Seventh Street tumor watch: Now for lease!

We've been waiting, waiting and waiting (since May 2008!) to see what will appear at the former tumor at Seventh Street just west of First Avenue...



...a construction worker at the scene in the spring said it will be "a restaurant or another bar." Hmmm.

Well, maybe some day. It appears that all that work gone into carving out the space and creating the tumor was just to prep it for lease.



According to the listing, the joint has 2,000 square feet, plus another 1,000 square feet in the basement. And: "Many busy cafes in the vicinity."

Feel free to leave your guess in the comments...smart money would have to be on some sort of ramen/noodle/yogurt place. (Or, if BaHa can do it, FroRam!)

For further reading:
7th Street Tumor (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
*Everyday Chatter (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The long history of the Seventh Street tumor gets longer

Quickly to the recap at 83 Seventh Street near First Avenue, where we've been watching this tumor grow since May 2008....



April 2009!



May 2009!



August 2009 -- with a "for lease sign"!



October 2009 -- no more "for lease" signs!



And now, dear reader, a homemade for rent sign!



The listing at Besen Retail has been removed. It HAD said ... 2,000 square feet, plus another 1,000 square feet in the basement. And: "Many busy cafes in the vicinity."

Your move, tumor.

Updated:
Jeremiah gets a shot of the huge interior....

Previously.

Tumor exposed on Seventh Street

Last spring, we started watching the tumor grow from the front of 83 Seventh Street near First Avenue.



Now, after nearly a year, the plywood is down... and...



So what's going in here? According to a construction worker at the scene: "It's either gonna be a restaurant or another bar."

Hmmmm... Things may just get a lot more noisy and annoying on this stretch of Seventh Street.... Across the street, Jeremiah reported that the former Addukkan space is getting prepped: "The windows are papered, and the permit says a kitchen is coming. Also, um, it's in the name of the same architects who designed Jamba Juice."

For further reading:
7th Street Tumor (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

New York Dolls co-founder David Johansen seeks support for cancer treatment

David Johansen, iconic frontman and sole surviving founding member of the New York Dolls, revealed that he is battling multiple health issues, including stage four cancer and a brain tumor. 

The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help with the mounting medical expenses. 

His daughter Leah Hennessey shared this information: 

Five years ago at the beginning of the pandemic we discovered that David’s cancer had progressed and he had a brain tumor. There have been complications ever since. He's never made his diagnosis public, as he and my mother Mara are generally very private people, but we feel compelled to share this now, due to the increasingly severe financial burden our family is facing. 

To make matters worse, the day after Thanksgiving David fell down the stairs and broke his back in two places. ​

After a week in the hospital and a successful surgery David has been bedridden and incapacitated. Due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock. Our most immediate needs are full time nursing, physical therapy and funding for day to day vital living expenses. 

With professional specialized care, we are hopeful that David can regain some mobility and independence. 

You can read more about the crowdfunding here. 

Sweet Relief also offers a unique Johansen T-shirt, with all proceeds supporting his treatment.

Johansen, whose career includes his lounge singer persona Buster Poindexter, was the subject of Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi's documentary "Personality Crisis: One Night Only" in 2022.

 

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A post shared by Jesse Malin (@jesse_malin)

Plywood tumor marks the future home of Sanpoutei Ramen on 2nd Avenue

[Photo from yesterday morning]

It's plywood tumor time over at 92 Second Ave. between Fifth Street and Sixth Street where interior renovations continue for the new tenant — Sanpoutei Ramen.

As noted back in March, the Sanpou Group, which operates 30 restaurants worldwide, including Sanpoutei Ramen, was opening an outpost in this long-vacant space. Last fall, CB3 OK'd a beer-wine license (they were originally seeking full liquor).

Reviews of Sanpoutei Ramen, which started in Niigata, Japan, in 1967, note that the restaurant "is defined by its authentic Niigata-style ramen, a shoyu-ramen in a clear fish stock-based broth."

Sanpoutei joins a crowded ramen market in the East Village... other recent arrivals include Tatsu Ramen on First Avenue and TabeTomo on Avenue A. In addition, Strings Ramen is opening at 188 Second Ave. at 12th Street.

As for 92 Second Ave., Kabin Bar & Lounge closed here in March 2015. While there were a few potential suitors, the storefront has sat empty these past four years.

And by the end of the day yesterday, the plywood received a coat of green paint...


