Events at Turtle Cove

’Twas the Night
Before Halloween

On Friday, October 30, the bar at Turtle Cove filled up with pirates, painters, ghouls and at least one Mystery Machine crew for our Night Before Halloween Party: live music from Tricky Business, a free appetizer spread, a spooky drink menu and a costume contest with prizes in three categories.

A packed bar room under orange string lights and framed record sleeves, with guests in costumes including a caped vampire in a top hat, two women in dirndls, a red animal onesie and a sunflower headpiece crowded around the tables
A full house by mid-evening, with disco lights on the ceiling and costumes in every corner.

The plan for the night

Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, so we took the Friday before it. The party ran from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Cove, 356 King Road in Sterling, right on Little Sodus Bay. The invitation promised four things, and the night delivered all of them.

  • A live performance by Tricky Business
  • A complimentary appetizer spread
  • Festive specialty drinks
  • A costume contest with prizes for Best, Funniest and Scariest costume
Black party invitation with orange lettering and a pumpkin-headed figure, a skeleton and a ghost in heart sunglasses. It reads: You're invited to Turtle Cove's 'Twas the Night Before Halloween Party. Performance by Tricky Business. Complimentary appetizer spread, specialty drinks, costume contest with prizes for best, funniest and scariest costume. Friday, Oct 30 2026, 8:00 to 11:00 PM, 356 King Rd, Sterling, NY 13156.
The invitation that went out ahead of the party.

Tricky Business takes the corner stage

Tricky Business set up in the corner of the bar, against a storybook backdrop of a stone archway, a checkerboard path and oversized mushrooms. A skeleton kept watch from the speaker stack, and the band’s frontman came dressed for the occasion: purple top hat, green hair and a striped tailcoat that would have been at home at any tea party down the rabbit hole.

A singer in a purple top hat, green wig and black-and-purple striped tailcoat at the microphone, with a drum kit, bass guitars and a whimsical stone-archway backdrop behind him under purple party lights
Tricky Business, in costume like everyone else in the room.

The costume contest

Three ways to win

Prizes went out in three categories: Best Costume, Funniest Costume and Scariest Costume. That gave the homemade, the hilarious and the truly unsettling an equal shot, and the room took all three seriously.

Seen on the floor

The crowd went well past store-bought masks. One guest came as the beloved TV painter, with an afro wig, a denim shirt and a palette in hand. Their partner came as the painting itself, wearing a framed waterfall landscape with only their face showing through. A Shaggy-and-Scooby pair worked the room with a gift certificate held high. Elsewhere a grinning, blood-streaked mask under a felt fedora shared the bar with an eye-patched pirate crone, and a ’70s-style afro with tinted round glasses threw up the horns under the disco lights.

A guest in a curly afro wig, beard, sunglasses and denim shirt holding a paint palette and a beer, beside a partner wearing a framed painting of a waterfall landscape with their painted face showing through it
The painter and the painting, which may be the best duo costume we’ve seen at the Cove.
A man in a shaggy orange wig and green V-neck shirt beside a smiling woman in a brown dog onesie who holds a gift certificate up in the air, both with beers in hand near the bar's entrance
A gift certificate held high by the Mystery Machine crew.
A guest in a grinning, blood-streaked latex mask and olive fedora holding a cocktail, arm in arm with a guest in an old pirate-woman mask with an eye patch, tricorn hat and embroidered shawl
Contenders for Scariest.
A guest in a big black afro wig, round tinted sunglasses, a thick mustache and a rust-colored jacket making rock-on hand signs beneath a mounted lake trout and colored disco lights
Pure ’70s, under the bar’s resident lake trout.

Drinks and a spread on the house

The appetizer spread was free, set out on a Happy Halloween tablecloth by the TVs: slow cookers, bowls of chips and a tray of candy for anyone who needed fuel between sets. Behind the bar, a dedicated Halloween drink menu replaced the usual lineup for the night.

Cocktails

  • Vampire’s Kiss: vodka, raspberry liqueur, cranberry and lime, served in a blood bag
  • Poison Apple Margarita: blanco tequila and sour apple schnapps with a black sugar rim
  • Witches’ Brew: a green, fizzy melon-and-pineapple punch
  • Black Magic Lemon Drop: a jet-black take on the classic
  • Devil’s Ember: whiskey, ginger beer and cinnamon

Shots

  • Beetlejuice: sour apple schnapps layered under black vodka
  • Pennywise: whipped-cream vodka and coconut floated over grenadine
Gothic-styled Halloween drink menu showing five cocktails and two layered shots: a red drink in a blood bag, a green margarita, a smoking green cauldron punch, a black martini and an amber whiskey drink with a cinnamon stick
The Halloween drink menu, with recipes for anyone who wants to try them at home.

Thank you

Thank you to Tricky Business for the music, to our staff for keeping the drinks and the spread coming, and to everyone who came out on a Friday night in costume and stayed until the last song.

What’s next at the Cove

The boat slips are done for the year, since the marina season runs April 15 to October 15, but the restaurant and bar stay open into the off-season. Hours shift with the seasons, so check the contact page or give us a call before you head over.

Where
Turtle Cove Resort & Marina, 356 King Road, Sterling, NY 13156, on Little Sodus Bay
Eat & drink
Lunch and dinner daily. Seasonal hours, so call ahead.

Hungry for something less spooky? See the full Turtle Cove menu.