The mystery of 442 E. 13th St.

A reader is looking to solve the mystery of 442 E. 13th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. This longtime resident lives on 12th Street, and his windows look down on this small, unmarked building. He writes:

It has no signage. Years ago, it had a small sign, Electrical Motor Maintenance.

I'd like to know what goes on in there. The industrial air conditioners are noisy and are on 24/7.

20 years ago, I filed a complaint with the DEP about this building because at the time there was also a noxious smell being emitted from a chimney on the building, but the DEP found nothing.

The building is generally locked up (it's rare to see that entryway door open).

What's the deal?

I walked by and, to some surprise, found the door open...but no one was around -- which only added to the mysteriousness... Not much in the DOB either.



So what's going on here?





And here's an aerial view supplied by the reader:

Searchlight Sculptures over Tompkins Square Park

While looking up articles on the late Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor of the revolving black cube on Astor Place, I came across a piece on Frosty Myers. I'm familiar with the work of Myers, particularly The Wall on Houston and Broadway, though I didn't know about the following, via an article from the December 2006 Art in America:

Myers is also the author of temporal "Searchlight Sculptures," nighttime installations of carbon-arc searchlights that were sited at the four corners of Tompkins Square Park in the East Village in 1966, in Union Square in 1969, in a park in Fort Worth in 1979, and elsewhere. The beams tent upward to join at an apex in the manner of a vast pyramid. In 1966, using laser equipment made available by a trade sales representative, Myers projected a red laser beam from his studio on Park Avenue South to the outside of Max's Kansas City several blocks away, where a mirror redirected the beam the length of the restaurant so that it completed its trajectory through the smoky din of the art-world watering hole, concluding at the far wall of Max's storied back room.

Here's a shot of the "Searchlight Sculpture" in Tompkins Square Park.

151 Avenue C: "This prime East Village location stands out as a rare opportunity for users, investors and developers"

Back in May, I reported that this two-story building at 151 Ave. C -- between Ninth Street and 10th Street -- is on the market. There wasn't any information about this property listed, though.



However! The property is now on the Massey Knakal site for $2,350,000. According to the description:

A 23' wide, 3,450 square foot, 2 story building located on Avenue C ... R7A zoning provides for approximately 4,186 buildable square feet of additional air rights. The ground floor features extremely high ceilings, exposed brick and will be delivered vacant. The second floor is occupied by a bar paying an under market rent of $500/month that expires in 2015. This prime East Village location stands out as a rare opportunity for users, investors and developers.

Noted

"Kate Hudson devouring tacos with her mother, Goldie Hawn, and Donna Karan at Mercadito on Avenue B." (Page Six sightings)

Heaven and hell (and whatever's in between) at the Mars Bar

Art show inspired by heaven, purgatory or paradise next Sunday.

Posts that I meant to post Monday but forgot to post: The Bald Man is really gone

Last Wednesday, Max Brenner/Chocolate by the Bald Man closed. On Thursday, Jeremiah noted that the Second Avenue chocolatetorium was dechocolating the place.

While walking by on Saturday, I saw that even the mattresses designed for people to sleep off one too many choctails were discarded...

In case you are looking to "make it"

Hi!

I thought you and your readers at EVGrieve would be interested in the following:

Amidst the busy sidewalks and crowded streets, NYC is flooded with musical talents of all kinds and MTV2 and Time Warner Cable are searching for the next best thing in the NYC music scene! If you or your band are looking to “make it” in the industry, then what better way to be heard by receiving “The Best Breakout NYC Artist Award” at the 2009 VMA’s? On August 14th, MTV will review the top 20 ranked NYC artists and select 3 to battle it out in front of top MTV VMA talent at a Time Warner Cable MTV VMA weekend pre-party! All types of artists are welcome to enter so click here to sign up and showcase your talent OR sign up as a fan to participate in the process and hear what NYC is made of! http://www.ourstage.com/go/mtv2nyc

An opportunity to offer Aces & Eights constructive ideas to improve your quality of life in the neighborhood

Tom Michaelsen, the general manager of Aces & Eights on Avenue A, checks in with another comment. Anyone have any constructive comments?

Aces & Eights LES (the LES differentiates us from our other location, FYI) has helped raise enough money to build two wells in the town of Devki, India through an organization called 1Well.

Aces & Eights LES helped raise over $1200 for UNH (United Neighborhood Houses), which is an umbrella organization that presides over the Settlement Houses of New York, a number of which are in the Lower East Side.

Yes, beer pong, that much maligned representation of jockdom and fratholiness you all despise (possibly because you didn’t make the Varsity team in high school? Don't worry, neither did I.) helped make that happen.

Now I know it isn't much. I know we could do more, but I ask, where were you? What were you doing for your community while this "frathole" was giving back?

