Ghosthunting New York City. L'Aura Hladik
about the pictures flying off the walls. When the woman returned from the restroom, the man said, “Honey, it’s true. This place does have ghosts.” She looked at him and at Joseph and said, “That would explain what just happened in the ladies’ room. I was combing my hair and looking in the mirror when I got the feeling someone was standing in back of me. It was so strong that I actually turned around to look.” Of course, no one was there, but the experience was unnerving enough that she skipped the rest of her primping and returned to her table.
Joseph told me that, on those rare occasions when he must venture up to the second floor, he says out loud when he gets to the top of the stairs, “Let me do what I have to do. I won’t bother you and you won’t bother me, and everything will be fine.”
Owner Adam Weprin has had two distinct experiences with the heavy footsteps. The first was when he was twenty-two years old and had been entrusted to lock up the restaurant for the night. He couldn’t resist inviting a couple of friends who lived nearby to have a beer with him. Around 11:30 P.M., they were enjoying their first beer; as Adam put it, “We were by no means drunk.” The restaurant was closed and the gate was locked, but the alarm was not set. When Adam and his friends heard footsteps on the third floor, they ran out of the restaurant, leaving the beers on the bar. Adam’s second encounter with the footsteps was on September 13, 2001, after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Adam and a rescue worker went to the Bridge Café, which was closed at the time, to gather food to donate to the rescuers. Adam said he could tell the worker accompanying him was tired and depressed, so to cheer her up, he offered her a glass of wine at the bar. They both needed the break before returning with the supplies to Ground Zero. Suddenly, they heard the footsteps on the third floor. The rescue worker looked at Adam and said, “I thought we were alone.” They grabbed the box of supplies and finished drinking the wine out in front of the restaurant.
I had the opportunity to speak with Adam via phone on April 16, 2010. He had just had another paranormal experience prior to my call. While in his office on the second floor, he heard a yawn coming from the changing room, which is also on the second floor. He went downstairs and asked the staff if anyone had recently been in the changing room, and Joseph confirmed that everyone had been downstairs the whole time. For Adam, this ranks high up among the many “Huh, that’s weird” moments he’s had at the Bridge Café. He hasn’t been scared since 2001, when he last heard the footsteps. He has reached a point of acceptance regarding these events that make one stop and wonder. He’s not frightened or upset by them anymore.
Adam told me about the time the Travel Channel sent a crew to the Café to film for one of their shows. The crew were there to highlight the restaurant for its menu and the age and history of the building; they knew nothing about the place being haunted, and Adam didn’t bring it up. “It was a hot August day,” Adam told me, “and there was no air moving at all. The producer asked if they could film on the second floor where the brothel once was, so I brought him and the cameraman up there. The upstairs was beyond hot, so we opened windows to get some air. It didn’t help, so the producer and I went to the roof to get what little air we could while the cameraman continued to film on the second floor. Minutes later, the cameraman came rushing up to find us on the roof. He was visibly shaken. He asked, ‘Is this place haunted?’ and wanted to know how the producer had whispered in his ear and disappeared so quickly.” Adam explained to me that the cameraman was six feet five inches tall, while the producer was much shorter in stature, so the only way the producer could have whispered into the cameraman’s ear would have been with the aid of a stepladder. Adam confessed to the cameraman that “certain things happen here,” and the cameraman told the rest of his story. While alone on the second floor, he’d heard a whisper in his ear. He looked around but didn’t see anyone and dismissed it. Then he heard it again, louder. He couldn’t discern what was being said, only that it was a man’s voice, so he assumed it was his producer talking to him. When he looked around again and still saw no one there, he became terrified and ran to find the others on the roof. Adam said that even though he could sympathize with the cameraman’s fright, it was still a bit comical given that the man could have been a linebacker for any team in the NFL.
On another occasion, Adam locked up the restaurant around 3:30 A.M. When the cook and staff arrived about four hours later to prepare for the Sunday brunch crowd, they found a mess. The container that holds the base for the Café’s signature pineapple martini had been emptied all over the bar. Several liquor bottles had been broken, also, including one of Grand Marnier. The workers laughed and cleaned up the mess, thinking their boss must have had a wild party the night before. When Adam arrived later that day, his cook was still giggling. “What’s so funny?” Adam asked him. The cook explained the mess the crew had found that morning, and he asked Adam if he was still hung over from his party. Adam assured him that there had been no party. The cook stopped giggling.
I have to add here that everything I’ve written in this chapter about my telephone conversation with Adam is from memory. When I conduct interviews by telephone, I always record them using a digital device that plugs into the phone. However, when I interviewed Adam, only my side of the conversation was recorded. During our conversation I’d had the feeling that something was wrong; in fact, I checked the recorder twice to make sure it was working. It appeared to be functioning properly; the “REC” indicator was flashing, and the clock counter that displays the recording time was advancing. There was plenty of battery power, too. But when I went to transfer the file from the device to my computer, I found that only my voice had been recorded. It seems the ghosts of the Bridge Café had something to say about my interviewing Adam; I don’t know what their objection was, as they didn’t leave an EVP. It’s especially puzzling because I’ve recorded countless interviews with this device and had no other problems—except for my interview with Joseph, the executive chef. His recording had an annoying buzz in the background, but I attributed that to his cell phone.
According to the Bridge Café’s Web site, the Eastern Paranormal Investigation Center (EPIC) conducted a formal investigation at the restaurant in August 2007. In a video clip from News 4 New York, Laura Pennace of EPIC states that she captured an EVP of a woman whispering, “I’m here.” Adam told me EPIC has investigated the restaurant twice, and although they captured the EVP and some bizarre temperature readings, they concluded the place was not haunted. I think that conclusion was highly conservative, especially after what happened to my phone interview.
Chef Joseph is inclined to believe the Bridge Café is haunted, even if the activity is not a daily occurrence. “It’s happened enough to where I can’t ignore it, even though I don’t understand it,” he explained. Adam describes himself as basically “paranormally well adjusted,” and most patrons are clueless unless they’ve read about it on the Bridge Café Web site.
It’s definitely worth a trip to the Bridge Café to see if the ghost of Gallus Mag, the bouncer who kept rowdy patrons’ ears, is on the rampage. Maybe you’ll feel a pinch or tug on your ear. Perhaps a picture will levitate or simply fly off the wall before it smashes on the floor. Have your digital audio recorder ready to capture an EVP of the heavy footsteps, if the sound level in the bar permits. While you’re waiting for that, wash down one of the Bridge Café’s famous soft-shell crab sandwiches with a pineapple martini.
CHAPTER 2
Brooklyn Inn
THE BROOKLYN INN is a tasteful and cozy bar nestled on the corner of Hoyt and Bergen Streets in Brooklyn. The building dates back to the late nineteenth century. In 1957, its owners received a Certificate of Occupancy for a bar and restaurant on the first floor along with one apartment on each of the two upper floors. When the bar changed ownership again in May 2007, rumors spread on various blogs that the Brooklyn Inn would soon close down or, worse, become a bistro. Jason Furlani, manager of the Brooklyn Inn, set the record straight in a blog response, and thankfully this bar, a place of refuge for many loyal patrons, is still in operation. In 2008, the building was seen on the CW Network show Gossip Girl in an episode which appeared to mirror the events surrounding the change of ownership in 2007.
This is a bar, plain and simple. The former