Brooklyn is cool. Fine we get that. But how cool are real ghosts? Happy Halloween! In timely fashion, we just learned from the New York Times about the haunted Brooklyn Restaurant, Sweetwater.
An employee, Miguel Vargas came to work in 2006 and saw a middle-aged woman with gray hair, dressed in white like a wedding dress walking across the dining room. “I knew it was a ghost when I saw it. I said, ‘O.K., that’s it.’ And I walked away.” Mr. Vargas said.
Vargas wasn’t the only one who was freaked out. Several other employees at this Williamsburg restaurant have told tales of unexplainable occurrences including music turning on out of nowhere, flickering lights, and the feeling of being watched by an unseen presence.
Still not spooked? How about this? While the dining room floor was removed to reinforce support beams, workers found a statue of the Madonna and child, a gold ring, a pair of children’s shoes and bone fragments that the restaurant’s owner, Nina Brondmo, described as “probably from a small animal.”
The workers reburied the shoes and bones and put the statue on display behind the bar and a busboy took the ring. That did it. Wesley Ham, the manager mentioned that once this happened, glasses started shaking and cracking in people’s hands. Clearly, the ghosts were PISSED!
The identity of that ghost is widely thought to be Anna Smith, eldest daughter of Charles Szyjka, also known as Willie. Mr. Szyjka’s first wife, Katherine Rusyn, died while giving birth to Ms. Smith.
For many years, Ms. Smith was the only person who lived on the block where Sweetwater is today. The family begged her to leave Williamsburg, but she refused. In the late 1980s, she finally moved to a nursing home in Manhattan but spoke endlessly of returning to North Sixth Street. She died in 2003.
Two years later, Sweetwater opens and it seems like Ms. Smith is back!
Don’t believe us, check it out for yourself. If you’re not scared!
Happy Halloween!
@newyorkeventsco