The Statue of Liberty’s birthday, Oktoberfest, Open House New York, pumpkins, Halloween and more wait for your attention this October.

The Perelman Performing Arts Center has officially opened to the public, marking the final piece in the puzzle of the World Trade Center site.

Events this month include:

• An intimate “Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell” (October 5).
• 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition (October 14 and 15)
• Actress and creator of the “Red Table Talk” series Jada Pinkett Smith (October 16).

Photograph: Courtesy of TAO Group Hospitality

Magic Hour at the Moxy Times Square, 485 7th Ave, has pink theme’s right now it’s “Pink Pumpkin Patch.”

Until 10/15: The 61st The New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

Until 10/15: Hispanic Heritage Month. Look for parades, events, film festivals, and more.

Until 10/31: OctoberFest the Loreley Beer Garden, 7 Rivington Street (between Bowery and Chrystie) will be serving sausages and pretzels as well as German beer from liter steins and boots. On Sundays at 3 p.m., there’s a delicious free pig roast. There’s also a haunted beer garden starting on 10/18.

Until 11/1: If you want a spooky celebrations to be more festive and less frightening, Halloween House try the The Oculus, 185 Greenwich Street.

Photograph: Courtesy of Color Factory

Until, 11/1: The Color Factory has 14 immersive exhibits that engage all the senses in an exploration of the art and science of color. The museum works with local artists, designers and creatives to bring the designs to life. This Soho immersive art museum will present Haunted Hues, a Halloween-themed takeover.

Until 11/4: Blood Manor, haunted house’s 20th season at 359 Broadway. This year three new rooms, and brand-new costumes by designers from Abracadabra, Manhattan’s iconic Halloween store. Immersive experience, professional actors, set designers and makeup artists, with twisted characters and jumpscares at every turn.

Until 1/7/24: Manet/Degas, this exhibition examines one of the most significant artistic dialogues in modern art history: the close and sometimes tumultuous relationship between Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Born only two years apart, Manet (1832–1883) and Degas (1834–1917) were friends, rivals, and, at times, antagonists who worked to define modern painting in France. Through more than 150 paintings and works on paper.

10/3: Rooftop Cinema Club Midtown, 60 West 37th Street, will present Mean Girls, Rosemary’s Baby, Paranormal, The Exorcist, The Shining, American Psycho and other cult classics as well as Hocus Pocus and Halloween.

10/3 – 15: Off-Broadway Week a bi-annual event that offers 2-for-1 tickets.

10/4 – 11/11:”Dreams of Dracula: An Immersive Masquerade Experience” recreates the classic Dracula universe as a brand new vampire theatrical adventure. Head to Musica NYC, 637 West 50th Street. Two floors and six rooms across 25,000 square feet for a heady mix of immersive theater, dance and decadent masquerade.

10/4: 2023 Empire State Building Run-Up, where about 150 runners will get to race up the 1,576 stars to the 86th floor of the iconic building.

10/ 5 – 6: NYC pop-up “Love Me (Bar)Tender,” with Elvis-themed cocktails, music from Memphis bands and a photobooth. It’s sold out, but sign up here to get alerts.

10/6 – 8: The New Yorker Festival. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Misty Copeland and more. Live conversations, musical performances, and more, hosted by the magazine’s acclaimed writers and editors. The Festival brings together today’s most influential voices for a one-of-a-kind event in New York City.

10/6 – 8: The New York City Coffee Festival will return this fall for its seventh year with food, cocktails, live music, art, and more, including unlimited tastings. Metropolitan Pavilion.

10/9: Columbus Day Parade. The parade starts at Fifth Avenue on the corner 44th Street. It heads north up to 72nd Street (start: 11:30 AM, end: 3:00 PM).

10/12 – 15: The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival has 80-plus events that include more than 500 chefs from around the world. Tastings, classes, dinners, late-night parties, drag brunches and demonstrations. Across the boroughs. This year, The Cookout, will celebrate hip-hop’s 50th Anniversary.

10/12 – 15: New York Comic Con is back. Expect superhero galore at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Eleventh Ave.

10/17 – 31: Black Lagoon is a Halloween pop-up cocktail bar at Pretty Ricky’s (101 Rivington Street). The experience features a curated cocktail menu of eerie Halloween-themed drinks created by Ramage and Hayes, macabre dens festooned with frightfully fun decor.

10/20- 27: Open House New York Weekend Festival. Access the city’s main buildings for 3 days. All sorts of buildings can be visited, from the very historic to modern apartments or industrial buildings that are scattered all over the five boroughs. There will be tours, lectures, performances and events around the meaning of architecture and urban design. All the information about this cool event can be found here.

Photograph: Courtesy of the Balloon Museum

10/27: The Balloon Museum is officially set to take over Pier 36 at The Seaport in 80,000-square-foot space, and is scheduled to run through January 14, 2024. You can expect a 4,000-square-foot ball pit, inflatable lava lamps and the sorts of infinity rooms that you’ll itch to post about on Instagram.

