Many people will trek to a certain amusement park in Anaheim this Halloween to visit its version of a haunted mansion, but anyone over the age of five soon realizes that the main attraction there is nostalgia, not ghosts. If you want the real deal, then look no further than Anaheim’s White House restaurant.

Located on Anaheim Boulevard, the White House is a world-renowned five-star restaurant that serves up northern Italian cuisine. Countless celebrities and frequent regulars flock to this old Victorian mansion for a first-rate fine dining experience, but other people come for what’s not being served on the menu.

General Manager Sylvano Serato believes that the White House is home to several different ghosts that mainly haunt the upstairs dining area. He believes that there’s a ghostly presence that likes to play around in the George Washington dining room.

“One Halloween I was standing in the room after a frequent guest held a séance. Nothing happened during the séance, but as I was standing there, a sudden gust of warm wind blew my jacket, shirt and hair forward,� Serato said. “So I went downstairs and asked a big burly waiter to go up there to make sure that I wasn’t going crazy. So he goes upstairs, and for the first couple of minutes he’s walking around saying, ‘Hey, anybody here? Come out, come out.’ About two minutes later he bolts down the stairs and his whole face was white.�

The waiter told Serato that he felt the same thing; which they later found out was called a “hot pocket.� This is the sensation of heat when a spirit walks through a person.

Apparently, during the first séance held in the room a year earlier, there were reports of tapping on the windows and the table shaking.

Built in 1909, the White House has been home to many families over the years. Serato has been working at the White House for 12 years, and believes that one of the ghosts is a little girl who was hit by a car in front of the house. She was taken to a bedroom upstairs—-the same room where the séance was held—-and later died from her injuries.

“There’s nothing harmful about her [ghost] whatsoever. She doesn’t put out any bad feelings or vibes, it’s always very positive,� Serato said.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that the hauntings can still be an eerie experience.

Serato also told the story of a waiter who was folding napkins upstairs in the John F. Kennedy Room when he heard the doors to the outside balcony shake. Thinking someone was outside, he opened the doors, but nobody was there. So he locked them and went back to work.

“He looks up and watches the bolt on the door slowly turn and then one of the doors fly open,� Serato said. “He refused to work in the room for the next six months.�

Many employees at the White House have experienced ghostly occurrences, including bartender Franko Pafundo. One night after the restaurant was closed, Pafundo, Serato and a few other people were talking about the ghosts. They were standing at the bottom of a stairwell and were challenging the ghosts to do something if they really existed.

Nothing happened for ten minutes until they heard footsteps running across the second floor hallway, and then a thump as if a child had fallen. Then suddenly the light that was right above them went out.

According to Pafundo, “No one was upstairs at the time, and the light went back on after the last of the employees left the restaurant’s driveway.�

According to Serato, most of the ghostly phenomena occurs at night during the fall and winter seasons.

“Around Halloween, we get a lot of people because of the hauntings. I tell them the stories that I tell everyone,� he said. “I take them up to the rooms where they can see and experience it for themselves. I let them decide whether or not they believe in the ghosts.�

So if you want delicious Italian dining with the added touch of the supernatural, then visit Anaheim’s White House. Just be sure to bring an open mind and plenty of money because the food isn’t cheap, and the ghosts aren’t free.