Nitehawk Park Slope is OPEN!

The Nitehawk Park Slope is now open!

 

A few months ago, we wrote about the conversion of the old Sanders Theater on Bartel-Pritchard Square to a second venue for the owners of Williamsburg’s Nitehawk Theater. Just before Christmas, while you were busy Christmas Shopping and might have missed the news, the new Nitehawk Park Slope theater opened. The movies are back on Prospect Park West!

At the bar in the first-floor lobby, you can buy tickets and drinks.

And not just movies. The Nitehawk complex has six theaters and first-floor lobby and second-floor bars where you can grab something to take into the theater with you. Above the second-floor bar is a mezzanine with tables to sit and chill before, during, or after any showing. The first-floor bar is where you can buy tickets for any show, though many were sold out when we went. We’d bought our tickets earlier, online, at https://nitehawkcinema.com/prospectpark/. At the theater, we stepped up to one of the ticket kiosks where you can print out the tickets you’ve pre-ordered. You can punch in your order number or use the Q4 code reader and the tickets print in an instant.

On the mezzanine above the second-floor bar is a seating area for eating, drinking, or just chilling.

The theaters are scattered across four or five levels. You can make the hike up, and there is an Elevator for the upper floors if you prefer to ride. Once in the theater, you’ll immediately notice that there is a small table between each double seat

and a menu on the table. You can order food and drinks to enjoy during the movie presentation, and as you’d expect, the menu is flush with healthy and even vegan options along with burgers and popcorn. Try a Mary Poppins Lamplighter’s Lunch (Pork beef and currant meatloaf), or the Aquaman Surface vs. Sea (Duo Slider, beef and shrimp). There’s lighter fare, as well, including cheese plates, hummus, queso, homemade jerky, and classic popcorn. On weekends, a brunch menu and a kid’s menu are included. Drinks are water, soda, beer, wine, Nitehawk signature cocktails with names like Barry Lindon, Fire Walk with Me, and Goonies Never Say Die, and a full lineup of whiskeys, scotches, rum, gin, and liqueurs. There’s something for everybody. We had the kale salad, and it was excellent.

The small tables between seat pairs holds a menu and paper to write your order.

If you’re not ready for the bar, there’s plenty to watch in the theaters before the feature starts, with screenings showing the conversion of the theater, old footage of TV shows and commercials, and a great admonishment reel featuring John Waters telling us we’re not allowed to smoke in the theater while encouraging us to do exactly that.

Having a drink and food during your show is a great addition to the movie-going experience, and when you order your ticket online, you can click the Dine and Dash option and everything you order, including the tip, will be charged to the card you purchased the ticket with, so you don’t have to wait around to settle up with your server when the show’s over. Just get up and go. That’s a sweet service.

Yes, the Nitehawk is open and the movies are back in Park Slope, and like never before! We encourage you to go.

 

                            The newly renovated Nitehawk Theater on Bartel-Pritchard Square,                           15th Street and Prospect Park West.

 

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Happy Holidays 2018!!

Historic Fort Greene Park

The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.

 

New York City, and Brooklyn with it, is a land of macadam, concrete, and steel. But with all its hard surfaces and hard edges, it is a city that loves its natural green spaces. Besides the well-known major parks, like Central Park, Washington Square, and the Battery in Manhattan and Prospect Park, McCarren Park, and Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, there are hundreds of small squares and triangles full of trees and shrubs and benches for weary pedestrians and area residents to sit in and enjoy.

The visitors center at Fort Greene Park.

Brooklyn’s oldest official park remains today a bastion of activity and history. The land now known as Fort Greene Park has twice been the site of an actual fort. The first, Fort Putnum, was built at the start of the Revolutionary War by troops commanded by Nathaniel Greene. It was quickly taken by the British during the Battle of Brooklyn and held by them until the end of the conflict. It was re-outfitted and renamed Fort Greene

at the start of the War of 1812. After that war, it was decommissioned and was a draw for locals as a place to hang out and mingle. Washington Park, the park’s original name, was commissioned by the city in 1845 and promoted heavily by the poet Walt Whitman, who worked as an editor at the Brooklyn Eagle at the time. Washington Park opened in 1850.

Washington Park. The street along the Eastern boundary of Fort Greene Park maintains the park’s original name.

The site is also a hallowed ground. During the revolution, the British anchored several decommissioned ships and barges in Wallabout Bay, just north of Fort Greene Park and the long-time site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Upwards of 11,000 men died aboard those vessels and were simply tossed overboard or buried in shallow mud at the edge of the bay. By the turn of the nineteenth century, their bones and other remnants were becoming exposed by tidal drifting of the muck. In 1808 the remains of these unfortunates were dredged up and buried on drier land near the navy yard.

Following the Civil War, a remodeling of the park conducted by Vaux and Olmstead, the designers of Central and Prospect Parks, included a final resting place for those “prison ship martyrs,” and the remains were moved again to this vault. In 1897, the park was renamed for General Greene. Interestingly, the street along the park’s eastern boundary is still named Washington Park.

This door in the grand staircases that lead to the monument could be the entrance to the Prison Ship Martyrs’ crypt.

In 1905, the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White was commissioned to design a memorial to those buried under the park, the tall column that rises above the park today. The tomb holds the largest number of bodies of any Revolutionary War graveyard.

On a less somber note, the park is a magnet for many residents of the eponymously named neighborhood, Fort Greene. There are tennis courts, a dog-friendly area at DeKalb Avenue and Washington Park, playgrounds for the youngsters, and plenty of spots perfect for sunbathing and lounging. There are plenty of great stores and restaurants nearby on DeKalb and Lafayette Avenues to grab something to picnic on while you’re there. History buffs should add a visit to this park to their bucket lists.

 

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If It’s December, It’s Dyker Time!

The stunning light displays in Dyker Heights will be up until the end of the holiday season. It’s well worth a trip!

Dyker Heights has been an attractive neighborhood since its initial development in the late nineteenth century as a bedroom community for Manhattan’s business elite. Today, it’s a mix of modest yet comfortable semidetached homes and shockingly huge mansions, but it’s never more attractive than during the December holiday season, when the entire neighborhood lights up with a massive communal display of Christmas lights and decorations. If you’ve never taken a walk or ride during the holidays through Dyker, as it’s called locally (or Dyker Lights at this time of year), you must put it on your bucket list and get it crossed off soon, perhaps this season.

From angels to reindeer to toy soldiers and candy canes, everything’s lit up in Dyker in December.

Anyone who enjoys the festive atmosphere surrounding the holidays, and especially the lights, will have their cravings sated in Dyker. People come from all over the world to see the Manhattan window displays in the department stores, and people come from everywhere to marvel at the lawn and house displays in Dyker Heights.

To get there, you could take one of the tour buses that come from Manhattan, or drive, but we recommend the D train to 79^th Street and a leisurely walk west along 83^rd or 84^th Street to 10^th Avenue and back. There are spectacular displays throughout the neighborhood, but the most eye-popping are on 84^th Street between 10^th and 12^th Avenues. If you find enchantment in Christmas décor and lights, you must get out to Dyker Heights and see the show.

But enough said. There’s no marvel in talking about it. This entry is about the lights, so the lights take over the page from here. We took a tour of this year’s displays, and our photos follow. We don’t claim to be professional photographers, but they should whet your appetite to see the show in person.

 

Not everything is bright and festive. This home has a definite flair for the dramatic.

 

 

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