Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Tuesday's parting shot

A scene from the Great Heatwave of May 31 in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Derek Berg...

6 posts from May

A mini month in review... with a photo from the Ukrainian Festival on Seventh Street by D.R. Grimes... 

• After deadly shooting, fearful residents speak out about the drug activity on Avenue D & 3rd Street (May 18

•  Hello Mary takes the stage at Webster Hall (May 17

• Councilmember Carlina Rivera calls for an immediate end to the city's encampment sweeps (May 9

• Welcoming baby Isabella Jane (May 8

• About Raife Milligan, the NYU student who police said was killed by a drunken driver on Houston Street (May 6

• Italian favorite Via Della Pace opens in new East Village home on 4th Street (May 2)

CB3 presents a panel on 'Serving and Supporting Our Families & Youth Experiencing Homelessness'

On Thursday, Community Board 3's is Human Services Committee is sponsoring a virtual panel titled "Serving and Supporting Our Families & Youth Experiencing Homelessness." 

You can register to attend the session, which starts at 6:30 p.m., via this link.

Luzzo's debuts on Avenue B, closes on 1st Avenue

The new outpost of Luzzo's La Pizza Napoletana is now open on the SE corner of Avenue B and Second Street. (First reported here.) 

Here, the pizzeria from the Luzzo's brand offers a variety of slices, 10- and 16-inch pies, assorted salads ... and other entrees, including eggplant parmigiana, meatballs and lasagna. There are a handful of tables for in-restaurant dining. Google lists the hours as daily from noon to 9 p.m., with a 10 p.m. close Fridays and Saturdays.

Meanwhile, the original Luzzo's (circa 2004) at 211 First Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street is now closed (photos below by Steven) ...
There is a Marshal's Legal Possession notice on the gate...
The interior has been cleaned out...
The pizzeria's coal oven, which dates to 1936, remains in the space inside. The Scott's Pizza Tour site has the fascinating history behind this particular coal oven... and why landlords likely aren't big fans of them. You can find the article here.

Michele Iuliano, the restaurateur and pizzaiolo behind the Luzzo's brand, operates several NYC establishments, including Gnoccheria at 234 E. Fourth St.

The Avenue B address was previously home to the Wafels & Dinges cafe (and corporate office) for nearly eight years. W&D, which still operates from kiosks and food trucks around the city, moved out in March 2021.

44 Stuyvesant St. is on the sale market for the first time — ever

One of the most historic homes in the East Village (and NYC!) — 44 Stuyvesant St. — is now on the sales market for the first time, well, forever, apparently. 

Here's the listing via Corcoran
The location of this house within the St. Mark's Historic district cannot be more picturesque than where Stuyvesant Street meets East 10th Street. A wonderful and truly magnificent early Federal House that was built in 1795, for Nicholas William Stuyvesant, the great-great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant. This house has immense historical significance as it is the oldest building in Manhattan that has been used continuously as a single-family house. 

This is an elegant home ... with large rooms that possess beautiful proportions it also has 8 fireplaces. The scale of the house allows for extremely gracious living with 5 bedrooms and 4 and half bathrooms plus a formal dining room and a great artist studio that is 23' x 28' with a skylight also known as the atelier with soaring 12.5' ceilings! A lovingly landscaped garden is here too. This house has never been on the market for sale before. This is an exceptionally unique opportunity to own a piece of Dutch New York history — a true treasure! 
Asking price: $8.9 million. 

This link has some interior pics. 

And the house was on the sales market very briefly last year, but the listing was pulled.

Anyway, here is some more history from a February 2022 feature at the Post
Back in 1795, Nicholas William Stuyvesant — the great-great-grandson of the 17th-century Dutch colonial officer and governor of New Netherland (which became New York and New Jersey), Peter Stuyvesant — built the house for his wife, Catherine. The couple raised their nine children in the house, and more than 200 years later, it remains Manhattan's only building from the 18th century used purely and continually as a residence. 
And via Atlas Obscura
In 1969, the house was designated a landmark as part of the St. Mark’s Historic District. At this time it was one of the oldest houses to be used continuously as a residence in Manhattan. It rivals the Jumel Mansion and the Dyckman farmhouse as one of the oldest homes in the city, but it is certainly the furthest downtown.

Openings: Everytable on Avenue B

Everytable debuted last week at 229 Avenue B between 13th Street and 14th Street.

As previously noted, this is the California-based company's first foray into NYC (a Chelsea outpost is also open now). 

Everytable offers a handful of grab-and-go meals (as well as some juices and smoothies). Menu items include the Turkey Taco Bowl ($6.25), Thai Red Curry with Veggies ($6.30) and Chicken Shawarma with Yogurt Sauce ($7.15). The most expensive menu item we saw: Salmon Superfood Salad ($8.15). 

