'Squid Games' pop-up, Luna Park and Raleigh: Getaways to take this weekend
The historic Cyclone roller coaster in Coney Island is part of the LUNA Park Amusement area. Credit: Todd Maisel
Late November is for Coney, Carolina and Korea.
A few hours: Freeze your Coney Island off
Really, there’s nothing like Luna Park when conditions are frigid — as of Nov. 23 that is, which makes opening day of the park’s second annual Frost Fest, open weekends through Jan. 1. Not only will Santa go full Coney with an on-premises workshop, not only will there be a holiday market and frostproof heated igloos for rent, some rides will actually be open too, including the iconic Cyclone, thus guaranteeing that your thrills will come with plenty of chills (free; fee for rides, igloos).
A whole day: A game of squids in Koreatown
'Squid Game: The Experience' in Manhattan features the 'Red Light, Green Light' game with the large robotic doll, Young-hee. Credit: Netflix
With the second season of "Squid Game" not dropping until late December, bone up on the Netflix megahit in the meantime with the "Squid Game Experience" in midtown Manhattan, an immersive activity in which players compete in a series of high-stakes challenges very much like the show (Tickets start at $29). The adventure unfolds, appropriately, not far from West 32nd St.’s K-town, easily a daylong adventure in itself. Indulge in Korean "school food" at Food Gallery 32, a tiny food hall that somehow accommodates a dozen vendors, peruse the stalls at Koryo Books, a decades-old shop whose name gives little hint that it’s the city’s premier spot for buying K-pop albums and merchandise (although don’t miss the tea room upstairs), and share one of the divine Basque cheesecakes at Grace Street. At dinnertime, you won’t be able to enjoy high-class Korean barbecue on a high floor at Gaonnuri until December (the entire building is without electricity due to a flood), but that just means it’ll be harder to get into Antoya BBQ, another superlative spot. End your K-day with — what else?— karaoke just across the street at 32 Karaoke, whose extensive Asian music catalog also includes 20,000 English and 10,000 Spanish songs. Rent one of several private rooms by the hour and croon the night away.
A few days: Carolina on our mind
Think we’re crazy to recommend you jet down to Raleigh for the weekend? Don’t blame us, blame Breeze Airways, which regularly offers nonstop deals from Islip’s MacArthur Airport to North Carolina’s capital city starting about $150 round-trip (two-week advance purchase) or $250. Furthermore, it’s a great excuse to take in the state’s seasonal Chinese Lantern Festival (Tickets are $36) in nearby Cary, a walk-through odyssey that includes dozens of displays, thousands of lights, and one very big dragon (we’re talking 200 feet long) on a lake. (Somebody go and send us photos!) Great places to eat include Second Empire, a restaurant with a seasonal menu housed in a beautifully restored Victorian home west of downtown, and La Terrazza, a southern Italian and Mediterranean spot on a ninth-floor rooftop in the Warehouse District that Raleigh Magazine recently named the city’s best new eatery. As for hotels, for the weekend of Nov. 22, we found rooms as low as $104 a night at the DoubleTree by Hilton in midtown Raleigh (on Hotwire) and $128 a night at the Holiday Inn downtown (Priceline).
Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.