Welcome to Broadway Stages' Spotlight, where we feature local shops, restaurants, landmarks, and venues where productions that call Broadway Stages home have filmed “on location”. We encourage our readers to visit these locations and join the film and television industry in helping to support the local economy and community based establishments. Today, we visit a location featured in FBI: Most Wanted, Rockland County's Characters Restaurant and Bar.

As you tuned in to “FBI: Most Wanted” on Thursday, Dec. 17, you were probably focused on Dylan McDermott's character, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott, and his team's efforts to catch a serial killer and his own romantic pursuit of Susan Misner's character Abby Deaver. But residents and visitors to Rockland County, New York may have noticed a beloved character of their own, Characters Restaurant and Bar. While the scene from episode 8 was filmed in the parking lot, Characters has been an extra for many shows over the years. Given it’s popularity as a location for filming, we are taking time to spotlight this esteemed restaurant. And for those “FBI: Most Wanted” fans with a keen eye, you will notice that a local Greenpoint restaurant made a cameo appearance; our own Kinoko restaurant located on Meserole Ave. See our Spotlight blog about Kinoko here.

Characters has been a favorite dinner stop since it was established in 1908 as the Glenwood Hotel. For years, travelers going to and from upstate New York, Vermont, and Canada would enjoy the hospitality here. However, with the opening of the New York State Thruway in the 1950s, traffic slowed, and business did as well. In the late 1990s, the building was preserved and restored to its original appearance. In 2006, Jenny Kirby, her sister, Dionne Acton, and Dionne's husband, Tommy Acton, joined forces to create Characters. Kirby's husband and long-time Character's bartender, Dennis Kelleher, is often seen lending a hand as well. It truly is a family endeavor.

When they moved in, they improved upon the earlier restoration by adding intimate touches in the open dining area and the upstairs private banquet room and expanded the side bar. The bar, just off the main dining room, has a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere with friendly faces, whether they are local regulars or exhausted hikers fresh from nearby Harriman State Park. You can sit in the dining room by the fireplace, but some enjoy the wraparound porch while spending time with their canine friends. 

Upstairs, Character's offers a private room with its own bar. The room is cozy but classy and can accommodate up to sixty-five people. On occasion, Character's hosts live entertainment, but for the most part, the room can be rented for parties and dinners. 

Character's menu and beer selection definitely show the influence of the owner's Irish heritage. Jenny Kirby has been honored as the Hibernian Businessperson of the Year, and her brother-in-law, Tommy Acton, hails from Galway, Ireland. And while the bar offers a nice selection of moderately priced quality wines and a wide variety of imported and specialty beers, you may be tempted to partake in a frothy Guinness. 

The kitchen also has a range of dishes, from typical pub fare to pasta with handmade sauce. You can get seafood, steak, or pizza as well. But for those looking to taste something with a Gaelic sensibility, consider the fish and chips, the homemade Irish beef stew, chicken pot pie, or, of course, Shepard's pie. The authentic Irish beef stew is made with Guinness and served with a side of Irish soda bread. The chicken pot pie will stick to your ribs. It is filled with potatoes, mushrooms, peas, and carrots in a creamy veloute sauce and is topped with a puff pastry. And the star is the Shepards Pie crafted with  Prime Angus chopped beef, carrots, peas, and onions, topped with Characters creamed potatoes. You can see their complete offerings here.

Broadway Stages loves to work with other motivated, family-owned businesses. Character's isn't just a great place to see on the TV screen; it is a great place to be. As one Yelp reviewer said, "Whether you're sitting at the bar, in the dining room, ordering a to-go order, or throwing a party in the beautiful upstairs room, it is always a pleasant experience. Not only is the food great, but the people are as well. Not to mention the prices are unbeatable when compared to most other places in the county. I have never felt more at home in any other bar/restaurant! Characters is truly a one-of-a-kind place with one-of-a-kind people and will always be my #1!"

Character's is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Be sure to follow them on Instagram and Facebook. for events, promotions, and weekly specials. Stop in today and tell them Broadway Stages sent you!  Oh, and and check back to see where FBI: Most Wanted will film next. Your favorite establishment may be the next character on the show! 

One of New York’s largest growing full-service film, television, live streaming, commercial, live performance, and music video studio production companies, Broadway Stages has been an integral part of New York for over four decades. With more than 60 soundstages located across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, we currently have over 4 million sq. ft. of integrated soundstages, support space, locations, parking, and in-house lighting, power, and grip rental service available to handle all types of production.

Together with our clients, we have employed thousands of people, and have created hundreds of local jobs. We are dedicated to giving back to our community through education, the arts, and social and environmentally focused programs. We have a hyper-local focus and work primarily with local businesses for our production needs. We actively demonstrate our commitment to renewable energy and sustainability with our rooftop solar panels, agricultural and wildflower gardens, and related educational programs.

Learn about film and TV industry jobs, training, and more in the Broadway Stages’ Industry Resource Guide. Our guide provides information and links to put you in touch with industry-focused job posting sites; general recruiting sites; education and training programs; and state, city, and borough industry information. We also include a link to our blogs about many of the jobs that make a production come to life.