Halloween Bars & Restaurants in NYC (2026)
Places doing Halloween in New York this year: the month-long pop-ups, the decorated rooms, and the bars that are Halloween every night, plus the parade and the weekend parties.
New York does Halloween in two ways. For most of October, a handful of bars turn themselves into haunted houses: full cocktail takeovers with new menus, decorated rooms with animatronics and cobwebs, and beer gardens full of pumpkins. Then on the weekend of the 31st, which falls on a Saturday this year, the whole city goes out in costume.
This guide covers both. The first three sections are the 22 bars and restaurants on our map, all checked in early October 2026: the 2026 pop-ups, the places decorated for the season, and the bars that are Halloween every night of the year. After that come the Village Halloween Parade and the parties worth planning around on Halloween weekend. If you want the decor and the themed drinks, go early in the month. If you want the costume-party energy, go on the 30th or the 31st and expect lines.
NYC Halloween bars at a glance
Best pop-up: Black Lagoon at Someday Bar in Boerum Hill, or The Haunting at The Cabinet in the East Village if you want to stay in Manhattan.
Best decorated room: Oscar Wilde in NoMad, with Lillie's Union Square close behind.
Best year-round: Beetle House for a dinner show, Flying Fox Tavern for a pub night, Witching Hour for cocktails.
Best with kids: Greg's Great Pumpkin Patch at Greenwood Park, Planet Hollywood's Haunted Hollywood menu, or Flying Fox's family costume party on October 24.
Best for a group: Loreley's Haunted Beer Garden, no cover, open till 4am on weekends.
When to go: the pop-ups run October 1 through November 1. Weeknights in the first half of the month are the easiest time to actually get a table.
Halloween night: Saturday, October 31. The Village Halloween Parade steps off at 7pm on 6th Avenue.
Halloween Pop-Up Bars in NYC (2026)
These are the bars that rebuild themselves for the season: new menus, new decor, sometimes a new name on the door. Two national pop-ups landed in New York this year. Black Lagoon is back at Someday Bar in Brooklyn, and The Haunting, the first Halloween project from the team behind the Miracle Christmas bars, opened at The Cabinet in the East Village and at Vacations in Bushwick. Loreley and Magic Hour do their own in-house versions, and Desert 5 Spot runs a ticketed takeover on Halloween weekend. Most of these run October 1 through November 1 and most are walk-in, but the Manhattan Haunting takes reservations and you should use them.
The Cabinet Mezcal Bar
649 E 9th St, New York, NY 10009, USA
The Haunting on 9th Street, the first Halloween pop-up from the team behind the Miracle Christmas bars, with The Cabinet as its flagship. Haunted-house decor and drinks like the Poison Apple and the Liquid Lobotomy, plus a few spirit-free options. Runs October 1 to November 2 and books up on Resy, so reserve.
Someday Bar NYC
364 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA
Black Lagoon takes over this Boerum Hill bar from October 1 to November 1 with coffins, gravestones, horror movies on the walls and a goth cocktail menu (this year's Bone Temple is tequila, tart cherry and absinthe). Walk-ins are fine, groups of six or more should book, and the regular food menu stays on.
Vacations BK
48 Cypress Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237, USA
The Brooklyn edition of The Haunting, set up in the Lunker Lounge inside this Bushwick bar from October 2 to 31. Same spooky cocktails as the East Village location but walk-in only and open till 4am on weekends, so it's the easier one to get into.
Loreley Beer Garden
7 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002, USA
The Lower East Side beer garden rolls Oktoberfest straight into its Haunted Beer Garden from October 16 to November 1: cobwebs and corpses in the yard, staff in costume, pumpkin kegs, Magic Potion Margaritas and a Bloody IV-Bag cocktail. The free costume party on Halloween night is one of the biggest in the neighborhood.
Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge
485 7th Ave 18th floor, New York, NY 10018, USA
Dark Magic Hour turns the Moxy Times Square's huge rooftop into a spell-gone-wrong for all of October, with Halloween cocktails, themed desserts and the Wishing Willow installation. Touristy and loud, but it's the biggest Halloween setup in Midtown and the views don't hurt.
Desert 5 Spot
94 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249, USA
The Western-themed Williamsburg bar throws a ticketed Halloween takeover every year (last year was the Vampire Saloon). This year's edition is confirmed for Halloween weekend, so check their Instagram for the theme and tickets, and expect line dancing in costume.