[Photo by Steven]

Previously on EV Grieve:
The first sign of Japanese ramen shop Sanpoutei arrives at former Kabin space on 2nd Avenue

Seventh Street tumor watch: We have doors and windows

Or maybe two doors?



Anyway, the work continues on Seventh Street near First Avenue... on what a construction worker at the scene says is "a restaurant or another bar."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Tumor exposed on Seventh Street

The inspiring story behind Robin Hoods

Last April, East Village resident Tracey Van Vooris learned that her mom was diagnosed with a terminal, grade 4 glioblastoma, or has she put it — "one nasty SOB of a brain tumor."

This devastating news eventually led Van Vooris to launch a line of head covers (turbans, modified head scarves, etc.) under the name Robin Hoods. (Robin is her mother's middle name.)

With the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Van Vooris was able to design her line of accessories inspired by her mother. The launch party is tomorrow night. (Details here.)

Here's her story, via an email interview with EVG.

How did Robin Hoods come about?

The inspiration for Robin Hoods came after my mom's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in April 2012. After two brain surgeries, 46 radiation treatments, and non-stop chemotherapy, her head was left scarred, bald, and extremely sensitive. After many fruitless attempts to find her a head cover that was both fashionable and functional, I decided to create my own line. Many of the causes of hair loss and hair hardship are bad enough, I didn't want women to have to suffer further by not being able to comfortably conceal that hardship if desired.

Any trepidation about launching the Kickstarter campaign?

Absolutely! Much to my surprise, launching the Kickstarter campaign was one of the most intimidating things that I've ever done. For starters, I realized how terrified of being on camera I was. Additionally, it was such a vulnerable thing to put my story, my product, and myself out there for anyone and everyone to see. Aside from that, it is so difficult to ask people for money, no matter how worthy the cause, so I definitely felt the pressure to reach my fundraising goal. Luckily, I made my goal with a nail-biting 40 hours before the deadline, which was overwhelmingly exciting.

You're celebrating the launch tomorrow. Did you ever think you'd reach this point — looking back one year?

After I successfully met my Kickstarter goal, everything seemed to be more real. Looking back a year ago, I would have never guessed I'd be here, about to celebrate the launch of Robin Hoods. There have been so many life events (good and bad) that have put me on this course, and in this moment, I'm really trying to soak in this moment. The support and love from my friends, family, and even total strangers has been really, truly incredible. There is no better feeling than having purpose to what you do, and I definitely feel like I've found mine.

How is your mother doing today? What does she think about what you have done?

Unfortunately, my mother is not doing very well as of late March. The real nastiness of brain tumors, particularly those as aggressive as stage 4 glioblastomas, is that the slightest change in the tumor can cause massive disturbances in the brain. As a result, my mom's mental and physical abilities have really declined. She is the strongest woman I know though, and is fighting tooth and nail. Much of the celebration for Robin Hoods is in her honor and to thank those that have so selflessly helped make it a reality. For me, her trip to New York and celebration on Saturday, carry so much extra meaning and importance given the circumstances.

Mom is not able to express too much these days, but on the day I reached my Kickstarter goal, she emailed me that she was really proud of me and my accomplishment and that meant the world. She also loves wearing the product, so that says a lot.

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You can find more information at the Robin Hoods Facebook page here. The Robin Hoods website is coming soon.

[Image via the Robin Hoods Facebook page]

Week in Grieview

[Wednesday morning on St. Mark's Place]

RIP Hank Penza (Thursday)

At East Village Meat Market's Pierogi Tasting Day (Monday)

MTA's 2015–2019 Capital Plan includes another entrance for the L stop on First Avenue (Tuesday)

Demo permits filed to raze southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 10th Street (Tuesday)

Ho no: SantaCon announces Dec. 12 date for SantaCon (Tuesday)

Down comes the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office (Monday)

The retail space at Ben Shaoul's 100 Avenue A is available for $24.5 million; plus, naked model marketing clarification! (Friday)

The Barrel has closed on Stuyvesant Street (Tuesday)

Tumor time for the Provident Loan Society Building on East Houston? (Monday)

Out and About with Jose Ilarraza (Wednesday)

City booting P.C. Richard (and his sons!) on East 14th Street (Friday)

Lit Lounge returning to face CB3's SLA committee (Thursday)

Snickers Bar Squirrel (Tuesday)

Le Petit Parisien opens on East Seventh Street (Thursday)

Southern California-based Pressed Juicery opens first NYC storefront on Lafayette Street (Tuesday)

Tac N Roll slated for East Fourth Street (Monday)

179 E. Third St. is for sale (Tuesday)

Workers have to remove the last willow on the St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery property (Tuesday)

Please treat Whole Foods Market® Bowery like your own living room (Monday)

On the CB3-SLA docket: A new applicant for the former Bodhi Tree space (Wednesday)

The Fantastic Tea Shop is for sale (and for rent) (Friday)

Christo in front of the Christodora (Monday)

... and who has the next match?


