Photo by Stacie Joy
We'll have more photos from the start of the Drag March in Tompkins Square Park later this weekend...
Friday, June 27, 2025
'Tell' it like it is
Brooklyn's Big Girl is one of the bands on the bill this Sunday afternoon (June 29, 2-6 p.m.) in another free Show Brain-sponsored show in Tompkins Square Park.
The video here is for "I Can't Tell" from their EP Dye.
Pride Weekend 2025
Photo from 2024 by Stacie Joy
The 31st edition of the Drag March will get Pride Weekend underway this evening, starting in Tompkins Square Park at Ninth Street ... with the annual walk-march-protest to the Stonewall Inn.
Participants will start gathering in Tompkins after 7 p.m.
Tomorrow, the NYC Dyke March will step off from Bryant Park at 5 p.m. ... heading south to Washington Square Park. This year's theme: "Dykes Say No to Fascism."
Visit the NYC Pride website for a complete list of Pride-related activities this weekend.
Demoliton awaits the longtime sidewalk vendor space on St. Mark’s Place
As we reported on June 9, the longtime vendors here left earlier in the year... as the building's new-ish landlord planned for removal.
For decades, vendors sold items like (cheaply made) sunglasses, floppy hats, wigs, (cheaply made) umbrellas, and novelty holiday fare from the kiosks. They were a familiar and welcome presence here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The war on the roses
There will be no rosesThe Rose Murderer is nipping them in the bud
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Hawkward teen phase: Young red-tailed hawks settle into Tompkins Square Park
Photos by Steven
The three juvenile red-tailed hawks continue to explore their new home in Tompkins Square Park, seemingly unbothered by this week's inferno. (There are puddles to help.)
The young ones are entertaining, learning how to use those things called wings...
Here's a recent photo of a post-clumsy exchange between mother Amelia (on the left) and one of the offspring... they are looking at the dinner rat that plummeted to the main lawn.
As Goggla documented (here and here), the hawklets are honing their skills, from learning to hunt ... balancing on tree limbs ... and staring down pesky squirrels.
This is the first brood for Amelia, the resident female red-tailed hawk in Tomkins Square Park, and her new male companion, aka M2. This marks Amelia's eighth season raising chicks in Tompkins.
Gnocco celebrates 25 years on 10th Street
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Gnocco is celebrating 25 years in business at 337 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Owner Gian Luca Giovanetti (above) started serving Northern Italian comfort food in this space in July 2000.
The native of Modena, Italy, previously owned family restaurants and bars there before relocating to NYC. Longtime East Village residents will likely recall his other neighborhood establishments, including Cafe Pick Me Up on the NW corner of Avenue A and Ninth Street, and Perbacco on Fourth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.
Giovanetti said that Gnocco has always been about more than meals. "It's about moments that mark joy, offer comfort, and bring people together," he said.
I stopped by the other day, just before dinner service started...
Open daily... Monday-Thursday noon to 10 p.m.; noon to 11 p.m. on Friday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Taqueria Diana has apparently closed on 2nd Avenue
Tipsters report that the space has been cleared out, and delivery is no longer available via the usual apps.
There isn't any notice about a closure — temporary or otherwise — on Taqueria Diana's website and social media. (The phone is not in service.)
The quick-serve taco shop debuted in July 2013.
News of a closure may not come as a total shock — the building has a newish landlord. In a sale announced last July, Ryco Capital purchased the three buildings at 127-129 Second Ave. and 36 St. Mark's Place from Jonis Realty (which is run by Citi Urban Management, also owned by the Helegua family) for $29 million.
Next door to Taqueria Diana, Misoya shut down in April. Eim Khao Mun Kai, a celebrated Thai-style chicken-and-rice specialist in Elmhurst, is in the works for that space.
Openings: Empire Gourmet Deli on Avenue C
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Empire Gourmet Deli debuted yesterday at 27 Avenue C between Second Street and Third Street... (and oddly, just a building away from the recently opened 6ixth Borough Deli).
