18 hours ago
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Gotham’s gone gingerbread.
Self-appointed Big Apple gingerbread man, Jon Lovtich of Queens, has erected another decadent Yuletide display for the tradition’s 30th anniversary — and it’s the first time his record-breaking exhibit pays homage to the city he calls home.
Lovitch, the creative mind behind the Gingerbread Lane exhibit once displayed at Chelsea Market, found a new home for his candy community at The Shops at Columbus Circle this year — which inspired him to drum up more fanfare surrounding New York during Christmastime, he told The Post.
“With the [holiday] market outside, and [the nearby] Rockefeller Center tree, Bloomingdales … the tourism here is huge,” said Lovitch, who holds the Guinness World Record four times over for the largest edible gingerbread village.
“There’s such a confluence of New Yorkers and tourists together, they’re all coming to see New York City at Christmas — so let’s give them New York City at Christmas,” he added.
The result is a 350,000-square-foot miniature Gotham displayed at The Shops at Columbus Circle, complete with 23,000 jelly beans, 300 pounds of gingerbread and 1,920 pounds of icing — which took over 800 hours to build over 12 months.
Alongside references to the North Pole (with displays like “The Broken Ornament Shop”), the larger-than-life exhibit also features classic city staples from newspaper and hot dog stands to subway-themed lettering and Santa himself driving a yellow taxi cab, the artist said.
“Every year, I don’t bring anything back ‚ everything’s new — except for one Santa Claus,” Lovtich said.
“It’s the very last touch I do every year, I take him at the end of the year and keep him, and every year he comes back to the exhibit.”
The executive chef-turned-full-time gingerbread artist told The Post he begins crafting ideas for next year’s display about a year in advance, and constructs the massive display year-round from his home in Forest Hills before transporting the individual pieces by truck.
His love for the Yuletide craft started back in his native Kansas City while working under a chef who made similar holiday creations.
“I just got hooked right away, seeing people’s reactions to it,” he explained.
Since his first display — 14 gingerbread houses that, altogether, “wasn’t even the size of a small Honda” — the 12-year New Yorker’s display has been featured everywhere from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and the New York Hall of Science in Corona, Queens.
Dazzled gawkers have been so inspired by the creations that Gingerbread Lane has been featured in gender reveals, marriage proposals and annual family photos, Lovtich said.
“It reaches such a wide, vast, diverse audience, and ever since 30 years ago, it’s just been a little bit more exciting to see how much people like it,” the gingerbread giant added.
Lovtich reports that the Gotham-inspired section of Gingerbread Lane is so popular that he plans to harken back to the theme for next year’s display, with a focus on vintage nostalgia.
“Maybe I’ll do a checkered cab — which I did this year — but I want to do it more authentic, and then potentially the same thing with some newsstands and storefronts,” he shared.
“The windows of New York City are huge and Christmas, but they used to be bigger in the 1940s, 50s and 60s — back in the day, everybody had that,” he added.
“I also want to expand more to things in New York City that we’re so used to, like bodegas and fruit stands, and I want to do something big and grand like Grand Central [Terminal] or Penn Station.”
For now, Lovitch is enjoying the fruits of his labor — until the exhibit wraps Jan. 5, and he permits visitors to take home the last bits of the edible exhibit before donating the rest to local farms and animal rescues.
“Pig farmers really love it because the pigs love to eat it,” he said.
And just like Santa Claus, his work begins all over the day after Christmas.
“It’s one of those things where people love it and I love doing it,” Lovitch said.
“You enjoy how people feel with it. It’s just a good feeling.”
English (US)