[Photo in Tompkins Square Park by Bobby Williams]

Rooftop tumor continues to grow on Third Avenue

Near 13th Street.

Tumor time for the Provident Loan Society Building on East Houston?

On Nov. 17, CB3's monthly Landmark's Committee meeting will include a hearing on the proposal to landmark the circa-1912 Provident Loan Society Building, 223-225 E. Houston St., at Essex.

BoweryBoogie has had the scoop on the situation here. Back in January, BB heard about plans to demolish the building for a new residential complex.

Well, rest assured, it no longer appears that the owners plan to take down the building.

No, as BoweryBoogie uncovered back on Friday, they want to simply drop a 12-story extension on top of the existing building… which would look like…


[Image from Bluarch Architecture via BB]

Head over to BoweryBoogie for more details.

The Landmarks Committee meets on Nov. 17 at 6:30, JASA/Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at Cooper Square.

After a string of random clubs and concepts through the past 20 years, the Provident Loan Society Building is currently unoccupied. (The space served as a studio for Jasper Johns in the 1970s.)

And now, a flashback to an EVG post from November 2010…

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The classic revival brick building has retained its look through the years... Here are some photos from the NYPL Digital Gallery..... the first photo isn't dated...


from 1936…


from 1935...


and today [November 2010] ...

Former wine and liquor store to become a wine store on Avenue A

The plywood tumor arrived late last week at 196 Avenue A between 12th Street and 13th Street.

The DOB signage shows a storefront rendering...



... the sign on the door here shows a business named Convive...



We found a job listing for the incoming shop that offered a few more details about the business:

Convive is a new retail store in the East Village of New York City that believes the process of buying wine should be easy and enjoyable. We build strong relationships with clients because we enjoy engaging with them: we create and seek out shared experiences. Additionally, we provide our clients with excellent customers services, rare/allocated wines and vast expertise.

The previous tenant here, Avenue A Wine & Liquor, closed about this time last year.

Late last year, Dalan Management and real-estate investing firm Avenue Realty Capital bought 194-196 Avenue A and 503-505 East 12th Street for $16.8 million.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

Mr. Andre goes digital on Cooper Square (The Wooster Collective)

Anarchy on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place? (amNY.com)

Sign fun at Ray's (Slum Goddess)

The old Jefferson Market ready for action (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

DodgeBox on Delancey (BoweryBoogie)

Cheyenne now and then (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

"Enter into a place caught in a time warp:" A visit to Sam's Restaurant on Court Street (Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog via Gowanus Lounge)

Update on the Third Avenue tumor (A Fine Blog via Curbed...previously on EV Grieve)

Lehigh graduate, who's now a real-estate agent, offered advice to Lehigh students thinking of moving to New York: "Renting in New York City is a little bit different than renting from friends you knew in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania," he said. "The entire process from one to ten is definitely quite different from renting anywhere else in the United States." (The Brown and White)

At the Jamaican Dutchy (Reggae Music...hat tip, Karate Boogaloo)

Remembering John Penley, photographer and activist of the East Village

Image via spagnuolo.nyc

John Penley, the photographer and longtime activist whose presence was a fixture at East Village and Lower East Side protests for decades, died on Sept. 15. He was 74. 

Friends said Penley had been in declining health after being diagnosed with an abdominal tumor and suffering a stroke. He died in Lake Havasu, Ariz., where he had been living in recent years. 

Penley was a familiar figure in the neighborhood's squatter and housing-rights movements and at protests in and around Tompkins Square Park. 

He was both participant and documentarian — carrying a camera while taking part in many of the causes he photographed.

A former Navy servicemember, Penley began photographing demonstrations and political actions as a way of documenting the movements he was involved with, eventually working as a photojournalist. 

His images appeared in The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, High Times, The Guardian, East Village Eye and other publications. 

His photographs captured a period of enormous change in the East Village and Lower East Side, particularly the battles over housing, squatting and gentrification during the 1980s and 1990s. His work also documented AIDS and gay-rights activism and protests involving police brutality, the death penalty and racial discrimination. 

