Source: www.brooklynpaper.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020 The owner of the iconic Park Slope events venue Grand Prospect Hall, Michael Halkias, died from COVID-19 on Wednesday. He was 82. Halkias’ death sent shockwaves throughout Brooklyn, where community leaders and friends remember him as a passionate, generous figure. “ He was a Brooklyn character for sure in the best sort of way,” said Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “He was larger than life.” Halkias and his wife Alice bought Grand Prospect Hall in 1984 and turned the extravagant Prospect Avenue building into an opulent catering hall. The space became a New York icon because of the its long-running, popular commercials, where Alice Halkias declares in a Greek accent, “We make your dreams come true!” Saturday Night Live spoofed the famous commercial in February of 2019, and the pair appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in October to remake the ad with Mets player Pete Alonso. Grand Prospect Hall, a Victorian banquet hall built in 1892, attracted big names such as dancer Fred Astaire and mafioso Al Capone during its heyday in the early 20th century — and boasted some of the borough’s oldest treasures, such as Brooklyn’s first reported elevator, which functions to this day. But by the 1980s, the landmarked building had fallen into disrepair: its walls had been painted black, molding had been stripped off the walls, and the chandeliers were gone, Halkias told Brooklyn Paper in 2004. The couple spent 20 yea All Related
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.brooklynpaper.com |