Happy pagan-derived fall solstice holiday that's been so stripped of meaning by the marketing machine its original meaning is today even more watered down than diner decaf. Thank the jolly Irish and their consuming copious quantities of distilled barley spirits for giving us Samhain (sow-win; Gaelic for "summer's end"), a time when they believed the dead would walk among us and guttersnipes would go door to door soliciting food, offering prayers for the dead in return—"souling," as it was called. Somehow, masquerades got into this mix, and the reciprocity went wayside in favor of filling the plastic pumpkin with Reeses and running off on a sugar high. Selfish darn kids.
But I digress. Being a java junkie who digs ghost stories, the thought of a haunted coffee house seemed about as good as it gets, and wouldn't you know it, I found just that. Despite the spooktastic strobe-lighted walk through it sets up in a storage closet, Bank Square Coffee House in Beacon, NY (about an hour north of Manhattan, and which I affectionately call Williamsburg North), doesn't need to do anything special to get in the spirit of the season: the place is apparently crawling with living impaired personalities. Even having been to Beacon and the cafe (formerly the Muddy Cup) numerous times, I had no idea about any of it until stumbling upon this video—though the historical factoid bomb drop helps the place's unusual floor plan and ramp towards the back room, make so much more sense. That, coupled with beans bought locally at Coffee Labs Roasters a dozen miles downriver in Sleepy Hollow country, makes a trip to Bank Square a Halloween season must.
But I digress. Being a java junkie who digs ghost stories, the thought of a haunted coffee house seemed about as good as it gets, and wouldn't you know it, I found just that. Despite the spooktastic strobe-lighted walk through it sets up in a storage closet, Bank Square Coffee House in Beacon, NY (about an hour north of Manhattan, and which I affectionately call Williamsburg North), doesn't need to do anything special to get in the spirit of the season: the place is apparently crawling with living impaired personalities. Even having been to Beacon and the cafe (formerly the Muddy Cup) numerous times, I had no idea about any of it until stumbling upon this video—though the historical factoid bomb drop helps the place's unusual floor plan and ramp towards the back room, make so much more sense. That, coupled with beans bought locally at Coffee Labs Roasters a dozen miles downriver in Sleepy Hollow country, makes a trip to Bank Square a Halloween season must.
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