Thursday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

From last night, the crew from Sixth Street Specials got back together at ABC Beer Co. on Avenue C... 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Packing up Sixth Street Specials

What's next for the Soda Club space on Avenue B

Text by Stacie Joy; reader-submitted photo 

We've recently noticed activity inside (and outside of!) 155 Avenue B near 10th Street, the former home of Soda Club.

A tipster tells us the space will be called Long Count, described as an aged-wine wine bar with slow-food vegan cuisine, and is aiming for an early-January opening. (Long Count is a Mayan term associated with the Mesoamerican calendar system, according to the Internet.)

Overthrow Hospitality, the vegan restaurant and bar group, still holds the lease on the space. We’ve reached out to them for details. 

Soda Club — the Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded vegan wine and pasta bar — relocated earlier this year to a larger spot at 95 Avenue A at Sixth Street. 

Soda Club debuted on Avenue B in the spring of 2021.

H/T to the EVG reader for the tip!

A bar proposal emerges for the former Petco Unleashed space on 2nd Avenue

The long-empty retail space at 31-33 Second Ave., between Second Street and Third Street, has a potential suitor. 

A public notice appeared on the front door this week stating that Matt Webber — a nightlife impresario behind several Brooklyn and Manhattan concepts — has plans for a bar in this sizable storefront. (H/T to the EVG reader for the tip!)

The notice shows that Webber will appear before Community Board 3's SLA committee on Dec. 8. The public questionnaires have not yet been posted, so it's unclear exactly what he’s proposing. 

Webber is a co-owner of Clown Car, LLC, "a full-service bar/restaurant production and consulting company involved in developing and operating new and existing nightlife ventures."

His Brooklyn credits include Twins Lounge, Lou's Athletic Club, Birdy's, Carmelo's, The Narrows, Coyote Club and Soft Spot. He most recently opened The Ripple Room, a multi-floor venue at 183 Bowery. 

This storefront has been vacant since January 2018, when Petco Unleashed shuttered after operating for just over 2 years. 

Before developer Ben Shaoul gutted and expanded the building into a generic residential complex in 2013-14, the ground floor was home to The Urge, a popular gay bar/club.

Openings: Boongs Grab & Go on 3rd Avenue

Boongs Grab & Go debuted on Monday at 77 Third Ave. in a corner retail space of NYU's Third Avenue North Dorm at 11th Street.

As we first reported, this is a sister spot to Boongs Café around the corner on 12th Street (as well as Boongs Korean Fried Chicken on First Avenue in Midtown East). 

The quick-serve concept, which will eventually be open 24/7 and catering to students, offers a variety of snacks, drinks (from China, Japan and Korea), and prepared meals (noodle bowls, sandwiches, triangle kimbap, sushi rolls, etc.). 

Heavenly Market & Deli closed here last September after 10 years in business.

Thirty Love Sports & Leisure calls game over

Apparently, that's game, set, and match for Thirty Love Sports & Leisure, the bi-level bar on the NW corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street. 

An EVG reader shared this: "We had a reservation ... went in, it was completely empty, all liquor taken. No one working there. It didn't look trashed, but definitely like it was raided mid-service."

There's no mention of any closure on the Thirty Love website or social media, and they are still accepting reservations via Resy. 

The country-club themed establishment arrived earlier this year, taking over after the Memory Motel pop-up run. 

The corner spot was previously home to various sports bars with animal names in their titles: the Brazen Fox, Ugly Duckling and blue bird.

Openings: Oddball on Avenue B

Photo by Stacie Joy

Oddball debuted last night at 188 Avenue B. 

The cocktail bar takes over the space between 11th Street and 12th Street from Hi-Note. The team includes LaTeisha Moore and Philip Reichenberger from Hi-Note and Beverage Director Logan Rodriguez and bartender Allen Oino, who have assembled a debut menu built around "odd couples" featuring ingredient pairings like a daiquiri made with blueberry, ricotta whey and horseradish. 

The space has a 1970s-inspired look with wood, stone and metal details, and the bar will feature spirits from smaller and New York–based producers. 

Per an Oddball rep: 

Guests will find a smoked sunchoke spirit from Matchbook Distillery, waste-upcycling distillates from Acid Spirits (made using food and farm scraps), and experimental botanical batches from Empirical Spirits. The backbar reflects a commitment to conscientious craftsmanship and a passion for working with makers who are creatively ahead of the curve. 

Hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. 

You can follow the Oddball Instagram account for updates. 

Hi-Note closed last month after three years in the space.

Yubu hasn't been opening lately

Several EVG readers have noted that Yubu has not been opening during its announced business hours lately. 

The quick-serve shop offered a variety of Korean snacks and beverages ... and specialized in tofu pockets filled with items ranging from avocado to beef bulgogi from the small storefront at 86 E. First St. near First Avenue. 

The Yubu on Grand Street remains open, though the East Village outpost is no longer listed on its website. Yelp noted the EV location is "temporarily closed." 

Yubu debuted here in July 2021.

Cancel This Show!’: Artists take aim at repression in new exhibit at the Clemente

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A post shared by The Clemente Center (@theclemente)

The Clemente Center is on the SW corner of Suffolk and Rivington on the Lower East Side.

Sophia is missing

Tuesday's parting shots

Crowds shots for a very sold-out show at Bowery Ballroom tonight with headliner Die Spitz and opener Babe Haven...

Green Line busted again on Avenue B — third time since April

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

This afternoon, around 2, officers from the NYPD and the Sheriff's Office — including members of the Criminal Investigation Division — arrived to "inspect" Green Line at 42 Avenue B between Third Street and Fourth Street. 

This unlicensed smoke shop has been the subject of repeated enforcement visits — this was the third since April. (Here and here.) And Green Line always reopens.

According to the posted notices, officials seized cannabis flower, pre-rolls, vapes, flavored vapes, carts, THC edibles, untaxed/unlicensed cigarettes, and "other tobacco products." 

The summons cites the sale of unlicensed and untested/not-lawfully labeled cannabis, along with the shop's proximity to a school, house of worship or youth facility.

One ticket was issued to a worker — an unusual step, as summonses typically go to the business owner — for the criminal sale of untaxed cigarettes.

"The cop was real mad and said I lied to him, and so he gave me a ticket," the worker told me. "I told him I don't have the [business] keys, and he made me empty my pockets and took the keys from me. He wrote me a ticket and I'mma fight it in court." 

The same worker said he was present during at least one of the previous busts. When asked whether he'd be back if they reopened tomorrow, he said: "They may reopen, but I won't be there tomorrow. This same thing happened at the last few shops I worked at. It's not fair, I need to support and feed my family."

As for whether this closure will stick, one officer on the scene said, "We don't know, sometimes they open right back up again." Another added: "We'll be back if they do."

Noontime cloud check

A little earlier today on Avenue A and Second Street. 

EVG reader Cynthia Reynolds also shared these mackerel sky pics from Second Avenue and Seventh Street...

At the grand opening of Banshee

Photos and text by Stacie Joy 

Banshee, the new Irish-leaning neighborhood bar at 143 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, opened this past Friday, drawing a nice-sized crowd for its first night. 

This is the first establishment for Jen Murphy, who has lived and worked on the Lower East Side for the past 10 years.

Here's a look at the space, which draws its name from gothic Irish folklore. (Murphy is originally from Ireland.)

Murphy credits her business partner, Jason Corey (below), and the late Molly Fitch, co-owner of the International, with teaching her what it takes to run a neighborhood bar.

Read our previous post for more background. 

Banshee is NOT open tonight (Tuesday) after the opening weekend. Back tomorrow! 

Hours:

• Monday-Thursday: 4 p.m.-1 a.m. 

• Friday: 4 p.m.-2 a.m. 

• Saturday: noon-2 a.m. 

• Sunday: Noon-midnight 

You can find Banshee updates on Instagram.

The openings, reopenings and temp closures on one stretch of 1st Avenue

Photos by Steven 

With Banshee now open at 143 First Ave., let's reset the storefront scene on the west side of the avenue between St. Mark's Place and 10th Street.

In just the past few months, this short stretch has seen a flurry of new openings, closings and reopening-soon signs. Here's a quick rundown. 

Rowdy Rooster has been "temporarily closed" all this fall at 149 First Ave. There is no word on a reopening date for the quick-serve restaurant from the Unapologetic Foods team, which opened in February 2022.

Next door, Gooey on the Inside Cookies debuted in early October. Background here.

To the south, Kikoo Sushi, located between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street, reopened after a months-long renovation...