NYC Bars and Restaurants Decorated for Halloween
These places keep their normal menus and just go completely overboard on the decorations. Oscar Wilde and the two Lillie's locations are the big Victorian rooms everyone photographs. Planet Hollywood and The Mean Fiddler are the Times Square picks, and the easiest if you have kids or a show to get to. Greenwood Park is the one to bring a family to on a weekend afternoon, and Madame X and Fraunces Tavern are here for their October programming rather than decorations alone.
Oscar Wilde
45 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001, USA
The most over-the-top Halloween room in the city. Life-size animatronics and cobwebs layered over an already maximalist Victorian bar in NoMad, with a new theme every year. It gets slammed in October, so book a table or go on a weeknight.
Lillie's Victorian Establishment
13 E 17th St, New York, NY 10003, USA
The Union Square Lillie's goes full Halloween circus this year, with clowns and jack-in-the-boxes over the marble and carved wood. Seasonal cocktails and a Halloween high tea come with it. It's a big room, so it handles groups.
Lillie's Victorian Establishment
249 W 49th St, New York, NY 10019, USA
The Times Square Lillie's is decorated for Halloween too, skewing more Victorian haunted mansion than circus. Handy before or after a Broadway show, and quieter than the Union Square location on weekends.
Planet Hollywood New York
136 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036, USA
Haunted Hollywood runs through November 1 with a Halloween menu of spooky dishes, themed desserts, shakes, cocktails and mocktails. The most kid-friendly Halloween dinner in Times Square, and the one to pick if you're with people who want to eat a real meal rather than drink.
The Mean Fiddler
266 W 47th St, New York, NY 10036, USA
Irish pub off Times Square that decorates for the season and brings back its Bottomless Boos brunch, 90 minutes of bottomless Halloween drinks with an entree on weekends. Not subtle, but a fun pregame if you're in Midtown.
Greenwood Park
555 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USA
South Slope beer garden a block from Green-Wood Cemetery, hosting Greg's Great Pumpkin Patch from September 25 to October 31: pumpkins, hay bales, pumpkin painting and photo ops. Free to walk in, and the only pick on this list that works for a family afternoon.
Madame X
94 W Houston St, New York, NY 10012, USA
Red-velvet vampire-bordello lounge on Houston with a Halloween-heavy October calendar: a no-mask-no-entry masquerade, Halloween burlesque and a Rocky Horror double feature. Dark year-round, darker in October.
Fraunces Tavern
54 Pearl St, New York, NY 10004, USA
The Revolutionary-era tavern in the Financial District leans into its ghost stories every October. The museum upstairs runs a candlelit Living History After Dark night on Friday the 30th, and the whiskey bar downstairs is a good moody dinner before it.
Halloween Every Day: NYC's Year-Round Spooky Bars
If you miss October, or you want the Halloween bar without the Halloween crowd, these eight are themed all year. Beetle House is the restaurant where it's always Halloween, with a dinner show four nights a week. Flying Fox in Ridgewood, Witching Hour in Bushwick and Lucky 13 in Gowanus are the Brooklyn and Queens bars that lean horror, occult and metal respectively, and all three add real October programming on top. Paradise Lost, The Headless Widow and Duff's are the Manhattan and Williamsburg options, and House of Wax is the strangest room on the list, a bar inside a movie theater surrounded by nineteenth-century wax anatomy.
Beetle House
308 E 6th St, New York, NY 10003, USA
The East Village restaurant where every day is Halloween: in-character servers, a three-course prix fixe and a show for $65, Thursday to Sunday from 4pm. If you just want the themed cocktails, the bar and patio are free to walk into for anyone 21 and over.
the Flying Fox Tavern
6-78 Woodward Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385, USA
Horror-themed pub in Ridgewood with neon bats, coffin-print wallpaper and vampire-named cocktails, plus real pub food and weekend brunch. October adds a month-long costume contest, horror trivia, a family costume party on the 24th and an Every Day Is Halloween party on the 31st. Worth the trip to Queens.
Witching Hour
1312 Decatur St, Brooklyn, NY 11207, USA
Occult cocktail bar in Bushwick with bramble around the door, tarot-illustrated menus and $13 potions. Tarot readings most nights, a pre-Halloween party on Friday the 30th and the Halloween party on the 31st, both from 8pm and both free.
