Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a reminder that it was HOT, via Stacie Joy)...

• Work is underway on Avenue B's permanent Open Street redesign (June 30) 

• The Swiss Institute to leave St. Mark's Place for a permanent home on the Bowery (June 30) 

• One last goodbye to Cozy Soup 'n' Burger (July 1) 

• Checking in on Gizmo (June 30) 

• Damn, I wish I was your lover: Take the EVG Loves Key Food playlist with you this summer (July 3) 

• Leftöver Crack returns to Tompkins Square Park (June 29) 

• Work underway on Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter mural on Jimmy Carter Way (June 29) 

• Photos: The Dollheads make their NYC debut in Tompkins Square Park (June 29) 

• NYC activates Heat Emergency Plan as dangerous heat grips the city (July 2) 

• Scenes from the annual Dyke March in Washington Square Park (June 28) 

• Fourth of July (July 4) 

• Dry Dock pool is ready for summer (July 2) 

• The Pizza Pusha says goodbye to 4th Street (July 1) 

• There’s still time to see "Art-Work: Balance" at the Clemente (July 2) 

• 6 posts from June (June 30) 

• More Christmas in June, but not for the usual reason (June 29) 

And one of the faux America 250 ads we spotted on Avenue A (via Winton Tseng)...

A place at the table: EV Grieve joins the Superiority Burger placemat

Photos by Stacie Joy 

We've always had a soft spot for the quirky, old-school placemats at Superiority Burger, 119 Avenue A. 

So it was a nice surprise to discover that EV Grieve has made it into the latest edition (bottom right). 

Thanks to Brooks and company for finding a spot for us...

We never imagined sharing placemat space with Academy Records, Casey Rubber Stamps, Gizmo, Trash and Vaudeville — not to mention the "Stomp" and Old Devil Moon ads and Dom DeLuise's handprint and autograph entombed in the sidewalk outside the former Theatre 80 on St Mark's Place ... but we'll happily take it.

Today is the last day for Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge on Avenue B

Photo of Elixir manager Eliott Edge by Stacie Joy 

Reporting by Stacie Joy 

Today is the last day for Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge at 167 Avenue B. 

Sunday hours: Noon to 10 p.m. 

Owner Abby Ehmann, who also operates Lucky Bar across the street, previously told us the closure is due to financial constraints, including more competition in the sober-friendly space. Read more here. 

The cafe-bar between 10th Street and 11th Street opened in January 2022. 

The staff will be moving down the avenue to Ehmann's upcoming venture, B Scene, at 50 Avenue B, between Third Street and Fourth Street.

1 more look at Friday evening's bonkers storm

An EVG reader shared this striking view from 10th Street after the Friday evening storm, with the sky split between a fiery orange glow and shades of blue.

Saturday's parting shot

A reader-submitted Fleet Week moment this evening from Orchard Street...

Where (and where not to) view the fireworks along the East River tonight

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Manhattan Community Board 3 (@manhattancb3)

In case you are interested in watching the 50th Macy's 4th of July Fireworks® tonight... top Insta post shows you where you can go. 

And like last year, a perfectly good spot for the public to watch the fireworks in a public park, the newly opened section of East River Park over the Delancey Street pedestrian bridge, is CLOSED.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by East River Park ACTION (@eastriverparkaction)

Fourth of July

Photo by Kelley Davis 

From the Poetry Window at East Village Books (99 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue) ... featuring this work by Donald Davis...

Fourth of July 

We are a united people

Confident that every shadow

Will pass over our drinking water

Move on without immolation

Of our beautiful women

Because ours is sacred

The distillation of many songs of

The unquestionable legends 

Of our shipwrecked ancestors 

The same shadows hid

Behind blessed sea walls

Which they had built so that

Conversations could be had

Away from the occultations

Of the various birds lined up

Well into the night waiting

To carry out innate missions.

For us it is just and proper

For the wars to end

Time and again

New ideologies to begin

Saturday's opening shots

An EVG reader noted that a limb came down last night during the storm on the west side of Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street... and how it's looking this am...

Friday's parting shot

Photo by Cecil Scheib 

A post-storm look to the west with Tompkins Square Park in the foreground...

Sands of time

 

The second record from Soft Palms — the wife-husband duo of Julia Kugel and Scott Montoya — came out on June 19... the above track is for the dream poppy "Garbage in the Sand." 

They'll be live at TV Eye in Ridgewood on Aug. 24.

Damn, I wish I was your lover: Take the EVG Loves Key Food playlist with you this summer

Reader-submitted photo

Text and uploads by EVG and Stacie Joy

Back in April, we launched the EVG Loves Key Food playlist on Spotify — 183 songs and roughly 13 hours of music of what's been playing over the speakers at the grocery on Avenue A and Fourth Street... the lost, forgotten, random and indelible pop and alternative songs of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Since then, we've added 36 more tracks we've heard in the aisles, bringing the total to 219 songs and more than 15 hours of listening, if our math is accurate. 