It is fairly easy to insult me and this establishment. However, I'd prefer to have a conversation. That is why I wrote what I wrote and why I am writing this. I'd love to get ideas from the community as to how we could improve your quality of life. If anybody has anything constructive to say, I would love to hear it. If you just want to insult me and the business keep it to yourself.

I will be at Aces & Eights tonight. It's trivia night. The beer pong tables are converted and people sit and answer questions for prizes. It starts at 9pm. It's good fun. You are all welcome to join. I'll even buy you your first drink if you mention EV Grieve. My name is Tom. I am the one wearing the green t-shirt that says "Douchebag" on it. Seriously.

Noted

"RadioShack is changing its name to 'The Shack,' hoping to present a fresh face to consumers as the electronics retailer directs more of its resources to selling wireless products." (InformationWeek)

Happy New Yorkiversary

"Who cares who you were or what you were doing before you moved here? Your New Yorkiversary is the day you really arrived — figuratively as well as literally." (New York Post)

And in a separate piece, Danica Lo explores the topic some more...:

In this great city we call home, there are two kinds of residents: New Yorkers and people who've just lived here a while.

Sorry, kids.

It doesn't matter how much you feel like a New Yorker, how fast you walk, how many slices of pizza you've gobbled or how much vitriol you seethe at tourists. Forking over income tax to the city doesn't get you a NY-er badge.

Students, your tuition and living costs at NYU and Columbia may be steep, but they don't buy you native status. And if you grew up out of state, moved to the city after college and have worked here for 10 years? Sorry, you're still a transplant.

As a native — I grew up in Queens, went to preschool in Bayside, PS 31, MS 158 and Stuyvesant High School (with all the other Asians) and have worked here all my professional life — my tenuous and negotiable definition is that you're a New Yorker if you completed the majority of your formative years' pre-college education — elementary, middle, junior and high school — somewhere in the five boroughs.

Aces & Eight GM offers some clarification on previous posts, comments

Tom Michaelsen, the general manager of Aces & Eights on Avenue A, responded to our post from yesterday:

I find the entries and comments on this site to be one-sided and offensive. As an Aces & Eights employee I have a few things to clarify:

-Serving food has ALWAYS been a part of our business plan. Due to certain delays we were unable to for quite some time. As the entry above discloses, we are now. The issue should be moot.

-The average age of our clientele is between 25-30 – older than the "frathole" demographic. Also older than the NYU crowd your commentator blames. Frankly, it makes you look prejudiced, judgmental and rude to speak that way about our establishment and our clientele.

- The stipulation in our license regards having no more than two TVs over the bar. The 12 TVs you're referring to are NOT over the bar. There is actually only one TV over the bar. I am not quite sure why televisions offend CB3 so much. According to Nielsen the average American watches 151 hours of television a month. It’s a preposterous figure but I really don’t think watching a baseball game in a bar is that big of a deal.

-Regarding beer pong, it is actually one pitcher (60ounces, three pints) divided into 20 cups played by two teams of two. The average game takes approximately 20 minutes. That means four people split three pints over 20 minutes. In my experience in this industry people drink more, faster when they’re not playing.

-As far as noise is concerned, there is not one subwoofer on the premises and there has never been one. We currently function at a fairly low decibel output. In the East Village street traffic is the nature of the beast. The other evening a man in a spray-painted jalopy drove up and down Avenue A blasting CSNY's "Teach Your Children Well" on a PA system mounted on the roof of his car. I've seen gangs of motorcycles roaring up 1st Avenue. Troops of partygoers and bar patrons have been streaming up and down the streets for years. Our bar is not the predominant noise polluter in the neighborhood nor is it even a significant factor.

I know blogs don't have the same journalistic requirements that standard news media insist upon, but no one has ever come to us to talk or ask questions. No one wants our side of the story. If you'd like to do so now, perhaps to clarify some things, perhaps to see that we run a clean, friendly and accommodating operation. I would be happy to oblige.

Yours Truly,

Tom Michaelsen
General Manager
Aces & Eights LES

Former Citi-Spaces office becoming a restaurant (Update: Plump Dumpling expanding into this space)

The former Citi-Spaces offices on Second Avenue at 11th Street is being converted into a restaurant, per the newly issued work permits.



Update:
Via Eater, we learned that Plump Dumpling next door on 11th Street will expand into this space. (A Passion for Food)

Remember when I suggested that Bounce Deuce wasn't really closed for good, that it would reopen in the fall?

I could be wrong. I caught a glimpse inside. It's a mess. Though the TVs are still in place.




Previously on EV Grieve:
Bounce Deuce to return?

"Duane Reade has been a sin"

Outside Duane Reade on Second Street and Avenue B.

Stepping Up at the Umbrella House

The local barber shop leasing space from the Umbrella House on Avenue C looks nearly ready to open.



