As Halloween creeps closer, GW students’ favorite bars and hangout spots are trading pumpkin spice for potions, transforming into eerie escapes filled with cobwebs, costumes and cocktails.

Across the District, business owners are turning their spaces into haunted hangouts to draw in college students and young adults eager to celebrate in spooky style. Bar managers say they’re rolling out themed drinks and dishes, decking out their spaces with Halloween decor and bringing on extra security to handle the crowds — all to welcome the wave of revelers who give business a boost this time of year.

Angela Camara, bar manager at Salazar, a taco and tequila bar on 14th Street, said the restaurant has been booking large Halloween parties for months. She said staff plan to swap their uniforms for costumes over Halloween weekend and while the decor stays minimal, the lighting and energy make the space feel perfectly eerie.

Camara said the bar typically plans their Halloween specials up to two months in advance to prepare to coordinate among management, staff, mixologists and the marketing team. The prep pays off, Camara said, as the 14th Street bar packs out on Halloween weekend, buzzing with college students from nearby Howard University and others from GW, Georgetown, American and Catholic universities.

Camara said every detail matters to make the weekend run smoothly, from booking DJs to making sure special drinks like a “Nightmare Fuel” shot taste just right.

“We increase our staffing as well,” Camara said. “We have a lot of bartenders that come in that day, and then we also have more security come in as well, so everyone has a safe and fun time.” 

Chicken and Whiskey, a South American restaurant located on both 14th Street and in the Navy Yard, is hosting Cocktails and Screams, which is their “Spookeasy” all month, attempting to lure customers to experience their transformed space. Marketing Manager Lexi McClure said planning starts early on for the holiday, usually at the beginning of the summer, which proves to be beneficial when there’s a line of eager college students and young adults out the door until 3 a.m.

McClure said the restaurant’s recent redesign — complete with gold-framed mirrors and chandeliers — inspired this year’s haunted mansion theme. She said the eerie decor and seasonal specials draw big crowds, and this year, the team even partnered with local influencers like Austin Dickson and Jessica Nguyen, who run Instagram accounts savorydc and joyraftdc, respectively, to help spread the word.

“Every year we go all out,” McClure said. “I mean every single thing that you can think of like headless horsemen or scary clowns.”

The restaurant’s speakeasy transforms what staff dubs a “Spookeasy” through a hidden freezer door, where decorations and lights set the stage for Halloween nights. The “Spookeasy” features live DJs, special events, giveaways and specials including specialty drinks “Toxic Toki,” “Poison Apple,” “Mini-Witches Cauldron” and “Syringe Shots,” all to take advantage of the season and get business, McClure said. 

“We get a lot of American students, of course, Catholic, some people trickle in from UMD or from Virginia, that area,” McClure said. “But our biggest clientele, I would say, is GW, which we’re so grateful for.”

“It’s a popular spot among GW students but also American, Howard and Catholic,” McClure said. “The turnout is amazing for our small business, especially on both the bar side and the chicken side.”

McClure said the holiday is not celebrated amongst customers for just one weekend but all month long. Since the “Spookeasy” first opened eight years ago, she said customers have shown up in witch hats and costumes, eager to soak in the restaurant’s ghostly atmosphere.

“It’s great for us as a small business, to see on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, people coming in right there, and they have to take pictures of the decor,” McClure said.

At Swingers in Dupont Circle, a mini golf venue and bar, General Manager Erik Bolme said the spot — which includes an arcade serving street food and craft cocktails — is kicking off the Halloween season with a weeklong spooky-themed celebration extending from last Monday to next Sunday. Bolme said the Swingers team has transformed the space with Halloween-themed mini golf holes, including one designed like a graveyard and another set in a zombie apocalypse.

Throughout the week, Swingers will offer Halloween-themed cocktails including the “Smoked Lantern,” “Beetlejuice” and “Blackberry Hex.” 

“The products that we want to offer and put forward as being premium products as well go through essentially an internal process of how those drinks are chosen based on those criteria,” Bolme said.

Bolme said Swingers will also be participating in the annual “Nightmare on M Street” pub crawl this year, providing access to multiple venues in the Dupont Circle area that students can visit for discounted drinks and Halloween spirit. 

“We want to do something that’s fun, that has a proper theme, that brings really some good, premium quality products to the to the forefront,” Bolme said.

On U Street, Whitlow’s General Manager Brendan Simmons said his love for the holiday influenced staff to start planning festivities — including creative cocktails, live music and a costume contest — in July. He said their “Nightmare on U Street” Halloween event, a nod to the “Nightmare on M Street” Halloween festivities that were popular in Georgetown years ago, will take place on Halloween night from 9 p.m. to closing at 2 a.m. 

“I was hoping that they brought back some old memories of what Georgetown used to be,” Simmons said.

Simmons said Whitlows is holding a costume contest with a $500 cash prize to the best-dressed guest, an event he has not seen anywhere else in the District. He said the spot is popular with college students because of the amount of nearby universities, especially within such a small area. 

“D.C. is as much a college town as it is a political city, in my opinion,” Simmons said.

He said “BOO-zy” drinks, invented by one of the bar’s mixologists, Alex, will be served throughout the night including cocktails named “Kick in the Glass,” “Red Night” and “Purple Rain.” Simmons said staff will also be dressed up in costumes of their choosing across Whitlow’s three floors, adding to the Halloween spirit that radiates throughout the bar through decorations. 

“I have the entire restaurant decorated now for Halloween,” Simmons said. “We have lights on the outside of the building that turn into Halloween colors. People seem to really enjoy it, and it’s a safe spot for everyone to come in and have a good time.”