Lucky 13 Saloon
644 Sackett St, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA
Heavy-metal go-go bar in Gowanus with a coffin hanging from the ceiling and horror movies on every screen, open till 4am every night. October brings a Halloween metal matinee, dark NYC trivia and a Halloween-night party. The least polished and most fun room on this list.
Paradise Lost
100 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA
Tiki bar as tropical hellscape in the East Village, with an altar, a taxidermied bat head and drinks that arrive smoking. Walk-in only, groups of eight max, and there's a party on Halloween night.
The Headless Widow
99 1st Ave, New York, NY 10003, USA
Candlelit, 30-seat gothic Victorian cocktail bar on 1st Avenue with no sign outside and a small kitchen. The spooky date-night pick on this list, and it takes reservations, which almost nothing else here does.
Duff's
168 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211, USA
Williamsburg metal dive decorated with an electric chair, a coffin bench, a human-sized cage and a Cadillac hearse, and it's like this in July too. Cheap drinks, loud music, no costumes required.
House of Wax
445 Albee Square W #4410, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
Bar inside the Downtown Brooklyn Alamo Drafthouse surrounded by more than a hundred 19th-century anatomical wax models and death masks. You don't need a movie ticket to drink here, and Alamo's horror programming runs all October.
Village Halloween Parade 2026: Where to Watch and Where to Go After
The 53rd Village Halloween Parade is Saturday, October 31, 2026, stepping off at 7pm and running until around 11pm. It goes straight up 6th Avenue from King Street to West 15th Street, and this year's theme is "Body & Soul," with Day of the Dead style skeleton puppets. Marching is free and needs no registration, but you have to be in costume. Line up at Canal Street and 6th Avenue between 6:30 and 9pm, entering from the east or south. Paid options run from $125 to skip the lineup to $450 for a VIP seat.
Watching is free from either side of 6th Avenue. The stretch from Bleecker to 14th Street is the most crowded, so the King Street end and the blocks around 14th and 15th are easier. Take the B, D, F or Q to West 4th or 14th Street, or the 1, 2 or 3 to Houston, Christopher Street or 14th. Don't drive. Cell service gets spotty, so set a meeting point.
From the map above, Madame X on West Houston is the closest Halloween bar to the route, a block east of 6th Avenue. The Headless Widow, Paradise Lost and Beetle House are all in the East Village, a 15-minute walk from the parade's southern end, and The Cabinet's Haunting pop-up is a few blocks further east. If you'd rather eat before, restaurants on MacDougal, Bleecker and Carmine fill up on parade night, so book before 6pm or plan to eat after. The official afterparty is the Vampire Ball at Industry City in Sunset Park, below.
Halloween Weekend 2026 Parties in NYC
Halloween weekend in New York is really three nights: Thursday the 29th, Mischief Night on Friday the 30th, and Halloween itself on Saturday. These are the parties with 2026 dates confirmed as of early October. Most are ticketed on Dice, Shotgun or Eventbrite and the big ones sell out, so buy ahead. Bars from the map with their own Halloween-night parties: Loreley (free costume party with a DJ), Witching Hour (parties on the 30th and 31st), Flying Fox (Every Day Is Halloween party on the 31st), Lucky 13 and Paradise Lost.
- Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24: City of Gods Halloween Festival at Industry City, Sunset Park. House of Yes and ZERO, costumes required, multiple stages.
- Thursday, October 29: Gaydar Halloween at House of Yes in Bushwick, with a midnight costume contest. Out & Abt Halloween Edition at Elsewhere.
- Friday, October 30: Nebula's costume contest with cash prizes in Times Square, and the Stories Bar Halloween party in Astoria.
- Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31: The Vampire Ball, the official parade afterparty, at Industry City, 9pm to 5am, 21 and over, tickets on Dice only. Dirty Circus Halloween and House of Hallucinations at House of Yes. CircoLoco at Brooklyn Storehouse in the Navy Yard, the venue's final weekend before it closes.
- Saturday, October 31: Le Bal Noir masquerade at Maison Madison in Battery Park City from 9pm. Robert Glasper's Halloween show at the Blue Note, a block from the parade. Elsewhere's Halloween party in Bushwick. The Dope Jams Halloween Ball at Public Records in Gowanus. e's BAR's Halloween party on the Upper West Side.
- Saturday and Sunday, October 31 and November 1: Ophelia Lounge's rooftop masquerade in Midtown East, two nights only.
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