Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Ramenification of Love Saves the Day continues

Yesterday morning, we noted the new plywood surrounding the former Love Saves the Day store on Second Avenue at Seventh Street... Now one of the last remaining bits of the former shop was removed -- the tiled Love Saves the Day sign above the storefront...



Here's how it looks now...




Also, as the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFOEVG) noted, the plywood covered two tags by longtime NYC graffiti artists, SEN4 and KAY2... their fate will soon be sealed under several coats of paint along with the rest of the colorful LSD façade...



[LSD tile photo via Racked]

4 comments:

Bowery Boogie said...

get your cameras ready for some ramen blandness.

hntrnyc said...

I find it fascinating that in this time of economic upheaval, that overpriced 3rd world cuisine is all the rage. Something poetic about one of the richest cities in the world embracing the sexed-up version of food that keeps most of the world alive. The owners must love the margin.
Street vending permits are strictly on waiting lists these days and you can't really pass a corner without smelling central asian chicken and rice (of which I'm a big fan). But at least you feel like you've actually eaten something.

Can't wait to sample this sexy version of hot water and noodles.....awesome!

Anonymous said...

You know LSD was kind of a bullshit place. They always said since 1967, but not in that spot. Sometime, around 1980 or so, there was a pierogi place there. So from one peasant cuisine to another.

I always hated the way LSD milked the grand old EV business thing. I don't know anyone from the neighborhood who has been in there since before Desperately Seeking Susan. Also, it was one of the first places to embrace overpricing Salvation Army crap.

Anonymous said...

The East Village is already overrun with ramen, hunter gatherer, so if you want some there are plenty of places to get it.

I don't think you have an understanding of what ramen is, though, if you think it is "overpriced 3rd world cuisine."

The stuff you get in these new EV places is not instant ramen reinvented for yuppies. It's a straight import of the "sexy version of hot water and noodles" that you have been able to get in any Japanese city, town, street cart, train station, etc. for decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/dining/10RAMEN.html

The telling quote is this one: "I only started making ramen here because I needed some to eat," [Shigeto Kamada of EV joint Minca] said. "I can't live without it."

I know that there are too many ramen places in the EV. But I see the growth of ramen as driven as much by Japanese immigration to New York as anything else. So when I hear criticism of it, I worry that is as much driven by pure xenophobia as anything else.