Apparently, the walking dead like a good nosh as much as the next New Yorker.
A group of Internet librarians compiled a list of the 10 most haunted spots around the Big Apple for Halloween, and found that ghosts are hanging out at some of the city’s most popular restaurants.
There’s the 6-foot-tall, 19th century female bouncer, Gallus Magg, who supposedly haunts the centuries-old Bridge Cafe in lower Manhattan.
Magg’s bizarre behavior – which included biting the ears off rowdy drunks, then keeping the body parts as grisly tokens – and afterlife commitment to her old stomping grounds impressed the crew at FindingDulcinea.com.
“I definitely thought the Bridge Cafe was the scariest. That’s slightly terrifying!” said Kate Davey, a writer for the Web site, which amassed the list by combing through articles and reading up on old anecdotes.
The team at FindingDulcinea – a new online research site – also added One if by Land, Two if by Sea, a restaurant on Barrow Street, to the list.
The tourist favorite harbors not one, but two spirits roaming the halls. The building was once owned by Aaron Burr – the vice president who infamously killed New York Post founder Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Burr supposedly pesters the staff, and the ghost of his daughter bothers ladies who lunch by pulling their earrings.
Not to be outdone, SoHo’s Manhattan Bistro also boasts a ghost, a young lady who was tossed down a well in 1800, possibly by her lover.
Prefer your phantoms more famous? The Chelsea Hotel is chock full of prominent dead people.
Dylan Thomas, Eugene O’Neill, and Thomas Wolfe supposedly have all been spotted at the West 23rd Street landmark – and Sid Vicious’ wandering spirit is said to hang out around the elevator.
Hawk Alfredson, a 47-year-old surrealist painter who lives at the hotel, attests to the Chelsea’s aura of mystery.
“When we first moved in six years ago, my wife and I, all our books and videotapes fell off shelves and my paintings fell – four to five at once,” he said. “There’s no way it could happen logically.”
The hotel has even grabbed the attention of in-your-face film auteur Abel Ferrara, who moved in six weeks ago to shoot a piece about the place. “There’s more than meets the eye here,” he said. “Believe me, I go to bed with my eyes open.”
Washington Square Park made the creepy catalog in tribute to its menacing past. The present-day student hangout used to have public hangings in the 1800s.
That wasn’t a complete surprise to some out in the gloomy weather yesterday.
“I get a bad vibe when I walk through the park. Sometimes, I just want to rush through,” said Molli Graffin, 22, an NYU student. “It’s the only place in New York I feel like that.”
Additional reporting by Julia Dahl and Matt Nestel