Because you want to know more about the plans for 34 Avenue A

Rebecca Marx talked with Todd P. at Fork in the Road last evening... and he shared more about plans for 34 Avenue A:

Patrick says that he and his co-partners (who also include Mo's/Two Boots owner Phil Hartman and Mike House, an architect whose projects include work on Santos Party House) all want to create a venue that "reflects and serves the surrounding community. No one wants this neighborhood to be this gauntlet of bars where you can get Jell-O shots. We are very happy to remove that stain [of Aces & Eights], but at the same time, no one wants more overpriced boutique restaurants."

The new space will have a ground-floor restaurant which, Patrick says, "will be the main revenue source and the main face of the business." Its menu will be seafood-based "Pacific Coast-style Mexican cuisine" (Pacific as in Jalisco, not California) and its atmosphere "casual yet fairly sophisticated as well. We envision high-quality and not bargain-base priced cuisine, but also not prices that price out the average individual."

And!

As for the performance part of the equation, Patrick stresses that "this is not an indie club, not a rock club, and certainly not a dance club." Instead, it will be purely avant-garde. "Our feeling is that it's a genre that really needs to be represented in the city," he says. "Both the Stone and Issue Project Room are great, but they're maybe more of a museum setting than we would like to be. I have a great respect for those things, but you're seeing kind of a presentation of something rather than it being a little more free form."

(DNAinfo also has more on the space here.)

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As EV Grieve first reported last Friday:
Phil Hartman bringing a 'performance venue' back to former Mo Pitkin's space

And Monday:
[Updated] Bringing 'the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic' to 34 Avenue A

[Updated] Bringing 'the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic' to 34 Avenue A

Last Friday, we reported that Two Boots founder Phil Hartman's name is attached to the new venue proposed for 34 Avenue A, the space that was most recently Aces and Eights ... and Mo Pitkin's before that ....

Hartman sent us a note during the weekend with a few more details on the space:

I've been approached by a local music booker/promoter about helping get the old Mo's space re-opened as a music venue. His vision is to carry on the tradition of the old Knitting Factory and Tonic, and I love the idea of seeing the space revived for the use for which it was created, and to wipe out the stain that was Aces & Eights. There would also be a restaurant component on the ground floor.

My role is as an advisor and a cheerleader — I live and work within a block from there and think it would be great for the neighborhood. So, no, I'm not "re-opening Mo Pitkin's" but hopefully the spirit of that place, and of the old East Village, will be revived!

This is one of the items on the docket for the SLA & DCA Licensing Committee next Monday at 6:30 pm — JASA/Green Residence - 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery.

[Updated]
Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo reports this afternoon that concert organizer Todd Patrick, aka Todd P, is also involved in the project. You can read more about Todd Patrick in this Voice profile from 2006.

Phil Hartman bringing a 'performance venue' back to former Mo Pitkin's space

This (kind of!) confirms the rumors that we had been hearing... and mentioned back on Feb. 23: Phil Hartman is going to make another go at 34 Avenue A, which was most recently Aces and Eights.

Hartman and his brother Jesse opened Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction — the two-level restaurant/bar/performance space — in 2005.

It closed two years later. As New York put it: "[Mo Pitkin's] was the promised land for the busty neo-burlesque stars, pseudo-sane performance artists, and guitar-playing trapeze acrobats rendered homeless by the closing of Fez (and Surf Reality and Collective Unconscious and every other small, anything-goes downtown venue)."

The landlord sold the building a year later, Aces and Eights arrived in March 2009 ... So enough history...

Phil Hartman's name is listed as the contact on the just-posted CB3 flyer outside 34 Avenue A...

We reached out to Hartman last night to learn more about his plans. We haven't heard back yet.

Paper jam at 34 Avenue A

The windows at 34 Avenue A, most previously home to Aces & Eights, were papered over this past weekend...




We're not sure what's in store now, if anything. Owner Jevan Damadian wanted to reimagine the space as an upscale tapas joint, by CB3/SLA said otherwise back in November. Per one Avenue A resident with some knowledge of this block what's going on here: "I figured either remodeling without paperwork or trying not to get robbed. I would also vote for skeeball speakeasy."

Reminders tonight: Meet the owner of 34 Avenue A

As reported, Jevan Damadian wants to meet neighbors tonight to discuss his plans for 34 Avenue A. Thanks to the EV Grieve reader for snapping the new signage in the window...

Previously on EV Grieve:
New owner of the former Aces and Eights space speaks out; "the beer pong is gone"

New owner of the Aces and Eights space wants to "meet the approval of the community"

And be sure to read The Lo-Down's interview with Jevan for the background on how he got where he is today....