Nightlife in Floral Park

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.

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.

Selected by Nightclub & Bar magazine as the Nightclub of the Year in 2011 and designated a city landmark in 2008, Webster Hall's four floors hold more than 125 years of history, from the Grand Ballroom to the Balcony Lounge. The building’s iconic framework has hosted such major acts as Prince and Mick Jagger, and served as a speakeasy, a lecture hall, and a mentor to troubled teenage buildings since its construction in 1886.