They offer your usual deli-market fare... plus they sell beer...
... and a variety of sandwiches, burgers, wraps, paninis, fresh-squeezed juice, etc.
The previous tenant was Space on Ave C, a smoke shop that was busted and shuttered.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Too hot to handle: Fire truck sinks into this Lower East Side street
Photos by John Huntington
From today on Eldridge at Grand on the Lower East Side... in the stifling heat, the front tire of a truck from Engine Company 9 on Canal Street sank into the street...
Officials called it a sinkhole... the truck was eventually safely removed ...
Primary Election Night 2025
Photos by Daniel Efram
Last evening, d.b.a. on First Avenue hosted a watch party for Zohran Mamdani.
And it turned out to be a night to remember for his supporters as the 33-year-old Democratic socialist from Queens appeared set to win the Democratic nomination for NYC mayor over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Although a winner won't be officially declared until July 1 due to the city's ranked-choice voting system, Cuomo conceded less than two hours after the polls closed at 9 p.m.
Mamdani carried about 43.5% of the vote, in what Democratic political strategist Trip Yang described to Gothamist as "the biggest upset in modern New York City history." (Read more: 5 takeaways from the NYC mayoral primary at The Hill.)
He will now face off against Mayor Adams, who's running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in November. He may also see Cuomo again, per Axios and other published reports.
In the race for term-limited Carlina Rivera's City Council seat in District 2, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein appears to be headed for victory with nearly 40% of the vote, per The New York Times. He is followed by Sarah Batchu (21.2%), Andrea Gordillo (21.1%), Anthony Weiner (10.3%), and Allie Ryan (7.3%).
RIP Marcia Resnick
Marcia Resnick with Andy Warhol and William Burroughs in 1980
Photo by Victor Bockris via @marcia.resnick
Marcia Resnick, a photographer known for her striking portraits of cultural figures from the Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s — including Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, Johnny Thunders and Mick Jagger — died on June 17. She was 74.
The cause was lung cancer, her sister Janice Hahn told The Washington Post.
A Brooklyn native, Resnick graduated from Cooper Union in 1972 and earned a master of fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973, where she studied with artist John Baldessari.
In a bio recounting her early years, Resnick described teaching photography at Queens College and NYU by day, and spending her nights immersed in the city's punk and art scenes — photographing musicians and artists at venues like CBGB, Max's Kansas City and the Mudd Club.
"Guilty at spending so much time in clubs, I convinced myself that my photographic forays into the night were my art," she wrote.
Her work for publications like the SoHo Weekly News and New York Magazine gave her access to many of the era's key cultural figures, whom she often photographed both candidly and in stylized studio sessions.
Many of these portraits were featured in her 2015 book, "Punks, Poets and Provocateurs: New York City Bad Boys 1977–1982," one of several she published during her career.
"She was the person who connected most with that scene and reproduced it in the photographs and all its people," her friend and collaborator Victor Bockris told The Washington Post.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among others. The George Eastman Museum called her "one of the most ambitious and innovative American photographers of the 1970s."
1st look at the parking-garage-replacing condoplex on 9th Street
Last week, we noted that workers have completed the demolition of the former Little Man Parking garage (aka LaSalle Parking) at 220 E. Ninth St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.
Now, more details are available about what's to come — an 18-unit luxury condoplex "blending classic Downtown loft architecture and industrial-chic details with modern luxury."
Representatives for Arcus, the designer-developer whose past projects include 150 Wooster and The Wythe Lane Townhouses, shared photos and details of 220e9th.
The homes range from one to four bedrooms, and seven of the residences will have terraces. There will also be three penthouses.
Amenities included a 24-hour attended lobby, sauna, fitness center with Pilates studio, pet grooming station, and Japanese-style garden.
Here's a website for more info... sales start this fall.
The garage closed in April 2023 after the Department of Buildings issued a vacate order on the property following the deadly collapse at the Little Man garage on Ann Street in the Financial District.
