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Bryant Park’s Santa Claus is a Q train-riding, Nobel Peace Prize-winning pharmaceutical research consultant … and he’s still letting New Yorkers take his knee through Sunday.
Dr. Charles Nuttall, 73, has been working as Jolly Old Saint Nick at Bryant Park for four years and knows how to say “merry Christmas” in about 20 languages.
He’s brought joy to children, hope to adults, excitement to dogs — and somehow has avoided wet nappies. We spoke with the doctor Santa this week, in advance of his big day.
Feeling like you already have what you wished for? Well, since we live in the city to celebrate the holidays, there are plenty of options. You have numerous rinks for ice skating, an array of sweet red-and-green treats, so many pop-up holiday bars, and festive markets for last-minute shopping.
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Photo Credit: amNY / Alison Fox -
More than two years and $15 million later, the Nitehawk has a second home in Brooklyn, on the edge of Prospect Park.
Renovating the former Pavilion Theatre after it shuttered in 2016 — a space maligned for a host of issues, including (shudder) bedbugs — was clearly no quick task. Carpeting was torn up (the better to show off the marble staircase), brick walls were exposed, a fancy marquee was installed, and a lot of nonsense was hauled out.
“It was like a hoarder had lived here for 50 years and left everything,” Nitehawk founder Matthew Viragh, who attended Tuesday’s opening gala, said. But the man had a vision.
“I always wanted to do this,” he said. “This was the inspiration for the original Nitehawk.”
That Williamsburg original includes in-theater dining, with seasonal menus bolstered by dishes and cocktails themed to screenings, a cheeky concept that extends to its Park Slope sibling. A Lamplighter’s Lunch of meatloaf and a rosemary popover with your “Mary Poppins,” perhaps?
The seven screening rooms were overhauled as well, from leather seats to larger screens. Expect big budget films projected alongside indie offerings, including films from locals. Nitehawk Prospect Park also includes two bars — one in the lobby, one on the second-floor balcony — that are open to all, even if you’re not seeing a film.
“We want to encourage the area to own us as a neighborhood spot,” Viragh said. “We love Brooklyn and we are happy with what we did here.”
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Photo Credit: Corey Sipkin
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