10/31: The Village Halloween Parade where zombies, ghouls, witches, monsters, giant puppets and more take to the streets for a night of costumed revelry. The parade rolls out at 7pm. Sixth Ave becomes most congested with spectators between Bleeker and 14th Sts, so we suggest setting up camp at either the head (Spring to W Houston Sts) or tail (14th St to 16th St) of the parade.

10/31: The Annual Pumpkin Flotilla at Central Park. As is gets dark around 6:30 pm, carved pumpkins are released into the Harlem Meer and will be float around for 30 minutes. The spectacle draws hundreds of visitors to the northeast corner of Central Park.

Boo! It’s time to get your Halloween on with a sweet and sinfully delicious delight – Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey.

Spooky cocktails with rich flavors and bold tastes will have your festive spirit soaring this year. Try these phenomenal recipes to make the most of an incredible holiday.

Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martini

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ oz. Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
• ¾ oz. coffee liqueur
• ½ oz. pumpkin syrup
• 2 oz. espresso
• Dash of pumpkin spice

Directions:

• Combine 1 ¼ oz. Skrewball, ¾ oz. coffee liqueur, ½ oz. pumpkin syrup, 2 oz. espresso & a dash of

pumpkin spice into a shaker with ice.

• Shake vigorously.
• Strain into coupe glass.
• Sprinkle with pumpkin spice & drizzle with chocolate.

Pumpkin Hot Buttered Skrew

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
• ½ oz. pumpkin spice syrup
• 1 sugar cube
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 4 oz. hot water
• Star anise
• Cinnamon sugar

Directions:

• Add sugar, butter and hot water to mug and stir until dissolved.
• Add Skrewball, pumpkin spice syrup, star anise and stir.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Pumpkin Paradise

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ oz. Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
• ¾ oz. Zaya Gran Reserva Rum
• ½ oz. orange juice
• ½ oz. pineapple juice
• ½ oz. pumpkin cream of coconut mix*
• 3 pineapple top leaves
• Pumpkin spice

Directions:

• For the pumpkin cream of coconut, blend all ingredients to taste.
• To make the cocktail, shake all ingredients together in a shaker with ice and pour into cocktail glass.

• Garnish with three pineapple leaves and powdered pumpkin spice.

Pumpkin Cream of Coconut Mix Ingredients:

• 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
• 15 oz. can cream of coconut
• 2 dashes vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ¾ tsp. nutmeg
• 3 tbsp. sugar

Cover art by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

John Catsimatidis went from rags to riches to become the CEO of the Red Apple Group where he began his meteoric rise to billionaire status as the founder of the Gristedes supermarket chain in New York City.   As a child immigrant from very modest beginnings, he struggled to learn English.  He worked at a Sloan’s Supermarket without a pay check where he had to hustle for tips.  He went on to own one small grocery store and turned it into a sprawling empire. He has gone on to be wildly successful in other industries including real estate, energy, sports and media as the owner of WABC Radio in NYC. His book is How Far Do You Want To Go: Lessons from a Common-Sense Billionaire. If you ever dreamed of hitting the Lotto, dream on…or learn the blueprint from this book on how to get to the top…the very top.

Here are excerpts from the riveting, exclusive interview:

Eli Marcus: Tell us what life like was like growing up in West Harlem, John?

John Catsimatidis: Well, it was a mixed community. I was in West Harlem by City College.  I went to PS 192.  We had Irish.  We had Hispanics. Dominicans.  Blacks.  Italians.  Greeks.  We had almost everybody.  We all played together.  We all had a good time together.  There was no such thing as prejudice and there was no such thing as crime.  It was a great melting pot.

Eli Marcus: What inspired you to write this book and what are the main takeaways you wish for our audience to learn from reading it?

John Catsimatidis: I wanted my kids and grandkids someday to know where they came from.  I want them to have respect for their forefathers.   The other aspect is to help make a difference in young kids.  You know who is buying this book?  A lot of grandfathers.    A lot of grandmothers for their grandkids. A lot of fathers, mothers for their kids.  We are hoping that it will make a difference in these kids’ lives.   That was very important to me.  Someday if I have grandkids that they know where their origins are from.  I remember before my dad passed away that we sat down and wrote everything down. The 1860’s.  About his great grandfather, about his grandfather.  So it makes a difference.   We did a DNA test.  I’m 28% Italian. 60% Macedonian Greek.  6% Jewish.  The definition of my 6% Jewish is either one of my great grandmothers or great grandfathers was Jewish.  That’s what 6% means.

Eli Marcus: John, what do you believe are your secrets or not so secret principles that have enabled you to build not only a successful business empire but a very successful personal life as well?

John Catsimatidis: My parents taught me never to do anything to shame the family name.  My father worked two jobs to never have to go to his brothers to shame himself on asking his two brothers.  He worked Monday thru Friday as a busboy.  The reason he worked as a busboy is that he didn’t speak English properly.

Eli Marcus: What is your idea of common sense that you allude to in the subtitle of your book?

John Catsimatidis: How to do the right thing. It’s not about being a Democrat.  Not about being a Republican.  I was Bill Clinton Democrat.  I ran his campaigns in the New York area for quite a few years.  I started as a Democrat.  I helped run Jerry Nadler’s campaign for Borough President against David Dinkins.  Since my daughter married a Republican, we wanted to have peace around the Thanksgiving table.  When I ran for Mayor, I ran as a Republican liberal.

