Previously on EV Grieve:
Let's take a walk along First Avenue in the East Village in 1997
Let's take a walk along Second Avenue in the East Village in 1997
Friday, February 3, 2012
Let's take a walk along Avenue A in the East Village in 1997
This is the third and, sadly, last in the series of 1997 East Village streetscene shots by EV Grieve reader Dave Buchwald. (Read the back story about these photos here.) Today, we'll walk south down Avenue A, perhaps even zipping off the street for a moment...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Let's take a walk along First Avenue in the East Village in 1997
Let's take a walk along Second Avenue in the East Village in 1997
Previously on EV Grieve:
Let's take a walk along First Avenue in the East Village in 1997
Let's take a walk along Second Avenue in the East Village in 1997
39 comments:
Your remarks and lively debates are welcome, whether supportive or critical of the views herein. Your articulate, well-informed remarks that are relevant to an article are welcome.
However, commentary that is intended to "flame" or attack, that contains violence, racist comments and potential libel will not be published. Facts are helpful.
If you'd like to make personal attacks and libelous claims against people and businesses, then you may do so on your own social media accounts. Also, comments predicting when a new business will close ("I give it six weeks") will not be approved.
Nice shot of Alt Coffee. There was something about hat place. Miss it.
ReplyDeletewish ray still sold newspapers.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: The couple standing in front of Two Boots Pizza is Kembra Pfaller and guitarist Samoa from The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.
ReplyDeleteWe love this look back to the East Village! Will you be doing more posts like this one taking a look back in New York?
ReplyDeleteThis was a great series of posts! And that's a cool factoid that Alex in NYC supplied!
ReplyDeleteI must say I was sad to see Alphabets changed their sign recently.
ReplyDeleteThis series is great and makes you realize just how much the vibe of downtown Manhattan has changed in the last decade.
oh wow, Korova Milk Bar -- much better than that Momofuku Milk bar
ReplyDeleteand yes, Alt Coffee, and pretty much everything in this post.
good times, good times.
#saudade
As the Handsome One once sang...
ReplyDeleteBenny got a new tattoo
Down at the St. Mark's Zoo
He walked down to the park
Drinkin 40's, till it's dark
Talkin to a grey haired man
In a tie-dyed shirt and ragged pants
He said,
That's where the hippies used to play
Down on Avenue A
Susie got a new pair of shoes
Now she don't know what to do
So she's sitting in the Park
Smokin pot till it's dark
Talking to a toothless man
With spiky hair
And leather pants
He said,
I knew Stiv in the day
And that's where the junkies used to play
Down on Avenue A
When every memory is gone
and everything you know is wrong
Takin the edge off on a beautiful day
with a Frappacino and a creme brulee
yeah, it's all over when you see a Range Rover
and to my bodega, I say hasta luega
it's not what you do, it's what you say
and it's not who you know, it's who you pay
Down on Avenue A
@Alex in NYC It is them! I'll send her a link.
ReplyDeleteWow- takes you back. Reminded me of a different journey down Ave A around 4th of July '93. I could hear small explosions coming from 14th street and getting closer and getting louder. Then the explosions got really loud about every minute. Finally I could see the source from my window- some guy with a bag full of M-80s walking south down Ave A lighting them and throwing them into the street as he walked along. I could hear him for another ten minutes. Ah, the days.
ReplyDeleteAll Over Me and Kids also has good shots of the EV in the mid 90's.
ReplyDelete*have (initially meant to say or. ok, done spamming the comments)
ReplyDeleteLIMBO!!
ReplyDelete@ Alex in NYC.... I though I recognized Kembra and Samoa! Thanks for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to the Bank for my friend's 17th birthday. We drank cosmos all night and were way too perky (i.e. drunk) to be in a goth club.
ReplyDeleteNo picture of Cafe Pick Me Up on 9th street? I work there and I'd like to see if the facade looked any different.
ReplyDeleteWow. I was hoping to see the beloved Raven and its beautiful French windows (now long gone and replaced by fugly glass). It's nice to see Accidental again, and I miss La Cieba and its mural that is now the mega-bland Westville space. Also, it can never be said enough, RIP Old Devil Moon (and your chicken-fried tofu steaks).
ReplyDeletesigh
Amazing how so many of these places are still here. RIP Old Devil Moon...ah, Korova!
ReplyDeletenot to be a nitpicker, but i wish there was a better shot of brownie's.
ReplyDeleteLimbo! But sadly no Eshasi. dwg, I was just thinking about those M-80 days, though it was across from my apt in the LES and our dishes would shake. They must be illegal now.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I got to reminisce about the old record shops and now see the spot the I lived above for so many years. Thanks for he photo of Korova Milk Bar. I lived upstairs for nearly a decade. Marque was the door guy. Anybody remember him? The coolest and nicest dude in town. That man, was real. You could walk by and just wrap about anything with him.