There are a few tables for dining ... and you can also order ahead for pickup. Other features: You can buy a meal for someone via Everytable's "Pay It Forward" service

Thanks to both Brian Carroll and @eastvillagetours for sharing photos...
This location is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Coming soon to 14th Street: Fries Factory, Urban Juicery

Signage is up for two new businesses coming to the north side of 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. 

Fries Factory is slated for 245 E. 14th St. ... presumably, a quick-serve establishment serving French fries. 

The space was previously Mani in Pasta, which closed during the early months of the pandemic. 

And a few storefronts to the west... Urban Juicery is set for No. 229, offering smoothies, açaí bowls, sandwiches, wraps, salads, etc.
They have an Instagram account here

This storefront was last Beyond Sushi, which closed last fall after nine years in service.

Monday, May 30, 2022

Monday's parting shot

St. Mark's Place stoop view early this evening... thanks to Raquel Shapira for the photo...

Noting

Always seems that people only discard large stuffed bears on warm days

Thanks to the EVG reader for this photo on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B

The stately 122 E. 10th St. is for sale

The two-unit building at 122 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue hit the market in recent days. 

Here's what you'll get ... via the listing
Rare opportunity to own a stunning, renovated and historically significant 2-unit building on the highly coveted Renwick Triangle. Located on a picturesque tree-lined block in the East Village, this 18' wide, six-story Anglo-Italianate townhouse features original architectural details and is beautifully renovated with luxury sustainable materials to create a true masterpiece of architecture and design. Built by famed architect James Renwick Jr., best known for creating St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Smithsonian Institute, this unique home built in 1858 is where past and present magnificently intersect. 

This home will be delivered vacant and is perfect for either an end-user or as an investment opportunity. It can be used as a single-family residence, or a 2-family home — giving the owner an opportunity for rental income and live/work. 
Asking price: $9.2 million. 

As the Post noted, photographer Alexi Lubomirski and his wife Giada are the current owners. Molly Ringwald and Panio Gianopoulos owned the upstairs apartment before selling it to the Lubomirskis for $1.7 million in 2016. 

Unrelated sort of — Alexander Skarsgård is selling his co-op across the street. Perhaps he's getting a more prominent place — given that GoJo is buying Waystar Royco!

The Salads Days of our lives

Top photo by Steven yesterday

Superiority Burger is putting its former space to use for a Salads Days pop up here on Mondays and Saturdays at 430 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

An explanation via the SB/SD Insta
This season's greenmarket vegetables and fruits turned into fun as hell salads and ice creams two times a week. No burgers, no beans, no baldor, no bread, nothing cooked. The ovens won't get turned on because they don't work anyway. Your *new* favorite east 9th st. storefront. 
Salads Days starts today, from 5-9 p.m. ... and will happen on Saturdays too from 2-6 p.m.

Superiority Burger closed the Ninth Street HQ (but held onto it) in November ahead of a move to a larger space at 119 Avenue A between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place — the former Odessa.

Here's a look inside the old Odessa the other week courtesy of Stacie Joy (and some brown paper peeled away from inside the front window)...       
No word on an opening date here. 

The popular all-vegetarian quick-serve spot opened in the East Village in June 2015

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Sunday's parting shot

Today during the Loisaida Festival on Avenue C... photo by Derek Berg...

Reader report: Private security firm now keeping tabs on unhoused encampment on 9th Street

Photo by Jose Garcia 

Several readers have noted that the unhoused encampment is back under the sidewalk bridge along the former P.S. 64 on Ninth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. (The city has unsuccessfully attempted to place the residents in shelters multiple times this spring, resulting in several arrests.) 

The arrival of the tents also prompted someone to hire private security. It's not known who may have enlisted the services of Madison Security Group.

Per one local resident: "A Madison Security car was stationed alongside the encampment all last night with its lights flashing at them."


Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included ... (with a photo on 1st Avenue by Derek Berg) ... 