In later years, he photographed Occupy Wall Street and demonstrations supporting Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks. 

Penley's archive — papers, photographs and negatives dating from roughly 1980 to 2013 — is housed at NYU's Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Penley began donating the collection in 2009, with additional material arriving in 2013. 

His activism occasionally landed him on the other side of the camera — and in court. In 1982, he was arrested and sentenced for trespassing at the Savannah River nuclear power plant in South Carolina during an anti-nuclear protest. 

Five years later, he was arrested at a rally he organized to register homeless New Yorkers to vote; his archive includes documents from his subsequent lawsuit against the NYPD and then-Mayor Ed Koch. 

By the 2000s, Penley remained an unmistakable neighborhood presence, protesting development and displacement and inserting himself into local battles large and small. (EVG covered many of the events that he organized. Find a sampling here ... here ... and here ... among many others.)

He was known as much for his blunt opinions and colorful personality as for his activism.

His interests and activism extended far beyond the neighborhood. Friends remembered his involvement in struggles from Akwesasne to Oaxaca. 

In his later years out West, he advocated for low-income residents affected by development in Las Vegas, including around the construction of the Sphere. 

But much of what Penley saw through his camera remains here. Thousands of his images preserve an East Village and Lower East Side of protests, squats, artists, activists and street life — and the neighborhood fights in which he was rarely just an observer.

Photo by Paul DeRienzo via Facebook

Worldwide exclusive: "For lease" signs have been removed from the Seventh Street tumor!

Aug. 19!



Now!



Good lord, what will it be? -- What will it be!

Previously. What we know. Per a construction worker -- some kind of bar/restaurant. From the listing -- 2,000 square feet (plus a basement and outdoor space).

[Updated] Tokio 7 hasn't been open lately

Earlier last week an EVG reader stopped by the consignment shop at 83 E. Seventh St. near First Avenue … and was surprised to find the gate down… Tokio 7 remained closed through the weekend… and there isn't any note on the gate or inside noting a summer break. Calls to the store go unanswered.

Tokio 7 moved here (the former Seventh Street tumor) from across the street in 2010.

Updated:

The store is back open after a short holiday...

New renderings for the luxury building that will hang out over the Mercury Lounge

[EVG file photo]

Plans to build on top of the former Provident Loan Society building on the southwest corner of Houston and Essex continue to move forward.

CityRealty got the first look at the latest set of renderings for the space...


[Renderings by Rogers Partners via CityRealty]

Per CityRealty:

The Lower East Side development will rise within an existing two-story building from 1912 to become a 120-foot-tall structure with 12 stories. The building's design features an irregularly stacked structure that will cantilever on floors 8 though 12, hovering over a neighboring residential property.

And!

Rogers Partners drew design inspiration from former tenant Jasper Johns’ number series, pieces that allow the abstract and concrete qualities of the numbers to build upon one another and create an ultimate sense of structure. The design for 225 East Houston Street finds rhythm in both its bold form, unique rising mass, and distinct arrangement of windows. The new 44,000-square-foot building will host 38 residential apartments, as well as a rooftop terrace, a fitness center...

[Renderings by Rogers Partners via CityRealty]

As BoweryBoogie previously reported, building owners Elsa and Dunnie Lai have lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, and say that they are committed to restoring the original structure. Head over to BB for that background as well as some of the community opposition to such a tumor-like structure here.

After a string of random clubs and concepts through the past 20 years, the Provident Loan Society Building is currently unoccupied. The space served as a studio for Johns in the 1970s.

Something new to obsess about on Seventh Street!

As you may know, we spent an inordinate amount of some time discussing the Seventh Street Tumor©. Then, Jeremiah Moss got the international exclusive: Tokio 7 was moving in.

So now what can we do to help pass the time?

A-ha! Yesterday, a construction crew was inside the former Tokio 7 space up the street...pretty much gutting the space...



What will go in here now? To be continued...

"The voice of God" speaks

Wading through all the blather in the media today about the final home game at Yankee Stadium. One thing stands out, though: Bob Sheppard. The Post's Steve Serby did his Sunday Q-and-A with Sheppard, one of the city's most iconic and classy figures. He is the legendary voice of Yankee Stadium who started as public-address announcer in 1951. Unfortunately, an illness has kept the 97 year old (!) from the Stadium this season.

This passage really jumps out. Serby asks him his thoughts on various Yankees through the years.

Q: George Steinbrenner?

A: Do you know, after being there (more than) 50 years, I don't think we ever exchanged more than three or four lines over the time, and they were all cordial.

