Nitehawk To Bring Movie Theater Dining to Park Slope

Indie movie theater-with-food Nitehawk Cinema is expanding to Park Slope. The Times reports that founder Matthew Viragh will be giving a $10 million renovation to the long declining Pavilion, the neighborhood’s only movie theater. The newly named Nitehawk Prospect Park will have seven screens, 650 seats, an atrium overlooking the park, two kitchens, and two bars — bringing the Williamsburg theater’s popular in-theater dining to the neighborhood. it will also be far larger than the original outpost, which has just three screens.

The Pavilion originally opened in 1928 and has long been in decline, even after new owners renovated it in 2011. (It's fought bed bug rumors and once invited filmgoers even though they didn't have heat.) At one point, the developers Hidrock Properties planned to build condos on the site. Nitehawk’s plan to transform the theater is a big get for Park Slope. It was the first dine-in theater in New York when it opened in 2011, and the popularity of the concept has spawned places like Metrograph Commissary in the Lower East Side and Syndicated in Bushwick. One of the most anticipated openings of the year is Alamo Drafthouse, an Austin-based dine-in theater chain that’s opening in Downtown Brooklyn.

The new outpost of Nitehawk, which has been eyeing the Pavilion for years, will likely be watched just as closely. Expect it to open in fall 2017, at the earliest. According to the Times, The Pavilion will close in October, and the Nitehawk renovation will take about a year.

• Nitehawk to Open a Second Cinema in Brooklyn [NYT]