In April:



Previously on EV Grieve:
What's happening at the Umbrella House?

Noted

Sixth Street and First Avenue.

RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube

Charlie Finch has the feature at Artnet:

Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor of the revolving black cube on Astor Place, died over the weekend at age 94. For myself and thousands of other East Villagers, this was the work of art that touched (and was touched by) us most. The memories of Village life revolve with it.

I first felt Alamo (the name of the cube) soon after it was installed in 1967. Coming home from concerts at the Fillmore East, guys would spin it to impress their girls then hop the subway for points north and south.

Here's the cube circa 1970 (Via)



After it was tagged in April 2006 (Via)

Prepping for Julia

Crews are out preparing for the massive "Eat, Pray, Love" shoot tomorrow -- most notably on Fifth Street near Second Avenue. (A few signs said that filming would also occur today...I didn't see any filming.) The ensemble cast features Julia Roberts.





Well, let's hope this film is good for the sake of Miss Roberts. To be honest, her career has been in a tailspin since 1988's "Satisfaction."



(You'll notice the movie also features Britta Phillips and Deborah Harry.)

Meeting set to discuss bars and noise on Avenue A

Specifically on Avenue A between 12th Street and 14th Street, where two new bars have opened this summer to enthusiastic crowds.

According to the information that I received:

The meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

It will be at the Dias Y Flores Garden at 520-522 E. 13th St. (between A and B).

District 2 City Council member Rosie Mendez will run the meeting along with Susan Stetzer, district manager of Community Board 3. They will address the overabundance of bars and the noise they cause, what can be done by residents and what is being done and will be done by Mendez's office and CB3.

The Dias Y Flores Garden.



Related:
Noise complaints? What you can do about via CB3 (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Aces & Eights now serving food

During the May 11 CB3 SLA Licensing Committee meeting, Aces & Eights, the frathole on Avenue A in the former Mo Pitkin's space, heard it from residents and CB3 members. As Eater reported:

A number of EVill oldtimers stood up to complain about noise, while the CB members questioned the lack of food in the restaurant, the 13 TVs (they were allowed to have only two), and the advertisements for drinking games. In his defense the owner said food was on the way — though we think it's safe to assume he means wings, nachos, and bar snacks — and that beer pong should not be equated with binge drinking, "It's one pitcher divided into 16 cups!" The peanut gallery had a good laugh, and the committee decided to write a letter to the SLA.

Anyway, that food has arrived. Per the menu now on the front window:

Don't be alarmed

When you walk by First Avenue Pierogi & Deli near St. Mark's today, the gate will be down. And there won't be a note outside offering any explanation.



However, it's OK. The shop will be closed for a holiday and will reopen after Labor Day...They had a sign up inside the store for the past few weeks.

Weekend recap: Chain stores, Superdives, drunken hooligans and Julia Roberts

Seventh Street to get a chain-store smoothie shop.

Julia Roberts and "Eat, Pray, Love" filming all over the EV today and tomorrow.

The Post writes about Superdive, which was closed for private parties again.

"Drunken hooligans" the norm now in the EV.

I can't believe someone would sell this!

And, at the time I walked by this sidewalk sale on Eighth Street near Avenue C, no one had bought it yet... Where's your taste, people?

Yes

Arizona-based smoothie outlet coming to Seventh Street

Xoom Juice. At the site of the former Tiny Living shop, which closed in April, on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. Xoom has three locations in Tuscon, Ariz. So what are we in for? According to their Web site:

what's the xoom difference? good question
well, for starters, it's what we leave out of our drinks: no sherbet, no sorbet, no ice cream, no added sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, or anything to artificially flavor our smoothies.

so what's left? how about just pure fruit, 100% fruit juice, organic soymilk or milk, and a bit of yogurt (frozen or fresh or non-dairy), and a *xoomer* nutrient boost. that's it. end of story.

we do this for two reasons:
1) it is really healthy
2) it tastes fabulous

we figure why mess with mother nature?
we just blend it together

The Tuscon Weekly has named Xoom the "best smoothie" the last four years... though, having never been to Tuscon, we're not sure what their competition is like...

"Eat, Pray, Love" -- starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem -- will pretty much be filming everywhere in the East Village on Monday and Tuesday

The adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-seller "Eat, Pray, Love" commences filming this week...kicking off a globe-spanning story in the East Village. And, based on the cast, and the number of filming fliers that I spotted, this promises to be an enormous production. I saw EPL signs on Second Avenue, First Avenue, Avenue A, Third Street to Ninth Street. And Brad Pitt is co-producing the film.

P.S.
In case you didn't want to remember....Gilbert's 1997 GQ article, "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon," a memoir of hercareer as a bartender at you-know-where, was the basis for the "Coyote Ugly" cinema klassik

At Superdive: "You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been"

The Post explores the world of Superdive and dive bars today. Fasten your seat belts! We're going in!

