebration which includes a free Halloween dance party on Saturday, Oct. 28 and the opening reception for an art exhibition called The End of Days on Tuesday, Halloween night. Find the full schedule via the events calendar. Bonus: Freddy’s is only about five blocks from Green-Wood Cemetery, if you want to grab drinks and grub post-graveyard hang.
A haunted house and restaurant in one, this horrific affair is spoopy and over-the-top, perfect for spooking out your inner child. Guests will feast on freaky eats like the Create Your Own Monster Burgers or The Mummy (sirloin steak wrapped in cheese) and cocktails with names like The Kiss of Death, (Cherry Tease Pucker Vodka and 7-Up), surrounded by memorabilia from the wacky exploits of the Doctor. The staff joins in on the fun, with costumed waiters playing characters like Dreadmina the Vampire or acting out the transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. Something spooky happens every ten minutes, so in the words of Cardi B, don’t get comfortable.
This Alphabet City haunt conjures an olden times hospital, back when doctors didn’t know medicine too good and you were more likely to come out much more addled than you went in. (R.I.P. “The Knick,” btw.) The menu is designed to look like a patient’s case file. Cocktails, like the “No Insurance” (too soon!) of vodka, elderflower, grapes, lime and orange elixir, are served on operating room trays, while shots come in syringes. Chandeliers meet surgical style lamps; classy meets creepy.