Eli Marcus: In the book, you say that you were insecure in public School.  It’s hard to believe that John Catsimatidis was insecure. 

John Catsimatidis: Well, with a name like Catsimatidis, there were not many Catsimatidis’s around.  People were always cutting their name short.  There is no such thing as a Pappas.  It used to be a bigger, longer name.  We never cut down our name.

Eli Marcus: What role does collaborating with others play in your life and do you have a prime example that comes to mind of a particularly mutually successful collaboration that stand out to you?

John Catsimatidis: I believe in communications.  I believe in talking.  Whether it’s Democrats or Republicans I believe that everybody, they should all sit down with each other.  We work very closely with other radio stations.  We’re syndicated in over 250 stations around the country. Our stream can be heard in 50 states, 173 countries.

Eli Marcus: Can you tell us what is the sink or swim theory you learned from your cousin in Greece when you visited there?

John Catsimatidis: I didn’t know how to swim. Forget about it.   I’m the kid from Harlem.    We didn’t have any swimming pools or go to the beaches much.  So we were on the dock on the island I was born.  We went there to spend two weeks.  My cousin taught me how to swim.  He threw me off the pier! What is the ole expression?  Sink or swim!

To listen to the entire interview on The Motivation Show podcast, click here:  https://open.spotify.com/show/3NVmTDAvGbzooN8TCW7tuN.

Oh, bring on the heat! We got to try the new amazing UBAH HOT Pizza at Serafina. And we can say with ease it will sizzle your senses and make you soar with delight! If you like sexy, saucy, and spicy all served up in one dish this pizza was made for you!

“Real Housewives of New York” star and founder of UBAH HOT, Ubah Hassan, teamed up with  Vittorio Assaf and  Fabio Granato of Serafina Restaurant Group to launch  this incredible dish. Using a superb habanero infused san marzano tomato sauce, fior di latte mozzarella, finely sliced habanero and basil julienne, this divinely constructed margherita pizza is the one you will have on speed dial for deliveries or on you go to for lunch breaks at all 13 of Serafina’s New York City locations.

“Embracing gluten with gratitude, because honestly, pizza’s the reigning champ of mood-lifting eats!” said Ubah Hassan. “Whether it’s a solo munch session or a party with pals, no matter the temperature, the pizza vibe is HOT. And those primo ingredients at Serafina’s? They’ve turned me into an even bigger fan.”

Every bite is lovely and the spice is just right. Sometimes with innovative dishes like this the heat can overwhelm. But, here the carefully constructed balance pleases your taste buds and your appetite all at once. It’s not heavy – just super tasty and makes for a perfect meal.

Serafina Restaurant Group is known for high-energy dining, where you could find boldface names dining under the eye-catching yellow awnings throughout the world. Founded by Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato in 1995, the collection of eateries started with Serafina Fabulous Pizza on the Upper East Side. Following the success, the duo expanded across Manthan and into a global presence including its sister brands, Farinella, Brasserie Cognac and Tokugawa.

This partnership is a natural fit as Hassan is longtime friends of Serafina Restaurant Group owners Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato. Channeling her zest for life Hassan also created a hot sauce company in 2021 to elevate her healthy diet with African flavor. To pay homage to UBAH HOT, Hassan worked with the Serafina team to create a tomato sauce that included habanero peppers to spice up its flavor. To tie in her passion for healthy eating Serafina crafts their pizza dough with Italian doppio zero flour or “00” flour which is similar to a sough dough. The dough rests for 72 hours which results in a much lighter, crispier and easier to digest pizza. 

“Fabio and I met Ubah several years ago when she first arrived in New York for her modeling career. We were both mesmerized by wonderful personality and contagious energy. We talked about her passion for food for hours and about her dream to develop a super spicy habanero sauce,” said co-founder Vittorio Assaf.

Visit serafinarestaurant.com to find out where to try UBAH HOT Pizza today!

In celebrating its 125th birthday, Pepsi is opening a unique pop-up restaurant for a limited time in NYC.

The Pepsi 125 Diner will open at a location in Midtown Manhattan TBA on October 19 and remain open until October 25. The secret entrance promises to be “instagram worthy.” The Pepsi themed American diner will serve timeless diner inspired dishes alongside a vast selection of Pepsi inspired offerings.

This fascinating immersive journey will have you traveling back in time through every era of Pepsi and get a glimpse into the future! A 3-course meal will consist of delectable diner classics with an innovative Pepsi twist. Specially crafted cocktails and mocktails will also be available. This experience states it goes beyond food and drink but brings together the connection between Pepsi and the world of pop music and culture through spectacular performances and rare memorabilia.

The diner is open to all ages with a duration time of approximately two hours. Ticket prices are set to start at $50, this will include appetizer, entree, dessert, and unlimited Pepsi soft drinks.

Tickets went on sale to the public and were snatched up ASAP, however there is a waitlist at feverup.com.