The Swamp Restaurant celebrated Halloween with Eggo Waffle shots, flickering Christmas lights and a photo booth.
Five days after the premiere of the second season of “Stranger Things,” a Netflix original TV series, the restaurant and bar, located at 1642 W. University Ave., expected a full house at Tuesday’s themed Halloween party, said Amanda Ayoub, a marketing intern at The Swamp. Starting at 9 p.m., attendees paid $5 if they were over 21 and $10 if they were under to get into the restaurant. The first 250 received a free T-shirt with The Swamp’s name in the show’s opening credits font.
The restaurant hosts its Halloween party annually, and this year’s theme was picked in September because of the show’s popularity and spookiness, Ayoub said.
“The Swamp loves to do Halloween. We love decorating for events, especially for holidays,” she said. “We’re going all out with this theme.”
The restaurant’s first floor was strewn with flickering Christmas lights and “missing” fliers for Will Byers, a character from the show. There was also photo booth decorated with the alphabet and string lights, another reference to the show. The second floor was covered in cobwebs and blue lighting, made to look like the Upside Down, an alternate dimension introduced in the show.
The bar offered drink specials including an Eggo Waffle shot, a pumpkin spice buttery nipple, and the Upside Down Jell-O shot, a mix of blue raspberry and Jagermeister.
Kristina Macadangdang, a UF employee, dressed as the character Dustin and covered two of her front teeth in black to mimic the character’s toothless grin. The 27-year-old ate with friends and took pictures at the photo booth.
“It’s great being around other people who share the same interests in the show that we all love,” she said.
Connor Jenkins, a UF aerospace and mechanical engineering senior, did not show up in costume, but was excited for the event’s theme when he saw it on Facebook.
“It shows a lot about The Swamp as a restaurant that they’re really willing to take this opportunity with ‘Stranger Things’ and Halloween going on at the same time,” the 21-year-old said. “They really tap into the interests of a lot of people who come here.”