• Acclaimed Adda Indian Canteen relocating to the East Village (Monday

• Police looking for 2 suspects in an attack on 2nd Avenue and 4th Street that left victim with a skull fracture (Wednesday

• P&T Knitwear, a new bookstore, cafe and podcast studio, opens on Orchard Street (Friday

•  'Justice' league: A street co-naming on 6th and Avenue B (Tuesday)

• Guerra Paint is now closed ahead of move to Williamsburg (Tuesday

• Amelia and Christo's chicks looking ready to wing it in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday

• Watching the Dance Parade and DanceFest (Sunday

• City frees tree entombed in concrete on 3rd Street (Tuesday

• Gutting 207 E. 4th St., onetime home of Bob Arihood (Wednesday

• Parting spring thoughts on the wisteria of Stuyvesant Street (Thursday

• SMØR is opening a bakery (with bread!) on 12th Street (Monday

• New open space at DEP site debuts on 4th Street near the Bowery (Thursday

• Opening at the 292 Theatre/Gallery: 'Hard Journey in Space and Time' (Monday

• Tompkins Square Bagels makes it signage official on Union Square West (Wednesday

• The 27th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is this weekend at Theater for the New City (Friday)

• A bubble tea shop for this long-vacant storefront on 14th Street (Monday

• Reader report: Empanada Mama opening at the former Papaya Dog space on 14th and 1st (Tuesday

• Are you ready to Puff & Pass? (Tuesday

• FULL reveal at 118 E. 1st St. (Friday)

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Follow EVG on Instagram or Twitter for more frequent updates and pics.

EVG Etc.: the new 10th Congressional District candidates; the pop-up version of Angel's Share

• Meet the new 10th Congressional District candidates, including former Mayor de Blasio and current City Councilmember Carlina Rivera (Gothamist ... City & State)

• City streets near schools are uniquely dangerous (Streetsblog

• Albany lawmakers are poised to approve a long-sought Preservation Trust for the NYCHA. Good news for residents or..? (The City)

• The city's eight beaches are officially open (NY1)

• A Q&A between novelist Ottessa Moshfegh and Iggy Pop (Document Journal

• Great pix of the three Tompkins Square red-tailed hawk chicks (Laura Goggin Photography)

• Former East Village bar Angel's Share will be a pop up at Hotel Eventi on Sixth Avenue near 30th Street this summer (The New York Times... previously on EVG

• Lady Wong offering an Indonesian rainbow cake for Pride Month (TONY ... previously on EVG

• About Loisida — "a new brand with a baroque take on Lower East Side style" (Vogue ... previously on EVG

• A UK look at "New York's hipster wars" (The New Statesman
 
• Couple tries to walk out of a Chelsea gallery with a Basquiat (Hyperallergic)

Sunday's opening shots

Good morning from East Houston (above) and Fourth Street (courtesy of Derek Berg) ...

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Saturday's parting shot

A reader shared this photo today on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... a Merry Christmas and a blessed Memorial Day Weekend to everyone!

'Memorial Day Madness' today in Tompkins Square Park with 6 bands

There's a slate of six bands on tap for Tompkins Square Park this afternoon (2-6 p.m.) ... the start of the summer concert season via The Shadow.

The Loisaida Festival is TOMORROW

The 35th edition of the Loisaida Festival returns tomorrow (Sunday!) on Avenue C... (the event was virtual the past two years).  

Most of the activities will be taking place between Fifth Street and 12th Street, the site of the main stage with a slate of live bands and DJs throughout the afternoon. 

The Festival is from noon to 5 p.m. ... with an opening parade starting at 11 a.m. featuring Batalá New York, the all-women, Black-led percussion ensemble. 

You can find the full list of performers and other events at this link.

By the way, Chico created this year's festival poster.

Friday, May 27, 2022

Friday's parting shot

A moment during the downpour late this afternoon on Second Avenue... photo by Derek Berg...

Hair and now

 

Sudan Archives has new music out ... here's "Selfish Soul," a song about women and the celebration of hair.

Last 2 days for the 'Rotten to the Apple' NYC punk photo show at C-Squat

Photos by Stacie Joy

There are two days left to check out "Rotten to the Apple" an NYC punk photo show featuring the work of 30-plus photographers at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space/C-Squat on Avenue C. (Previously.)

The show ends tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy recently stopped by the space...
... lots of great work here, including EVG friend Walter Wlodarczyk...
You can access the free show, curated by Destiny Mata and David Siffert, via MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street. 

Today's hours: 1-6 p.m. ... and tomorrow noon to 4 p.m.

P&T Knitwear, a new bookstore, cafe and podcast studio, opens tomorrow on Orchard Street

P&T Knitwear, the neighborhood's latest bookstore, debuts tomorrow (Saturday!) at 180 Orchard St. between Houston and Stanton.

P&T Knitwear is a family-owned independent bookstore, podcast studio, event space and cafe ... "run by a team of passionate lifelong readers and listeners."
As previously reported (first by the publishing industry newsletter Shelf Awareness), Bradley Tusk, the venture capitalist and philanthropist who founded the Gotham Book Prize in 2020, and general manager and buyer Julie Wernersbach are behind the new venture. 

In 1952, Tusk's grandfather, Hymie Tusk, and his business partner Mike Pudlo opened the original P&T Knitwear, a small shop selling sweaters and collared shirts at 37½ Allen St. Per the store's website, "the two men survived the Holocaust and met in an American displacement camp in Germany after the war."

