For more than 100 years, New York’s elite have wined and dined under the Plaza’s gilded palms. Listen for faint laughter and tiny footsteps while you’re enjoying your barrel-aged smoked Sazarac, it might be the two ghost children that are said to haunt the Palm Court. The Plaza is filled with spirits, so beware if you feel a cold breeze: It could be the socialite who roams the halls after a financial scandal did her in or the phantom party where F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald are rumored to eternally sip Champagne. 

If you’re a fan of great literature, then you’ll want to meet the ghosts of the Algonquin Hotel. In the 1920s, the Algonquin’s Round Table was the meeting place for Dorothy Parker, The New Yorker founder Harold Ross, theater critic Alexander Woolcott, and more. It is said that Dorothy Parker’s ghost still roams the hallways. The Algonquin is also home to Hamlet the resident cat (the hotel is on its eighth Hamlet). You can pay homage to both Parker and Hamlet with cocktails named after them at the hotel’s Blue Bar.

The first thing you’ll notice on the Waverly Inn’s menu is a review of its fare by one Donald J. Trump: ” “Waverly Inn – worst food in city.” The second thing you might notice is the ghost who resides in room 16 – the only room that survived a fire in 1997 that destroyed most of the original inn. The inn, built in 1844 and used as a bordello, has had many strange occurrences like phantom footsteps and doors opening and closing. Witness for yourself over a chicken pot pie and a pint.

No haunted bar list is complete without a mention of the Beetlejuice bar – a tribute to the “ghost with the most.” Featuring everyone’s favorite bio-exorcist, it’s a year-round homage to all things creepy and ghostly. Enjoy spooky cocktails such as the Headless Horseman, the Bio-Exorcism, and This is Halloween.

Originally a speakeasy owned by mobster Lucky Luciano, KGB Bar opened in 1993 as a Communist-themed bar and literary hangout. The bar (which has its own literary review) hosts free readings, live music in its Red Room, and shadowy figures that appear in the bar’s mirror late at night. 

Established in 1762, Fraunces Tavern is most famous as the site where George Washington allegedly gathered a group of officers in 1783 to thank them for their service during the American Revolution. The tavern has many rooms, but Lafayette’s Hideout Bar and the Dingle Whiskey Bar are the most convivial for drinks — and to see apparitions, like the ghosts of the husband who killed his wife and then himself at the tavern in the 1790s. The tavern hosts haunted tours from time to time and the second floor holds a history museum, complete with George Washington’s tooth.

People have been slinging ales at the White Horse Tavern since 1880, making it the city’s second oldest bar. When it opened, it attracted dockworkers who toiled on the Hudson River. In the 1950s, it became a prime spot for writers, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and Norman Mailer. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was said to love the place so much, he haunts the bar. Maybe he’s attracted to the original woodwork and tin ceiling. A historical landmark, the White Horse is a stop on many NYC ghost tours.