Wow. Well, given how shabbily Steinbrenner has treated his people, maybe this is a good thing...

Anyway, Sheppard ends on a hopeful note:

Q: The new Yankee Stadium?

A: Tell the people who read The Post I'm looking forward to next year.

He's too weak to attend tonight's last game. Still, as the Times noted in a profile of Sheppard yesterday:

Sheppard’s voice will be heard Sunday night, as it has been all season — as the recorded introduction for No. 2, the Yankee captain Derek Jeter, after Jeter requested this rare favor. The shortstop’s name — JEE-tah — has become a stylized flourish for Sheppard, who is otherwise a purist. Or maybe we all have exaggerated it, as we imitated it. At any rate, when they finally tear down the old place, that echo will bounce off the apartment buildings and bridges and hills of the Bronx and Manhattan — JEE-tah, JEE-tah, JEE-tah — forever.

Sheppard’s legacy is secure — half a century of Giants football games, including the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore, his voice and microphone ensconced in the Baseball Hall of Fame (even if the rules have not been bent to induct him along with hallowed broadcasters) and inclusion in a few movies and commercials over the years. (He does have a business side to him.)

Essentially, Sheppard is a simple man, as some poets and clerics and teachers can be termed simple. He never sought the company of the athletes. He had his own niche in life, and he still does, giving thanks that he can attend church each morning, go shopping, and in good weather walk the garden behind his home, always with Mary.

They are the most handsome couple in the world. I used to see them walking the shoreline at Jones Beach State Park in the summer of 1961, but what I did not know was that they were newlyweds. When I sat in their living room a few months ago, they told me how they met, at church, of course, after Sheppard’s first wife died of a brain tumor, leaving him with four children. He invited Mary Hoffman to the beach, where they swam and played pitch-and-putt golf, and, when he was ready, he proposed.

Bob has not resumed serving as a lector at Mass, but Mary reads from the scripture many mornings — “the best female lector I have ever heard,” he said Friday, as if he were saying “No. 2, Derek JEE-tah.”

The Sheppards resisted the Yankees’ kind offer of a limousine for Sunday night, but they do go out.

“You know how old I am?” Sheppard asked. “My daughter, Mary, is celebrating her 50th year in the convent. Can you imagine? And she is still young and beautiful.”

Sheppard in action from last season:

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

What you didn't know about A Repeat Performance on First Avenue (Neighborhoodr)

Lots of Red Square retail space available (BoweryBoogie)

Another Seventh Street tumor! (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A budget hotel with a Beaux-Arts exterior (Ephemeral NY)

A sad photo of a discarded teddy bear (Shawn Chittle)

For coverage of last night's CB3/SLA meeting, check out:
The Lo-Down

DNAinfo

Eater

Gothamist

And tonight...

Week in Grieview

[On the Bowery yesterday via Derek Berg]

Posts this past week included...

Bushwick-based pizzeria Roberta's coming to Avenue A (Tuesday)

At the march and rally to save East River Park (Monday)

Report of a slashing on Seventh and B (Saturday)

Southern Cross Coffee has closed on 5th Street (Wednesday)

First work permits issued for the former Hells Angels HQ (Tuesday)

M15 Select Bus Service routes will soon carry surveillance camera to bust lane blockers (Thursday)

Is Facebook leaving Astor Place? (Thursday)

Reader mailbag: Is this a new dog run in Tompkins Square Park? (Friday)

Helping celebrate 125 years of Veniero's (Tuesday)

This week's NY See (Thursday)

What's new below 14th and B? (Monday)

Report: Associated expected to close by the end of November (Thursday)

Soothr, a Thai noodle bar, coming to the former Bruno Pizza space on 13th Street (Monday)

October CB3-SLA docket: An applicant for 99 Avenue B, former home of Manitoba's (Thursday)

Strings Ramen signage arrives at 188 2nd Ave. (Monday)

Plywood tumor marks the future home of Sanpoutei Ramen on 2nd Avenue (Wednesday)

May the "Four Force" be with you at the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park dioramas (Tuesday)

A reinterpretation of "The Jazz Singer" on the Lower East Side (Monday)

A garden party to help rebuild the East Side Outside Community Garden (Friday)

Hanoi House expansion in-progress on St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

Another bubble tea chain setting up shop in the East Village (Monday)

Squish reopens on St. Mark's Place after summer hiatus (Tuesday)

... and a quick nut run in Tompkins Square Park this morning via Vinny & O...



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