Recent additions to the playlist include Rush's "The Spirit of Radio," Eric Clapton's "It's in the Way That You Use It," Bananarama's "Venus" and The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." 

Find the list here.

And thank you to the 500-plus people who have saved the playlist — and to everyone who has sent along photos of the soundtrack in action.

To all of you, we have this to say: 

Damn, I wish I was your lover 

I'll rock you 'til the daylight comes 

Make sure you are smilin' and warm 

I am everything, tonight

I'll be your mother 

I'll do such things to ease your pain 

Free your mind and you won't feel ashamed, oh, oh

Open up on the inside, gonna fill you up, gonna make you cry 

 

  Previously on EV Grieve:

• Don't Disturb This Groove: We made a 13-hour Key Food playlist on Spotify 

• Avenue A's Key Food 1980s playlist, explained (sort of)

Friday's opening shots

EVG reader Roger Bultot shares these photos showing the movable platforms on the Brooklyn Bridge used to install fireworks and lasers for the 50th Macy's 4th of July Fireworks® Show ...

For the 250th U.S. bash, fireworks are launching from near the South Street Seaport, the lower Hudson River, and directly off the Brooklyn Bridge... and unofficially, from the multipurpose courts in Tompkins®.

Thursday's parting shots

EVG reader Bettina shares these photos from Union Square, where a crew was cleaning (via blowtorch) the bronze equestrian portrait of George Washington ...

Per the Parks website, this is "the oldest sculpture in the New York City Parks collection. It was modeled by Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886) and dedicated in 1856."

NYC activates Heat Emergency Plan as dangerous heat grips the city

Photos by Stacie Joy

With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees today and heat index values climbing as high as 112 degrees, NYC officials have activated its Heat Emergency Plan ahead of what could be the hottest day recorded in Central Park since July 18, 2012. 

An Extreme Heat Watch remains in effect citywide through 9 p.m. Saturday. The dangerous heat is expected to continue through the July 4 holiday weekend, with temperatures easing only slightly. 

The city says it is expanding efforts to help New Yorkers stay safe, including: 

• Opening hundreds of cooling centers across the five boroughs. 

• Deploying more than a dozen Cooling Outreach On-Location (COOL) vans to provide water, wellness checks, medical care and transportation to cooling centers or health-care facilities for vulnerable New Yorkers. 

• Expanding pop-up cooling stations with cold water, misting fans and cooling towels for outdoor workers, including street vendors, delivery workers and day laborers. 

• Displaying walking directions to the nearest cooling center on more than 2,200 LinkNYC kiosks citywide. 

Mayor Mamdani urged residents to take the prolonged stretch of extreme heat seriously (so no EVG one-liners here), stay hydrated, limit time outdoors when possible, and check in on neighbors, particularly older adults and others who may be more vulnerable to the heat.

"We're staring down what could be the hottest day New York City has seen in over a decade — and City government is taking historic measures to keep all New Yorkers cool and safe," Mamdani said in a media advisory. "Stay inside, look out for your neighbors, drink plenty of water, and watch out for signs of heat exhaustion such as confusion, nausea, and trouble breathing." 

You can find the nearest cooling center or playground spray showers by calling 311 or using the city's Cooling Center Finder via this link. 

Closer to home, cooling center options are limited, aside from the Tompkins Square and Ottendorfer library branches. Most of the options are for senior residents:

• Polish and Slavic Center, Inc. Older Adult Center 

103 E. Seventh St. 

9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday

• Meltzer Social Club, Older Adult Center

94 E. First St. 

8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday

 

• Educational Alliance Sirovich, Older Adult Center

331 E. 12th St. 

8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday

• UJCES Lillian Wald OAC Center, Older Adult Center

12 Avenue D

8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday

• Petco Union Square

Indoor - Cooling Center

44 Union Square Eaast 

9 a.m. to 9 p.m., daily

ConEd officials have also ramped up messaging...

We are mobilizing and activating our Emergency Response Center in advance of extreme heat and potential storms starting Wednesday. Our crews are working 24/7 to respond to any power issues and keep service reliable. Please use energy efficiently to stay safe and comfortable… pic.twitter.com/ZmSO2s3Yxi

— Con Edison (@ConEdison) June 30, 2026

Dry Dock pool is ready for summer

Photos by Stacie Joy 

City pools opened for the season this past Saturday, including the Tompkins Square Park mini pool, which we covered here.

If you're looking to cool off during the current heat wave, the neighborhood's two full-size outdoor pools — the Hamilton Fish Pool at Pitt Street and East Houston and the Dry Dock Pool at 10th Street and Avenue D — are now open daily. 

Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a break for pool cleaning from 3 to 4 p.m. During the current stretch of extreme heat, however, the city's Olympic- and intermediate-sized outdoor pools — including Hamilton Fish and Dry Dock — will remain open until 8:30 p.m. 

Earlier this week, we stopped by Dry Dock for a (non-swimming) visit...

One last goodbye to Cozy Soup 'n' Burger

The sign is gone now, too. As previously reported, Cozy Soup 'n' Burger closed on June 22, ending a 54-year run on Broadway at Astor Place. 

