Cows, pigs and chickens now adorn the walls at the former vegan favorite Angelica Kitchen

[Photo Saturday by Laura K.]

As reported in November, a Chinese restaurant is taking over the former Angelica Kitchen on 12th Street near Second Avenue.



The signage went up last week for Dunhuang East Village, the latest location for the restaurant serving northwestern Chinese cuisine ... featuring a variety of hand-pulled noodles. (You can find their menu here.)

The walls of the under-renovation space are adorned with cows, pigs and chickens ...



Angelica Kitchen, which first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1976, shut down after service in April 2017. Owner Leslie McEachern said that "making the numbers work week in and week out is just not viable for us anymore."

The restaurant moved to 12th Street in 1987.

And while we're at it... here's a look at the incoming neighbor on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and 12th Street — Lumos Kitchen ... you can read the previous post on this venture here.



Thanks to Shiv for also sending photos of the Dunhuang East Village signage!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Angelica Kitchen closing on April 7; friends raising money to pay off expenses (61 comments)

Former Angelica Kitchen space will yield to a Chinese noodle shop on 12th Street

Former Angelica Kitchen space will yield to a Chinese noodle shop on 12th Street

[Photo from April by Steven]

A new tenant has leased the space last occupied by Angelica Kitchen at 300 E. 12th St. at Second Avenue.

According to an Instagram post yesterday by the broker, the address will soon be home to "the famous Chinese Lan Zhou noodle restaurant!"

It's not immediately clear which restaurant she means... perhaps another branch of Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles in the New World Mall Food Court in Flushing ... or Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing.

Anyway, as for Angelica, Leslie McEachern's vegan restaurant, which first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1976, shut down after service back on April 7. McEachern said that "making the numbers work week in and week out is just not viable for us anymore."

The restaurant moved to 12th Street in 1987.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Angelica Kitchen closing on April 7; friends raising money to pay off expenses (61 comments)

[Updated] Angelica Kitchen space for rent

[Photo by Steven]

The for rent signs have arrived at the now-vacant Angelica Kitchen at 300 E. 12th St. at Second Avenue... the listing isn't live yet at the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank website.

Leslie McEachern's vegan restaurant, which first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1976, shut down after service on April 7. McEachern said that "making the numbers work week in and week out is just not viable for us anymore."


[Photo by Steven]

In 2014, McEachern signed a new 5-year-lease for $21,000-plus a month. There is speculation among some Angelica faithful that the asking rent will be north of $30,000 a month.

In January 2014, Shima, Angelica's next-door neighbor on Second Avenue and 12th Street, abruptly closed. The space (via the same landlord as Angelica) hit the market then for $25,400 per month. The corner has been DumplingGo, Dumpling Guo and then Hot Pot Central in the past two years.

Updated 4/20

The listing is now online. The rent is negotiable.

Today: Sale at Angelica Kitchen; funky fun at Jane's Exchange

Two items to note...

Angelica Kitchen is closing on April 7th. On Saturday April 8th and Sunday April 9th the contents of the restaurant will be offered in an Auction/ Sale. The contents include decorative items, art, indoor and outdoor furniture, lighting fixtures, professional kitchen equipment and supplies. . Many unique and special items will be available. Besides the typical items one would expect from a restaurant there are sculptures by Bill King, custom wood fabrications by Jefferey Mase, lights by Richard LLoyd, our unique ceramic benches by Tom Ashcraft, mosaic vases by Linda Benzwenger and so much more. . Auction: Cash or bank check Sale: Cash or credit cards for non-auction items over $50. . Proceeds to be distributed to the local farmers and small businesses that have supported Angelica Kitchen throughout the years and who could be adversely affected by this closing. Angelica Kitchen is located at 300 East 12th Street See you soon! #angelicakitchen #farm2table #vegannyc #nycauction #nycauctions

A post shared by Angelica Kitchen (@angelicakitchen) on Apr 7, 2017 at 3:28pm PDT

And for the kids (6 and under)...via the EVG inbox...

Join Esther and her puppet friends for an hour of songs, stories, and FUNKY FUN in this warm, intimate setting! And it's *FREE*! Jane's Exchange is a wonderful little kids consigment shop in the heart of the East Village. Come early- or stay after the show- to shop! Lots of clothes and toys in MINT condition at cheap cheap prices.

Esther is a singer/songwriter, and the founder of Thunder and Sunshine, a funky rock band for kids. She's also the singer and co-founder of The Electric Mess, a NYC rock band established in 2007, which has toured various U.S. and European cities. She does bi-monthly story hours (every other Thursday) at Bank Street Bookstore, and performs for kids all around town, both as a solo act, and with Thunder and Sunshine.

Jane's Exchange is at 191 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The Macrobiotic Chewing Guild

Memories abound,

That single desk

in the window on 8th Street.

Dragon bowls

that would feed two.

Slightly yellow people,

Chewing and chewing,

Enquiring how fresh

the Tofu. How many

times do you chew?

The organic Sun sets.

Bread and spread no more.

Where will the masticators,

wander to re-fill,

the hungry and the ill.

•

peter radley

Marking the closing of Angelica Kitchen,

after 40 odd years in the East Village. April 7, 2017.

Angelica Kitchen closes tomorrow; memorabilia sale this weekend

[Photos by Daniel]

As you may know, Angelica Kitchen closes out 40-plus years in business tomorrow.

Owner Leslie McEachern said that "making the numbers work week in and week out is just not viable for us anymore."

Since the announcement broke on March 24, the restaurant at 300 E. 12th St. near Second Avenue has been full of well-wishers turning out for a last of Angelica's vegetarian cuisine.

Eater's Robert Sietsema paid a final visit.

In addition to real estate woes — and the refusal to take any kind of plastic as payment — Angelica Kitchen’s problem may have been the food. It tended to be heavy and gluey and bland, true to the cuisine it came from. Yet that sort of vegetarian cooking can still excite reverence and nostalgia. I, for one, will be sad to see this vestige of the old East Village vanish.

And at The New Yorker, Jay Sacher, a former Angelica's employee, pens an essay under the headline "The East Village Loses Another Place for the Young, Hungry, and Weird." He writes about delivering food to Joey Ramone and recalls other celebrity encounters at the restaurant.

But, really, it’s the non-famous folks I remember most: Spencer, always walking into work with a purple plastic Kim’s Video bag in one hand, stuffed full of records—a man of obscure and eclectic musical tastes who was prone to saying things like, “The only good Beatles song is ‘Norwegian Wood.’"

And...

The East Village has been a walking graveyard for years now, sputtering along as a cover-band version of itself. For me, the loss of Angelica marks its true and complete ending. I know, of course, that such things are relative, and other New Yorks will exist for other younger waves of the young, hungry, and weird, but it does nothing to soften my lament for the passing of this one.

This weekend, the restaurant is hosting a memorabilia sale... selling off "chopsticks to food processors to sculpture."



The sale is 2-8 p.m. on Saturday... and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday...



Meanwhile, a group calling themselves Friends of Angelica Kitchen have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help pay off remaining expenses.

The restaurant started out on St. Mark's Place in 1976. It moved to 12th Street in 1987.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Angelica Kitchen closing on April 7; friends raising money to pay off expenses (61 comments)

Angelica Kitchen is latest East Village restaurant in danger of closing (35 comments)

More about Angelica Kitchen's uncertain future

Out and About in the East Village with Leslie McEachern