With its clean taps, friendly service and young, attractive patrons, Superdive is in many ways the anti-dive. Where's the bearded tranny? The surly, toothless barmaid? The non-functioning alcoholic cashing his SSI check for another round? Sure, it's teeming with college students looking to get wasted, but where's the dank?

Unlike New York's classic old-man bars, Superdive is neither moody in decor (it has large front windows and light pinewood accents) nor spirit (its patrons are prone to high-fives and huzzahs). "People are coming to celebrate," says manager Keith Okada. "Not to get dark and down in a hole."

And!

[M]aybe Superdive's no-frills, keg-centric vibe is just what the Type A alcoholics of tomorrow are looking for. "In a world where everything is so designed and chichi, we just wanted a nice place where people can sit, relax and not feel pressured to spend mega amounts of money," says Okada.

And you have to agree, it sure beats $20 mixed drinks.

And!

And if the list of more than 700 beers -- from a $180 sixtel (one-sixth of a keg) of UFO Hefeweizen to a $360 half-keg of Coors Light -- proves too overwhelming, "keg master" Matt Breinich will help you navigate the list.

Breinich's duties don't end there: "I haven't seen any beer pong disputes, but if there was one I would certainly be there to help resolve it."

In addition to Ping-Pong balls, the bar also keeps cards, dice and poker chips on hand for impromptu drinking games. (Keg stands, however, are officially frowned upon.) Meanwhile, the piano underneath the perpetually lit "Applause" sign in back of the bar may be the site of future "Hair Metal Karaoke" nights. And instigating the party some weekends is mini-metal head Nick Reddy, who's been known to jump on the bar and dole out Jager shots to ecstatic college kids.

With its emphasis on drunken comradery, the frat bar has a direct lineage to the dive bar -- even if it does stem from a love for competitive drinking and Dave Matthews. If dive-bar habitues are self-loathing outsiders, then their frat-bar brethren are the cool kids at the party, explaining why Superdive initially comes off as exuding typical jock one-upmanship.

"You hear the concept and it sounds like it could be too much of a frat party or too whatever, but it hasn't been. The people who come in are excited about the concept, they want to come back," says Breinich.

And!

It may not smell like stale beer -- yet -- but Superdive does smell like a winner: It's currently booked almost a month out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights -- so if your name isn't on the guest list, good luck getting past the front door. "We're working on those hiccups," says Okada. But try telling that to the dejected- looking guys outside.

Hiccups?

Hiccups

"All the junkies and prostitutes are gone, and replaced by drunken hooligans"

The Post has a piece today titled The East "Pillage" (And the paper even acknowledges the original source -- Scoopy!)

Someone orchestrated a break-in at famed composer Philip Glass' home in the East Village, but got away only with a cellphone.

Magdalena Adorno, 41, faces charges of burglary and possession of stolen property in the July 17 incident at the property on East Third Street, cops said yesterday.

She was arrested within hours of the burglary, which has neighbors talking about how the area near the Bowery has lately become more crime-ridden.

Police didn't say what was taken, but a story in The Villager said the thief got away only with a cellphone.

Area residents and business people say the neighborhood has become a drunken party zone for noisy teens and 20-some- things who litter the streets with trash.

"All the junkies and prostitutes are gone, and replaced by drunken hooligans," said Claude Campbell, who for 20 years has owned the East Village Music Store.

"At least you could tell the junkies to go away," Campbell said.

Photos by Brian Finke via New York

Touring the LES again: "Its unloveliness remains resolute"

Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post

JoAnn Greco, a native New Yorker who frequented the LES as a child, moved to Philadelphia in 1991. She hasn't been back to the LES since then. Greco, a travel writer, did this piece -- Posh Meets Past on New York City's Lower East Side -- for The Washington Post.

A few of her observations.

As I exited the tour, I noticed that the street signs were marked "New York City Orchard Street Bargain District," even though $2 million apartments and $400 hotel rooms have invaded the area.

And!

I peeked into the much-talked-about Hotel on Rivington, all mock mod with its white and red tubular entryway and Space Age touches. Its restaurant, however, celebrates the surroundings with a courtyard situated between picturesquely dilapidated tenements.

And!

It was all very encouraging: newcomers embracing the past and oldsters stepping up to the future. The shop talk may have changed -- some 40 galleries can be found here -- and the eateries may have gotten fancier. Too many tenements have been defaced and even erased. But this place continues to feel different: Its unloveliness remains resolute, the Williamsburg Bridge still swoops off Delancey Street, and the jabber of multiple languages is ever-present. Endangered, maybe. But gone? Never.

Wonder what her opinion would have been after a visit on a Friday night.