Third-generation owner John Strats cited a combination of rising food and supply costs and declining business. 

On Monday, workers removed the diner's familiar storefront signage. East Village artist Delphine Le Goff happened to be there and shared these photos...

For anyone hoping the sign might be preserved, there's some bittersweet news. We're told it was simply too large for the New York Sign Museum to take. 

Strats kept the "DINER" portion of the sign and discarded the rest. 

The sign had greeted generations of diners at Astor Place. Now it's another piece of neighborhood history that's gone.

Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Derek Berg 

Assigned seating for hawk watchers along Fourth Street near LaMama today...

Work is underway on Avenue B's permanent Open Street redesign

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

The Department of Transportation has officially begun construction on the permanent redesign of the Avenue B Open Street between Fourth Street and 12th Street, a project that will bring expanded pedestrian space, new bike connections, loading zones and intersection safety improvements to the corridor.

As we've been reporting, one of the biggest changes will be converting Avenue B to one-way northbound traffic for motorists between Seventh Street and 10th Street while creating a two-way bike connection along the entire corridor. 

The redesign also includes curb extensions, additional pedestrian space and other traffic-calming measures. 

The DOT will also add neighborhood loading zones at the beginning and end of each block to accommodate deliveries and reduce large-truck traffic along the corridor. Vans will continue to be permitted on Avenue B for deliveries, loading and unloading. 

Meanwhile, pedestrians can continue to use the Open Street daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Per DOT officials in a media release on Monday: 

The agency will redesign every intersection in the project area with new pedestrian curb extensions that are protected with planters, bike corrals, granite blocks, or other elements. 

These sidewalk expansions will provide the triple benefit of creating more public space for pedestrians and shortening crossing distances while also improving visibility between crossing pedestrians and other road users. 

We stopped by yesterday as DOT crews continued installing new signs along Avenue B.

One worker pointed out the newly installed "Do Not Enter" signs on the southbound side of B at 10th Street tied to the one-way traffic pattern.

As we stood there, car after car continued driving through them. 

"It will take some time for drivers to get used to it," the DOT worker said. "That happened at 14th Street too." 

Nearby, crews were installing new No Parking/No Standing signs, while fresh spray-painted markings on the pavement offered a preview of the new street layout.

Construction is expected to continue in phases over the coming months. The DOT says the project is intended to build on the success of the Open Street, which launched in 2020, while creating a safer and more permanent streetscape for pedestrians, cyclists and local businesses.

The Pizza Pusha says goodbye to 4th Street

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Stoned Gourmet Cannabis Pizza has closed at 235 E. Fourth St. near Avenue B. 

Owner Chris Barrett — better known to many customers as "The Pizza Pusha" — opened the restaurant in the fall of 2020, serving cannabis-infused pizzas, snacks and drinks in a space with blacked-out windows, a dining room and a private smoking lounge. 

Barrett said the closure came after a combination of building issues and an impasse with the landlord.

"The rats chased us out," he told EVG yesterday morning. "The rats are scaring my customers, especially at night. Plus electrical problems. The A/C is broken, and it costs $30,000 to fix, and the landlord won't help."

Barrett said he paid $12,500 a month in rent, plus an additional $10,000 for the apartments upstairs after tenants complained about smoke. 

"I stopped paying," he said. "I said that's it." 

According to Barrett, city marshals arrived yesterday morning shortly after he finished clearing out the space.

"I cleaned the place out at 8 a.m., and the marshal came at 9," he said.

The business isn't disappearing entirely. Barrett said everything — including the staff — is relocating to a new Astoria location featuring three floors, a backyard with a retractable roof and more parking. 

"I'm so sad to go," he said. "I love this place. I love the neighborhood. This was my first restaurant. All morning, people have come by to say they are sad to see us go." 

Barrett said he had hoped to resolve the building issues but ultimately couldn't justify making additional investments in the East Village location. 

"Up until a couple of days ago, I thought we could work things out, but in the end, no deal," he said.

As for what comes next at 235 E. Fourth St.? 

"You know what I think?" Barrett said. "I think this place is going to sit empty." 

HT to the EVG reader who first alerted us to the marshal's notice.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• A visit to Stoned Gourmet Cannabis Pizza

There's still time to see 'Art-Work: Balance' at the Clemente

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Above left: Curator Arthur Polendo 

and ABC No Rio ED Gavin Marcis

If you haven't made it over to "Art-Work: Balance" yet, there's still time. 

Organized by ABC No Rio and on view through July 12 at the Clemente Center, the group exhibition explores the often unseen balancing act between making art and earning a living.

Rather than depicting day jobs directly, the participating artists examine how work outside the studio — whether fulfilling, exhausting or simply necessary — shapes their creative lives and artistic practice.

"Art-Work: Balance" is on view on the fourth floor of the Clemente, 107 Suffolk St. between Rivington and Delancey. Gallery hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Previously on EV Grieve: • Inside the new ABC No Rio