Though Downtown’s Rivers Club might be best known for hosting presidents and local celebrities, this Halloween season, it’s welcoming Beetlejuice. On Fri., Oct. 3, the private club launched The Nightmare Bar, its first-ever Halloween pop-up, in its Duquesne Room event space. Organized by Showtime Presents, the public event offers smoky craft cocktails, costumed characters, “spine-chilling ambiance,” and Downtown views, with the goal of “bringing a lot of people to the club that might never come to a meeting here or dine here,” event sales director Jordyn Barnoski tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “It’s just kind of a fun, unique thing for [the Club].”
The Tim Burton-inspired pop-up bar, typically the site of luncheons and committee meetings, is decked out floor to ceiling in Beetlejuice-style black-and-white stripes and geometric patterns, including suspended sandworms and tissue paper Jack Skellington heads. A nook with Nightmare Before Christmas’ Oogie Boogie is surrounded by toy cockroaches crawling up the wall, while Corpse Bride animatronics sing in another corner.
Pittsburgh-based event planner Kristen Kane (who also designed Wigle Whiskey’s recently launched Monster Mash pop-up bar) transformed the space in a matter of days, bringing decorations, including hand-carved pumpkins, from her collection at home. A Tim Burton fan, Kane wanted the pop-up to honor all the director’s movies, creating an art wall featuring illustrations of Edward Scissorhands, Large Marge and Pee-wee from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and the Penguin and Catwoman (the Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer versions) from Batman Returns.
Nightmare Bar guests enter with a 90-minute timed ticket and interact with characters including Beetlejuice — expect to hear “It’s showtime!” — Wednesday Adams, and Jack Skellington, and enjoy games, trivia, karaoke, and a costume contest. The 21-and-over event runs Thursday through Sunday at Rivers Club through Sun., Nov. 2.
This article appears in Fall Guide 2025.