Per the DOB vacate order: "The occupied parking structure with concrete framing observed to be in a state of disrepair at several locations in cellar level... crushed column base observed at several locations in cellar level ... vertical cracks observed inside elevator shaft and on masonry walls."
The address was offered as a "redevelopment project" in August 2023.
Budget Car Rental and Tori-Bien, a restaurant that specialized in Japanese fried chicken, were also forced to leave their retail spaces at this address.
Gametime for the former Superiority Burger space on 9th Street
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Gametime is set to open in early August at 430 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, in the former home of Superiority Burger (which relocated to 119 Avenue A several years ago).
Owner Michael Douglas Soza, who once lived on St. Mark's Place and now resides in Brooklyn, says the menu will focus on casual favorites — pizza, wings, fries, and soft drinks — with the possibility of beer being added later on.
The small space will feature a television for sports or classic movies. Soza also plans to dedicate a corner to dog rescue, a cause he's passionate about.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Tuesday's parting shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
Per AccuWeather:
In New York City, the temperature fell just shy of hitting triple digits, but the high of 99 degrees was still enough to best the previous daily record for the date, surpassing the high of 96 degrees set on June 24, 1888.
Leave a comment if you recall that day's heatwave!
A cold front is expected to move through the area on Thursday and Friday, with afternoon high temperatures in the 70s. (Please do not complain that it's too cold for June.)
Elizabeth Street Garden lives on
Per published reports, District 1 City Councilmember Christopher Marte has agreed to support the rezoning of three other parcels that could create more than 600 affordable units across Lower Manhattan while preserving the Elizabeth Street Garden as a publicly accessible space.
East Village-based artist Marcellus Hall shared the above illustrations on Instagram...
Reminders: It's Primary Election Day
There are three citywide positions on the ballot — mayor, comptroller and public advocate.
In the East Village, a key race to watch is for the City Council District 2 seat, as Carlina Rivera is term-limited.
The names of the Democratic candidates below are linked to their campaign websites:
You can find your poll site here. Vote.NYC has more background here. Find info on all the candidates here.
The Associated Press has an explainer on how ranked-choice voting works at this link.
And leading up to today, there was a solid turnout in early voting...
New shop from Scarr’s and L’Industrie alum to bring old-school NYC slices to the East Village
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The former home of Il Gusto Pizza and Proto’s Pizza at 50 Second Ave. is getting a new tenant — and a fresh take on classic New York slices.
Andrea's Pizza, set to open in the weeks ahead here between Second Street and Third Street, is the first solo venture from chef and owner Andrea Kenuti, a veteran of Scarr's Pizza on Orchard Street, where he worked for seven years, and L'Industrie in the West Village.
"I'm going for a classic vibe," he said, describing the shop's interior plans — retro booths, Tiffany-style lamps, and a menu centered on traditional NY-style pizza made with organic, carefully sourced ingredients.
Daily hours will be noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday, until 2 a.m.
Soft drinks only, no beer and wine, although Kenuti doesn't rule it out for the future.
"I just want to get the place open as soon as possible, and I'm going to be here every day," he said.
New signage is on the way, and Kenuti shared a preview of the logo...
A website is in the works.
Signage alert: Time Out Market on 14th Street
As we reported in late March, the food hall is slated for the ground floor of Zero Irving (formerly the Union Square Tech Training Center, 14 @ Irving, and tech hub).
Here are details from Time Out on what to expect:
The 10,000-square-foot market hall will soon house seven kitchens, a fully-stocked bar and a stage set to host talent and performances from local artists. The 300-seat space will also feature an outdoor terrace. The new destination will build upon the legacy of Time Out Markets across the world — all with the mission of featuring the city’s best and up-and-coming culinary and cultural talents.
Time Out currently has 10 similar markets worldwide, including a 24,000-foot converted warehouse that opened in 2019 in Dumbo.
The new market is expected to open in the fall.
Urbanspace Union Square had its food hall here from December 2022 to March.
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