[Saturday morning]
On Friday, workers plywooded part of the storefront on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place… where a retail outpost of DF Mavens has been in the works, as we reported back in October.
This was from the official news release on the opening:
“We’re very excited to open our first dedicated storefront and plant our flag in the vibrant East Village food scene,” states Malcolm Stogo, a world-renowned ice cream consultant and founder of DF Mavens. “Our new retail outpost will allow us to bring delicious, dairy-free ice cream to a greater segment of New Yorkers who want vegan-friendly dessert options … ”
And here are renderings of the space via Edelman Sultan Knox Wood / Architects LLP:
Working closely with fixture suppliers and lighting designers, we created a unified presentation of DF Mavens’ offerings that are visible and engaging from the street. Storefront elements form a social buffer between the street and the sales counters. A wood canopy projects out to provide shade, and continues into the store to define intimate seating areas against both facades. Passers-by will notice the bright and energetic sales area through the minimalist wood and glass storefront, where custom light fixtures and displays create a sculptural product presentation. The store experience combines classic, natural materials with a modernist sensibility, complimenting DF Mavens’ approach to quality and craft in their forward-thinking desserts.
No word on an official opening date yet. (They originally said Spring 2014.)
Eastside Bakery (.net?) closed down here in April 2013. And once upon a time, the space was home to the Gap in the late 1980s into the early 1990s.
29 comments:
Not very punk rock.
...Sheikh Fahad Al Athel, Chairman of Fal Holdings, and renowned ice cream expert Malcolm Stogo collaborated on the formation of the new global entity, Fal Foods Worldwide...a subsidiary of Fal Holdings Saudi Arabia, a worldwide company with ownership in food, transportation, airports, and investment companies worldwide...Our diverse portfolio consists of DF Mavens...
Sounds delicious!
"Storefront elements form a social buffer between the street and the sales counters."?
What does this mean – "Our store has walls"?
artisinal (adj): An insignificant entry on the balance sheet of a Saudi global mega-conglomerate.
such corporate speech which means squat. one more business I have zero interest in every patronizing.
I hear their chocolate sheikh is to die for! #FunWithHomophones
That writing is so bad. Who speaks like a brochure?
From the authentic funkiness of Kim's Video, formerly located on the second floor, to "forward-thinking desserts".
"Sad" is all I can come up with right now.
It just continues to get worse.
This sounds like an undergrad Marketing writing project.
Where's the St Marks shitter when you need him? Anyone up for an IndieGoGo campaign to fund an "art" project?
The rendering is useless without images of crusties sitting down outside the store with their dogs.
Who cares, it wont last more than a year
"Forward-thinking"? I don't really want my desserts to think at all.
I don't get it - do NYU students live only on coffee and froyo? How many fake ice cream places can the area support?
Strange
It doesn't matter; the tourists and transients and college students that clog-up and down St. mark's Pl. and the EV will eat this up and think that this is soooooooo NYC, clean and shiny and posh and they'd feel like they're living the life of a Scary Sadshaw.
I feel that even the douchebaggiest of yupsters will turn up their nose at this. It would be a tough go, even if there were not several other highly fetishized ice creams joints in the vicinity. From the sound of things, this sounds like a rich person's clueless vanity project through and through, so hard to feel too bad about it.
Why does everyone have to fuck with ice cream? Its goddam delicious and doesn't need fixing.
Shit in a crock - or a hoof. That's all this is.
I'm always on the lookout for "energetic sales areas". Pffft.Handjob.
Don't these guys understand they are 3-4 years too late? Bloomberg is gone. Quality of life policing and stop and frisk are on the way out. Its a new era in NYC now. Things are going to start going back to the way they were pre Giuliani. This business will not last as the customers will start fleeing the EV and then the rest of NYC. Why do you think all the luxury developments got their approvals during the last year of Bloombergs reign of error? The new administration has new rules the developers aren't interested in. Get ready for the new city. If you moved here during Bloombergs reign its going to be very different and uncomfortable for you. But for the rest of us its going to be a plus. Run out the wall st types and the bros and the bridge and tunnel crowd and their ilk and give us the hood back.
So we're getting a fake ice cream shop with fake décor from a chain owned by anti-women jihadist-supporting Saudis who like to behead and stone people to death. Yeah, right, I'll be the first on line...to throw stones at THEM. Pow! Right through the windows; or should I say "Transparent viewpoints from the street to the artisanal [correct spelling] elements within." Gag me with a caber.
I remember when that corner housed the Naked Grape, a purveyor of fine hippie clothing. Bring back the Grape!
All the hatred in this thread is just comical. What exactly did this store or its owners do to deserve this?
I'm curious to try it out. I'm vegetarian, mostly vegan, and yet I like ice cream...so if this place is good, I'll be a regular. There are not many businesses who sell dairy-free deserts. This is a positive addition to the neighborhood, as I see it (assuming the quality will be good).
- East Villager
I dislike the design of the store and think it's particularly incongruous with St. Marks. That said, as someone who is allergic to soy and dairy the fact that there is going to be a place to get ice cream that has neither of these ingredients (I hear they will have both soy and coconut based ice cream) is kind of welcome.
To "East Villager"
The "hate" exists, I would assume, because people think the east village doesn't need more fancy frogurt corporate places. The old east village was funky and vibrant. Stuff like this is why it sucks now. Does that answer your question? I would assume you would understand this, seeing as you are a self-proclaimed "east villager"...
What's artisanal about a "15,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Astoria, Queens"?
This place is more of the same inauthentic, formulaic, boardroom-crafted, transient-targeting, focus-grouped, deep-pocketed corporate crap that's already terminally infected the EV.
DF Mavens is available right now by the pint at Commodities, for anyone curious to try it out; it's a great alternative to dairy ice cream. Most people here seem to not realize that most people in the world are unable to digest dairy—hence the "forward-thinking desserts."
Most people seem not to realize, also, that most fro-yo and gelato in this neighborhood is dairy-based, which leaves a lot of us out. I'm looking foreword to this place opening, although I'm loyal to Blythe Anne's—formerly Lula's—on 6th street.
Oh—and when is someone going to doctor the "JimJoe" tag on the plywood to read "RimJob"?
I think the larger problem is this. Besides my personal feelings about the shop's design and location, Sheik Fahad Al Athel has been involved in enormous arms deals, the commissions details of which are cloaked under secrecy laws, and he has wanted to turn one of his purchases, a small airfield for light aircraft in Kent, England, into an larger business/holiday hub meant for Boeing and Airbus passenger jets. This would most certainly destroy the protected wildlife area it is located near, and more incredibly, this new airport would be three miles away from a nuclear power plant. Now this guy is a multimillionaire, and I am not, but I don't really jibe with arms deals and destroying protected wildlife areas.
His company's portfolio is enormous. Even if he operates at a loss with his flagship storefront, he will still be able to pay the rent at St. Marks. This, I think would send a message to other deep-pocketed businesses and landlords--if this is the kind of business people want, and they can pay, let's have more of them.
--Former East Villager
PS: What I find comical is the phrase "world-renowned ice cream consultant"...!
How is non-dairy ice cream "forward thinking"? Soy based ice cream has been around for ages and is available at almost every bodega/grocery store.
This is just corporate nonsense and another addition to the already bloated "foodie" culture of the new EV.
At least THE GAP didn't have a ridiculous "philosophy" when it occupied the space in the late 80's/early 90's. It just sat there looking out of place. Now, no large chain looks out of place.
*Sigh*
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