ReplyDeleteI love these pictures, but I have a lot of regrets that I didn't take more and I missed places like Pick Me Up. I was a Alt regular with tunnel vision. In my defense it was the first time I had ever used a digital camera, and this crappy Kodak(RIP) didn't even have a display on it. You never feel like you're living in nostalgic times until they're gone. I feel like doing a walk through the E.Vill every year now, while it's no longer home, no place will ever feel so much like home. It's much easier to document now than it was the 8 Billion years preceding.
ReplyDeleteYo, a follow up from my comment about Korova. Too bad no one can land a photo of the skate shop that was across the street (now a pizza joint). Half pipe was set up every day in the street :) Gotta get a photo of the Sound Library too..Or a pick of the Cock in 1995 at 3:00AM with everyone dressed in drag. Or the mom and pop spanish place that...uhh shudder...houses west vill east. Yo, their dish was Camerones enchiladas. That was dope. I forgetting many others, my brain can only remember one block at a time..
ReplyDeleteMan, do I miss Limbo!
ReplyDeleteThat was the last place that I can remember where you could just get your nosh (loved their little goat cheese, tomato, and basil on ficelle) and your great cup of joe, grab a magazine or a paper from their great magazine rack, and then say to some other patron; "Hi, do you mind if I sit at this table with you?".
Place was friendly and filled with great sunlight.
4:28, the skate shop! I forgot all about that place until just now. I loved seeing the skaters out front ... and I used to collect their discarded broken boards to customize this boring IKEA-type bookshelf, covering it in old stickered, graffitied and splintered decks. I miss those days. Thanks for the memory jog :)
ReplyDeleteNever remembered Nice Guy Eddies and Psychomongo's being open at the same time. Dig the Marlboro Light sign in the Psycho window.
ReplyDeleteAnd standing in the doorway of 2A, you have Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators and actor Larry Fleischman!
ReplyDeleteAhhh...not ONE person on a cell phone! Those WERE the days!
ReplyDeleteYou're breaking my heart Grieve. Great series. Miss Alt Coffee and early Old Devil Moon.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember a place called Beulah-Land on Avenue A ?
ReplyDeleteI do. I went there often.
DeleteLived on 9th between 1st and A in the 90s. Lots of great memories. Loved Limbo, but when Pick Me Up opened, that was my regular. Old Devil Moon, also a fave.
ReplyDeleteAnd what a dream, having a 24 hour record store nearby. I made some questionable purchases in the wee hours of the morning after a night out.
Awesome stuff. I moved here in '99 and have some fond memories. Thanks for posting. I would love to see the whole collection from Dave. Is that possible?
ReplyDeleteWell, this thread is 3 yrs old, but I was thinking about Beulahland and just ended up here.
ReplyDeletePretty sure the awesome bar Beulahland was long gone by 1997... It was on Ave. A between 10th and 11th St. (next door to Anton Von Dalen's stenciled building and across the street from Brownie's when it was a kinda-scary REAL afterhours place and not the live music venue....)
Gracie Mansion gallery was on that block for years as well.
Wouldn't it be great if a "Dave Buchwald" had shot similar strolls over the years on Ave A (or B... or St Marks place, etc) and we could all go "ah yes, THERE'S my long-lost bodega/laundomat/weedshop/etc...." ??! (Lunch counter place on A between 9th and 10th, anyone??!!)
I personally got to the hood in 1983 (11th and B) and was a bartender at Beulahland, amongst other fun things...
There's a slide show on today's (11/3/15) NYTimes website about the newly discovered/released photos of Paige Powell of Jean-Michel, Andy W, Keith Haring et al... reminiscing about them days and mentioning Beulahland and the great Susan Hannaford-Rose (owner)...
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/11/02/t-magazine/intimate-snapshots-of-madonna-warhol-and-more/s/02tmag-paige-slide-MKYC.html
I saw this invite to Beulah Land that in turn lead me to this thread.
ReplyDeletehttp://gallery.98bowery.com/paintings-by-josh-exhibition-invitation-1985/
I was just reminiscing about the East Village, Kiev and pierogies at 2am and found this thread. BEULAHLAND was my favorite spot on the strip, chill and good music, nice crowd. Miss it lots. Thanks for keeping this thread up. Great photos and feels from my old hood.
ReplyDeleteBabka at the Kiev!
ReplyDeleteSigh. I remember buelah land. Lived in the apt above where Westville is . The storefront was empty the whole time. Lost innocence. Sigh. Can’t say I miss Korova milk bar noise & shaking the building. Can’t sleep. Housing court tomorrow, again. F.U. Empire biscuit.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting these photographs! The memory is a slippery thing, as one thing replaces another with increasing rapidity, and so few businesses can hang on for very long thanks to hyper-gentrification. These bring back very physical/sensual memories for me that had been lost.
ReplyDelete