Nightlife in Bensonhurst

Dancers in shimmering gowns and tutus, tall hats, and sweeping silks—many crafted by costume designers at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre—leap, sway, and spin in front of dinner guests. They flow through choreography set to Top 40 hits, contemporary international pop, and Russian classical music, filling a Broadway-sized stage with movements that glow and cast dramatic shadows. Though the show changes frequently, it currently packs in its most popular dances from its 20-year run as a moving homage to what Rasputin Supper Club and Cabaret has been treating its patrons to throughout its history: a taste of royalty.

That doesn't stop at the edge of the stage. While the dancers frolic under a 15-foot projection screen, guests sit back under 30-foot ceilings at the center of a palatial, double-tiered club with an interior designed to reflect the opulence of the old Russian monarchies. On chairs draped in shimmering crimson, guests cluster around gold-clothed tables spread out across hardwood floors. Gilt railings and gates separate the public from performers and private diners, and columns glowing with blue and amber lights scare off swarms of lost noblemen. During meals, the space fills with aromas from the contemporary French and aristocratic Russian dishes that occupy a collection of menus. Often using local ingredients, chefs craft frequently changing dishes such as smoked-salmon rolls, pheasant julien, roasted potatoes and mushrooms, and linguine with red caviar, leaving guests in a state of supreme relaxation while the regal dining area continues to excite.

Silvery tendrils of smoke steeped with notes of mandarin, guava, and 16 other hookah flavors uncurl across La Boheme Lounge, where silverware jingles against plates of Italian-influenced dishes. Under the discerning eye of the owner—a professional music producer—DJs spin chill, ambient, lounge, and house music that serves as a rumbling sonic backdrop on two floors. Groups perch atop velvety, merlot-hued seats around low-topped black tables laden with espresso drinks and cocktails, or migrate to the private party room to admire the aquarium or rescue friends trapped by overly chatty fish.

You may stop and wonder where you are when you see the red ropes outside Vudu, an ex-Soho lounge that has reemerged in unlikely Upper East Side digs by nightclub icon Michael Bergos. Beyond the bouncers, red carpet, velvet ropes, and the larger life like metallic doors is a rare Uptown find.

When Sherri Shepherd, one of the leading ladies from ABC’s The View came to visit Times Scare NYC, she asked her husband, “Are you scared?” and he replied, “I’m not afraid of ghosts. They’re afraid of me.” One insane doctor and a felon armed with a chainsaw later, he had changed his tune. “If I run,” he said, “you run behind me.” Later, when interviewed by her friends on the View, she told them she had screamed so much, she lost her voice. Or perhaps New York City’s only year-round haunted house scared it away?

Time Scare is rumored to be legitimately haunted. In the 1920s, it was a crematorium. Today, more than just a few ghosts are rumored to linger in the labyrinthine house, in one of the macabre bars, and Crypt Café.

Even if there’s nothing sinister afoot, there’s something wonderfully menacing about the bar’s cocktails with names such as the Black Death and Dracula’s Kiss served in front of what looks like the cold-storage drawers in a morgue. In the café, diners suck the spicy-ketchup lifeblood from dishes such as Satan’s sliders and knife the Fire and Brimstone ravioli stuffed with crab, lobster, and black mushrooms.

Flowing with live music, libations, and good-spirited sports, Tobacco Road eschews the pretentions of club-hopping nightlife in favor of a convivial neighborhood-bar experience. Voted Best Dive Bar by the Village Voice, Tobacco Road’s weekly schedule runs the gamut of entertainment with nightly events for sports fans, blues and show-tunes devotees, and rampaging bachelorettes. Friday and Saturday nights, dueling pianos reign with the famed Shake Rattle & Roll showcase, a raucous all-request sing-along where classic hits such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Piano Man,” and Beethoven’s Symphony in C Major inspire revelrous toasts, games, and shot giveaways. A motley crew of bikini-clad barmaids and friendly clientele rounds out the colorful cast at the Midtown dive, which is located a leap-frog’s jump from the Port Authority.

Rihanna, Shania Twain, Mumford & Sons, and Elton John. That's not from the playlist of an indecisive radio DJ—it's from the song list at Radio Star Karaoke, which boasts more than 28,000 English and Spanish tunes. Visitors belt out melodies from nine private rooms, the biggest of which can fit up to 40 singers. Bolder singers exercise their pipes on the stage of the ultra-modern bar area, decked out with translucent plastic chairs illuminated by multicolored, club-style lighting. Dots of laser light flit across the entire space, framing wrap-around couches and flat-screen TVs. In the front hallway, a museum of vintage microphones and RCA Victor radios is on display to inspire singers. Fueling the festivities, which on some nights can last until 4 a.m., is a menu of spirited beverages and sharable appetizers that have all been stolen from Prince’s kitchen.