FranCon at Holiday Cocktail Lounge: East Village, NYC Dresses Up as Fran Lebowitz

FranCon, which bills itself as "SantaCon, but we dress up like Fran Lebowitz," returns on Thursday, October 29, from 7 to 10pm at Holiday Cocktail Lounge in the East Village. This is its sixth year. The organizer is FranCon NYC, and RSVPs run through Eventbrite. The party is 21+, and a valid ID is required at the door.

The dress code is a Lebowitz look. In a 2024 report, The New School Free Press described the classic version as an oversized suit jacket, a white collared shirt, jeans and tortoiseshell glasses. The organizers add a joke of their own: Fran Dreschers will be denied entry. For guests who don't smoke, there will be candy cigarettes to finish the outfit.

In keeping with Lebowitz's love of books, the night includes a take-one, leave-one book exchange in partnership with Sweet Pickle Books. Guests bring a book they're ready to part with and leave with a different one. The event is also partnered with the rental service Nuuly. The first 150 guests to RSVP get a free one-month Nuuly subscription, and Nuuly has put together a FranCon outfit assortment on its site.

An RSVP on Eventbrite includes a first drink. Anyone who RSVP'd by October 25 was entered into a drawing for two tickets to Fran Lebowitz's show at Town Hall on December 11–12, 2026, courtesy of Right On! PR.

The 2024 coverage in The New School Free Press described Fran-themed cocktails at the bar: the Writer's Blockade, the Rent Stabilized Apartment and the Franhattan, a classic Manhattan. According to that report, Lebowitz herself has been banned from the event since its start in 2021, and she doesn't drink anyway.

Holiday Cocktail Lounge is at 75 Saint Marks Place, and the venue posted a one-week reminder on its Instagram. For readers who know Lebowitz from Martin Scorsese's documentary series "Pretend It's a City," this is a chance to see her fans turn out in costume.