And next door, Surprise Scoop, billed as "the world's first flavor roulette ice cream shop," has been closed since the DOH paid a visit on Sept. 13...

The posted notices and the DOH website mention operating without a permit, as well as other sanitary violations.

While the shop's Instagram account notes a temporary closure, the interior doesn't look so promising...
 

The shop's Instagram account mentions "TEMP CLOSED due to permit issues."

Retail condo at former Streit’s site hits the auction block

An auction is underway for the "cash-flowing" retail condo at 150 Rivington St. on the Lower East Side.

The glassy 45-unit condoplex — which replaced the longtime Streit's Matzo Factory on the NE corner of Suffolk Street — includes four retail spaces. One unit is leased to a cannabis dispensary (GoPuff) through March 2033. Two units will be delivered vacant, and the fourth is located in the cellar, currently zoned for storage. 

The current high bid is $1.275 million. The auction ends tomorrow at noon. 

We can't recall many — if any — retail condo auctions around here in recent years. Then again, we also can't remember many retail tenants cycling through the building since it welcomed residents in 2019. 

Perhaps this kind of sale will become more common. And we can't help but think of the 11,000-square-foot retail space that has sat empty in the base of Steiner East Village on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street for the past seven years...

For some history of 150 Rivington St.: Streit's Matzo Factory was here from 1925 to 2015. The family-owned business sold its original factory to Cogswell Realty in January 2015 for a reported $30.5 million. 

Streit's, which left the LES in 2015, now operates out of more modern facilities in Rockland County. 

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Q&A with East Village filmmaker Michael Levine, whose documentary on Streit's airs on PBS

Monday's parting shot

Simon Raymonde, a seminal figure in the music world who played with Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, as well as running Bella Union records, was the guest tonight for the Reading at the Parkside Lounge series.

Raymonde read a chapter from his memoir, "In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor and Me," and spoke with the series creator, Ann Stephenson. 

The next free reading is scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m., featuring "Paul Thek and Peter Hujar: Stay away from nothing," with guests Cynthia Carr, Nan Goldin, and Stephen Koch. 

The Parkside is at 317 E. Houston St. at Attorney.

Opening the Edge: A new green space for residents along Avenue D

Photos by Stacie Joy 

A new community space is now open outside the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D at Third Street ... the result of a long, resident-led effort to bring life to a patch of lawn that had sat fenced off and unused for years. 

Last week, neighbors, NYCHA residents and the Design Trust for Public Space gathered for a ribbon-cutting for Opening the Edge, a project first proposed more than a decade ago by artist Jane Greengold.

She said she was inspired to pursue this project after seeing fences around the green spaces at NYCHA housing, and then residents bringing their own chairs to sit on the sidewalks outside these areas.

Since 2014, residents and local partners have held community meetings, workshops and walk-throughs to imagine what this space could be and how it should function. 

The finished design, created in collaboration with Davies Toews Architecture, The PARC Foundation and NYCHA, includes new benches, tables, lighting, and a small raised platform for performances. 

Paths now run through the site, and the biggest change of all: the fence is gone.

You can read more about the history of the project here.

Ground-floor retail now leasing at The Houston (on Houston)

Residents started moving into the all-new 280 E. Houston St. late in the summer. 

The 12-story mixed-use building (aka The Houston) between Avenue A and Avenue B has nearly 160 units — 49 of them "affordable," as noted during the housing-lottery phase. 

And now the retail portion has officially hit the market (PDF here). The listing notes 5,693 square feet of ground-floor space, divisible, with "all uses considered," and rent is available upon request.

As we've noted, this lot was previously a one-level strip of storefronts and a gas station decades before that. 

Anyway, bring back the Blockbuster!

Signage alert: Slik, a Copenhagen-inspired candy and soft-serve shop on 12th Street

Photo by Stacie Joy

You may have noticed the Slik signage up at 437 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 

The owners of Smør, who have businesses on either side of this storefront, are behind the new venture — a Copenhagen-inspired candy and soft-serve shop. 

The space briefly hosted a Planet Nusa pop-up leading up to the NYC Marathon earlier this fall. 

Before that, it was an outpost of the Eye Level learning center. 

There’s a placeholder Instagram account for Slik here.

Sunday's parting shot

The Fall Sunday afternoon view along Avenue B and Tompkins Square Park ...