Halloween Weekend in Brooklyn

This year I spent Halloween weekend with my friends Lisa and Summer in New York. I met Lisa on my trip to Thailand earlier this year and she lives in New York, so when I found $100 roundtrip flights from Orlando, I had to go. I’m not sure what it is about Halloween, but this is the third Halloween in a row I’ve spent out of town. Before New York it was Nashville, and before Nashville it was Fort Lauderdale, gotta keep things interesting I guess!

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Over the weekend we did every kind of Halloween celebrating you could think of! I arrived on Friday night, and headed to Yonkers for the You Are So Lucky “Blind Man’s Ball” at the W.B. Thompson Mansion. It was a huge party with people pouring out of all the rooms of the mansion, and the best part was that everyone there took their costume *very* seriously. It was a mixture of Halloween costumes and obscure masquerade ball attire. Every room was a different theme, there were different DJs in different rooms, jazz bands, and rooms filled with so much fog you couldn’t see what was in front of you. Each room was a new experience.

Saturday we woke up in Yonkers and got on a train headed for Brooklyn and went straight to Bergen Bagels for breakfast/lunch. We walked from the bagel shop to Lisa’s apartment where we all sat at the table and passed our bagels in a circle so we could each try everything we had ordered.

That night, Lisa dressed as Kat from Casper the Friendly Ghost, Summer as Khaleesi from Game of Thrones, and I dressed as a Buymore employee from the show Chuck. Please tell me you’ve seen Chuck, it was only the best show ever invented, and yes I’m still hurt over the finale in 2012. The three of us went to a dinner party in New Jersey that night before getting back onto a train and going back to New York. Naturally, with it being Halloween and all,  we went straight to a werewolf themed bar called the Slaughtered Lamb. We sat in a window and watched all the costumes and characters passing by before leaving and going to Whiskey Tavern. You have to go there. You just do. Trust me.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Chinatown for Dim Sum brunch. If you’re wondering what Dim Sum is, Wikipedia says, “Dim sum is a style of Chinese cuisine prepared as small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets or on small plate”. We went to a restaurant called The Golden Unicorn and they had a large, open dining room with shared seating and cool chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

We left The Golden Unicorn and went for bubble tea, Summer hadn’t ever had it, and it was there, so we went. It also rained all day Sunday so we mostly stayed inside. Later on we went to a haunted house that was fun. I wasn’t afraid though, which had me thinking back to Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks prior where I also wasn’t afraid, and that just led to deeper questions about what I am *actually* afraid of. Maybe somebody should make a haunted house that’s actually just a walk through of purchasing a home or something— yikes.

Monday Lisa went to work so Summer and I went to see the sites! We started at Tom’s Restaurant from Seinfeld where we obnoxiously stood in the street to take photos and ate breakfast while looking at the pictures on the wall of the Seinfeld cast. We went from there to Central Park where we walked around and visited the fountain from “Friends”. There, we also obnoxiously took a lot of photos. FYI the fountain is a lot smaller than you would imagine, and wasn’t particularly exciting, but we got lucky a somebody giving a tour was playing the “Friends” theme song. After that we went to the always chaotic Times Square, and from there we went to Little Italy where we started eating and didn’t stop. As soon as we walked up we came across a cannoli cart and obviously we got cannolis, they were ahh-mazing. After eating cannolis we had to get pasta so we scoped out menus outside of restaurants until we picked the one we wanted. Summer ordered Ravioli, and I ordered gnocchi. Yes I know that’s not pasta, but it’s still totally within the carb realm. We walked off our carbs straight into a cafe to split a piece of cheesecake and drink cappuccinos. The perfect best friend day? I think so.

When Lisa got off of work we met her back in Brooklyn at Roberta’s Pizza. We split pizzas and I ordered one from the special Halloween menu called the Millenium Falco. I’m still not sure in Millenium Falco was a typo, or some kind of pizza pun that went way over my head. That night we went to the rooftop of the Wythe Hotel to see the New York cityscape all lit up for the night.

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Tuesday was the last morning— so sad. Summer and I went to Smith Street Bagels because I needed a rainbow bagel. I don’t care what you say, I needed one. We both LOVED this bagel place. They were playing jazz music and the guy working had a thick New York accent and was thrilled to have us there for the first time. He said he knew he would see us back, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him we were leaving, so I didn’t. We rode the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty for free and then Summer had to leave. I however, had a few more hours, so I spent them at the Brooklyn Bridge Park and walked to Westville for lunch. I liked the atmosphere, the playlist, and the food. Win win win!

This was a long post, but it was an awesome few days and they deserved to be talked about. Later on I will post a more condensed, “listicle” if you will, detailing the sites we saw, the places we ate, and any quick money saving tips I have for you. If you knew what I was talking about when I said I dressed up as a Buymore employee for Halloween PLEASE let me know. The only guy who knew what I was talking about just wanted to argue with me about the show— UGH.