You’ll Be Dying to Get Into Haunted Brunch, a Spooky Séance, and Halloween Tea

While seated in front of a plate of black Belgian waffles with fried chicken and a bloody Mary in a skull-shaped glass, a cheerleader runs frantically up to your table. Behind her, a skulking figure in a black cloak emerges, hoisting a blade above his head. The two engage in pursuit around the room in a chase that culminates with the cheerleader mounting a spinning hoop and performing an act of dance and acrobatics — until the hooded figure captures her and drags her body off the apparatus and out of view. That’s just one of the acts that diners can expect during Haunted Brunch, a new show taking place on Sunday mornings at Nightmare Cafe in the Las Vegas Arts District.

Janna Karel

Located next to the Nightmare Toys store, Nightmare Cafe serves sandwiches, bar fare, and cocktails — most with fun names that play on horror franchises. Pre-pandemic, Devon Alarid produced burlesque shows. But the owners at Nightmare wanted something family-friendly for the brunch crowd. And so Haunted Brunch was born — a one-hour spectacle that combines waffles and avocado toast with dance, comedy, classic horror homages, a few jumpscares, and a healthy dose of audience interaction.

Haunted Brunch

Tickets start at $49 for the show and an entree like that of the Blaire Waffle Project with fried chicken and hot honey, the Avotopsy avocado toast with a fried egg, or Voodoo Chicken Strips. Drink packages come with bottomless mimosas or Bloody Carries. Throughout the show, performers take to the stage for a dance number performed by the twins from The Shining, a sultry dance between Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair, a roving Ghostbuster who dispenses shots from his Proton pack, and a crowd-pleasing conga line to a Beetlejuice-themed rendition of “Jump in the Line.” The show starts at 11 a.m. every Sunday morning at Nightmare Cafe at 1307 South Commerce Street and tickets can be purchased online.

A Seance With Many Spirits

The Lost Spirits Distillery Tour is nearly mysterious enough to qualify has a Halloween-style experience by itself. The rum distillery at Area15 comprises a sprawling footprint of stills, stages, mechanical sealife puppets, and themed rooms. Lost Spirits debuted the Séance Room in March and it’s positively frightening. The spectacle begins with a few openers to set the mood. A ghostly figure — the kind with a white sheet over her head — performs a burlesque routine. A magician performs close-up sleight of hand. Then ticketholders are ushered into the seance room and offered a small snifter of rum and a welcome cocktail. The stage doubles as a table, around which a small audience gathers for the seance.

Your medium begins with a show of clairvoyance, in which he draws slips of paper from a fishbowl, upon which audience members have scrawled their secrets. One-by-one, he divines what is written within each folded slip. Then he introduces a creepy old doll made with human hair — and the show goes off the rails from there. And it’s up to the voyeurs seated around the table to commune with spirits — of both the alcoholic and the supernatural variety. It is in a distillery, after all. Tickets for The Séance Room At Lost Spirits Distillery at 3202 West Desert Inn Road start at $89 and can be purchased online.

Tea Time At Halloween Emporium

The Halloween Emporium and Haunted Tea Room is a veritable candy shop for Halloween enthusiasts. Wander through aisles of animatronic Halloween decorations, creepy props, horror movie merchandise and clothing, and coffee and tea. The store carries coffee, tea, and hot chocolate brands like Bones Coffee, Coffee Shop of Horrors, and Adagio tea and you can order a hot cuppa to sip while you browse through the shop. The Halloween Emporium and Haunted Tea Room is open 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.