The 3,000-square-foot bookstore is open this weekend from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can find a list of specials and promos here.  

The 27th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is this weekend at Theater for the New City

Via the EVG inbox...
The 27th annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts is on for three full days this Memorial Day weekend, from Friday, May 27-Sunday, May 29, at Theater for the New City, with a wide array of free indoor and outdoor offerings that include theater, music, dance, video, film, poetry, cabaret, an art exhibition, and a youth program, along with food and vendors. 
Find the full list of activities here

Theater for the New City is at 155 First Ave. at 10th Street.

Panda Express makes it signage official on the SW corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue

Orange Chicken, incoming!

The Panda Express Chinese Kitchen signage arrived yesterday on the SW corner of 14th Street and First Avenue, as EVG regular Pinch shows us...
News of the PE arrival first surfaced in January (31 comments!).

This marks the latest outpost for the quick-serve Chinese restaurant chain that launched in California in 1983 ... with more than 2,000 locations today (with a handful around NYC). 

An AT&T store was here for a few months... taking over for the Vitamin Shoppe.

FULL reveal at 118 E. 1st St.

Last week, we reported that sales have commenced at 118 E. First St., the 9-story condoplex between Houston/Avenue A and First Avenue. 

Workers have now removed the scaffolding and construction netting from the building, offering a better look at the "collection of four townhouse-style duplexes with direct, keyed elevator access and private outdoor spaces."
Also yesterday, an EVG reader pointed out 118's pièce de résistance on the market ...
Tour de force of 118 E 1st, the penthouse triplex is a stunning space converging between a downtown industrial loft aesthetic that meets a modern architectural vision. Upon stepping off the elevator you are instantly awed by the 15’ ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows. The dining room is set back with a stunning south-facing terrace, perfect for enjoying an indoor/outdoor environment while overlooking clear downtown views. 
Asking price: $7.2 million. This includes Siberian Marble Herringbone heated flooring in the can bathroom.

Foundation work started on this building in 
the spring of 2018.

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Thursday's parting shot

It's Fleet Week... and as seen on Seventh Street and First Avenue... members of the USS Bataan... thanks to Steven for the photo...

New open space at DEP site debuts on 4th Street near the Bowery

Work is complete on the new open space on Fourth Street between 2 Cooper Square and the Merchant's House Museum.

EVG reader JOY spotted the gates open yesterday... with a few folks inside the long-empty lot ...
According to the Parks Department website, construction is now 100% complete... and the completion date was moved up from October to this month.

As noted in previous posts, since the 1990s, the Department of Environmental Preservation has used this city-owned space to work on shafts connected to the underground network of tunnels that supply NYC's drinking water. 

Several years ago, there were public meetings to gather ideas for "passive recreation space" here between the Bowery and Lafayette. And this is the result of those.

As a few readers have noted, the design couldn't include large trees because the space is above the water-tunnel site ... and the roots would interfere.  

And to be clear, this is still an active DEP site... and, occasionally, city trucks will need to access the space... as the schematic shows...

[Updated] Can you Handel some opera in a community garden?

UPDATED!
Due to the rain expected on Friday, organizers have moved opening night to tomorrow (Saturday) and added a Sunday show. Friday reservations are being honored for both Saturday and Sunday. And per the organizers: "Come as you are. All are welcome."

Via the EVG inbox...
Opera Praktikos (OPrak) will present a one-act distillation of Handel's rarely performed opera, "Orlando" in collaboration with Opera Essentia as their inaugural presentation in the NY OperaFest

This distillation of Handel’s masterpiece, here titled "Orlando: Hero of Love," explores love and madness from contemporary sensibilities, centering on what it means to love truly and how to endure pain and loss.
Performances occur tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday at Campos Community Garden on 12th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C. There is an encore presentation on June 10-11. The start time is 6:30 p.m. Tickets are free, and you can reserve seats via this link.

In the photo below, Opera Praktikos co-founders Gregory Moomjy and Marianna Mott Newirth check out Campos Community Garden (photo by Dailin Mercedes) ...

Parting spring thoughts on the wisteria of Stuyvesant Street

Photos by Steven

On May 11, we pointed out — with concern! — that the wisteria ("the purple paradise of flowering beauty") outside 35 Stuyvesant St. at 10th Street never reached a full bloom this season. (See pic above.)

There were comments (and whispers!) that the wisteria was, perhaps, suffering from a root disease or some issue with the vines.

In any event, as this photo from yesterday shows, the wisteria is looking pretty lush as we move deeper into the spring... into the opening weekend for "Top Gun: Maverick."