Former corner market has been a Hive of activity this week

Photos by Steven 

The former Yummy Hive space is now for rent on the SW corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street. 

The market abruptly closed last Wednesday after less than a year in the space. The move-out appeared haphazard to passersby, evoking the chaos of a Spring Break looting.

Now, though, the space has shaped up...

The clean-up coincided with a Marshal's Notice stating that the premise is now in the legal possession of the landlord. 

Before the YH crew arrived, the prime corner space had been vacant for five years. The last tenant was Capital One®.

Will it stay vacant again for that long?

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Yummy Hive post mortem

Yummy Hive post mortem

The abrupt closure of Yummy Hive last week drew a surprisingly robust EVG reader reaction. It was surprising for a relatively standard corner market that hadn't been open for a year. 

Here's a quick recap of what happened on the SW corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street: Yummy Hive management started closing the shop last Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday, it was shuttered, and all the appliances, groceries, snacks, etc., had been quickly removed. (The timing struck some as unusual mid-month.)

The interior's disarray led several readers-patrons to think looters had ransacked the business. In addition, someone tagged the windows late Wednesday night. (Interior photos by Steven.)

One reader via Instagram said he went in on Wednesday as workers were taking apart the shelves. The cashier did not charge him for his purchases. Another reader stopped by later on Wednesday and was told Yummy Hive was now closed. When asked what happened, a worker said they were "moving uptown."

Several "flash sale" signs were posted on the storefront, but there was no mention of a pending closure.

We heard from readers who were regulars here and are disappointed that they closed. We also heard from readers who found the place unsettling, including its name — which felt like the product of a ChatGPT prompt designed to create a vaguely suggestive business name. Another reader wondered why a standard corner market sold products like Sea Moss Gel.

Someone also previously created a fake Yummy Hive Instagram account: "Here to bring you expired, unhealthy, and nasty food, smoothies, and coffee! Hope to see you soon."

As of yesterday, Yummy Hive was still open per Google, Yelp, and the various delivery apps, where they accepted delivery and pickup orders. 

The prime corner space had been vacant for five years, with the last tenant being Capital One®. 

At one time, the corner space was home to Rectangles, which served Israeli-Yemenite cuisine.

This prime corner storefront remains tenant-free

Photo by Steven

In recent weeks workers have cleaned out the long-vacant (four years!) storefront on the SW corner of Second Avenue and 10th Street... prompting some speculation of a new retail tenant.

Turns out the landlord was sprucing up the space for a new suitor, as "for lease by owner" signs are now up in the windows. 

Capital One was the last tenant, closing this branch in May 2019. 

P.S.

Bring back Rectangles!

About other 'rooftop ragers' in the East Village

[Also, World War Z is on DVD now]

Yesterday's post on the stairwell collapse at 159 Second Ave. that left "30 collegiate partygoers" ("rooftop ragers" per the Daily News) stranded on the roof brought out a lot of comments/emails about other similar rooftop bashes in the neighborhood... maybe to epidemic proportions? Hard to say!

Per one reader:

I live on 12th Street, and the NYU kids who lives upstairs had their own rooftop rager a couple of weeks ago. My poor super had to come put a stop to it. He estimated there were 100 kids on the roof of our tenement building. Not only are they disturbing everyone, they are risking their lives.

Our building is old, and I am hardly an engineer, but I doubt our roof was made to hold all that weight. Plus, there aren't any railings, and someone, especially someone who is tipsy, could easily fall over the edge, which is probably about a foot or so high.

Anyway, it sucks for the rest of the us tenants as well as the supers on our block who are basically resident assistants now, forced to get up all hours of the night to babysit these out-of-control children. My building, once full of people who looked out for each other and took care not to disturb each other, is a dorm now, and I don't want to be back in college!

Have any other rooftop rager stories to share? Hit us up!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: FDNY rescues partygoers from 2nd Avenue 'rooftop rager' after stairwell collapse injures 1

Report: Partygoer may have caused stairwell to collapse at 159 Second Ave.

As for that stairwell collapse at 159 Second Ave. ... the Post reports today that a "drunken NYU teaching assistant crashed through three marble landings while trying to jump the stairs," according to unnamed authorities.

“The guy jumped. He broke through a couple of landings,” said a source with the city’s Office of Emergency Management, which had video of the 1:30 a.m. stunt gone awry.

A friend who lives in the building said Niu, a student at NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, “was barely moving” after his fall.

“[He] was definitely a little intoxicated and probably stumbled down,” the friend said.

Friends of the NYU TA said that he weighs roughly 150 pounds.

“I have no idea what kind of weight [the staircase is] supposed to sustain,” an OEM source said. “But, obviously, it was not being used normally. It was jumped on by a grown man from 10 to 12 feet in the air.”

Meanwhile, the missing sections of the stairwell stranded about 40 students on the roof. The student reportedly suffered broken ribs and a fractured ankle. Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the collapse, per the Post.

Report: FDNY rescues partygoers from 2nd Avenue 'rooftop rager' after stairwell collapse injures 1

[Photo by Marc A Hermann for the Daily News]

From the Daily News today:

A rooftop rager dissolved into a rescue mission in the East Village early Sunday morning, when a stairway platform crumbled, leaving one man seriously injured after he plunged two stories and trapping more than 30 collegiate partygoers on the roof, authorities said.

Over 30 college-aged revelers had gathered on the roof of 159 2nd Avenue at E. 9 St. in the lower East Side on Saturday night for a moonlit soiree, witnesses said.

Also, the building is at East 10th Street, not 9th Street per the Daily News.

The injured student is in critical but stable condition at Bellevue.

And the reaction from the assembled revelers?

"We were having a party, just a bunch of people hanging out ... Some guy runs upstairs and says, 'Everyone quiet down, everyone shut the f--k up , someone might have died,'" said Martin Barshai, 20, a film student at New York University.

According to WABC 7: "Officials say the building has a lot of college aged students in the building that do a lot of 'partying.'"

Here is WABC's report:



The Post has a lot of photos here. Their headline: "NYU rager goes horribly wrong after roof collapse"

Updated 9-30

The Post reports today that an NYU student jumped on the landing, causing it to collapse, according to unnamed sources.

STILL speculating about the future of 159 Second Ave.

Still going with a dessert shop.