A year later, a new tenant plans to open soon...
To to be honest, at first glance, I thought the sign read "D-list Pita," which seemed to be a rather defeatist name for a restaurant. D-list? (And it appears to be a clone of Cheep's on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.)
Anyway, when workers removed the Habib's signage last November ... we all got a peek at the former tenant — France's Beauty Salon.
In a post this past August, Jeremiah shared a photo of the salon from sometime in the mid-1990s...
Nothing again falafel places... but, once again, a new business arrives that caters to a more late-night crowd... we've talked about this plenty, but I [continue to] wish there was a way to encourage other types of non-food and nightlife-related businesses to open here...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Of the 147 storefronts on Avenue A, 70 of them are bars, restaurants or vacant
6 comments:
I don't know what there is to bitch about, this place looks like it's going to be a direct replacement for what was there.
It's a very small storefront, probably best suited for this kind of business.
But I don't disagree with your lament for more resident oriented businesses.
That is so weird that there is a chance that a new falafel place will be able to pay the rent when Habib's couldn't? He catered to the same crowds. Maybe his place didn't look shiny enough? I don't get it.
The only thing I have to bitch about here is the signage. The EV is becoming littered with these cheap-ass, suburban-roadside-looking signs: plasticky with garish colors and hideola fonts.
13th Step is the current champ of EV Fug Signage thanks to its use of neon Comic Sans, but D-lish's signage, evocative of a mall food court, is an instant contender.
Otherwise I love falafel and have no objections.
PS, Jeremiah's b/w photo of France's Beauty Salon is breathtaking!
Grieve said:
"but I [continue to] wish there was a way to encourage other types of non-food and nightlife-related businesses to open here..."
Let's dwell on this...
Is there a practical way to proactively encourage landloards to seek out specific types of establishments to fill their vacant storefronts vs. posting blanket "xxxx sq ft for rent" listings, e.g. "Prime Bagelry Location?"
Reactive we can do, after the fact, by voting with our wallets and foot traffic and not shopping at these establishments. Again, though, can we be more proactive and get the types of businesses we'd like to see before an undesirable or simply derivative establishment goes in in the first place?
Point landlords/brokers/listing agents to a comments thread where readers/locals have waxed philosophic on what they'd like to see in the area?
Don't we essentially do passive market research for them every time we rant in a comments thread about what should and should not go in? How about passing that info on?
"Look, some of the neighborhood residents have been talking, and many of them have expressed interest/a real need for a [insert business here]. There seems to be a real demand here. Perhaps you should seek out a tenant who can fulfill that need. They ought to do great in this neighborhood."
Think that will have any effect or will landloards just take the best offer they can get, even if it is another redundant business?
So many of these copy-cat businesses don't help themselves, either, by opening up in already saturated areas, i.e. the 12th falafel place in a two block radius. Recently, some character pulled up in a car in front of an empty storefront near my building and asked if I thought he should open up a new pizza place. I pointed to the THREE other pizza places across the street and on the two corners at either end of the block and suggested he might want to consider a different location...
What about reaching out to yor favorite businesses in other neighborhoods? Ask if they're looking to expand and suggest empty storefronts in the East Village.
Hmm?
How about we put together an LLC, all buy shares, buy a building, and put in what we want?
;-)
Previous rant along these lines:
http://eastvillage.neighborhoodr.com/post/1162203571/another-new-coffee-place-coming-to-the-neighborhood
anyone know what happened to Habib? I know he was very briefly at a place on 1st Ave. but the next time I went in it was morphing into an Indian place with no Habib.
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