Avenue A, 8:12 a.m., Jan. 1

Avenue A regulars

Kim working the day shift at Ray's...

Photo by Bill Moss from November

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Anton's birds

Photo by Grant Shaffer

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Niagara and Joe Strummer

Photo by Fenton Lawless

Avenue A food-cart fight now with flyer campaign

The campaign against the Halal cart that recently relocated to the southeast corner of Avenue A and East Second Street continues… we spotted these flyers on East Second Street this past weekend… which urge residents to call a lot of different people…



Meanwhile, the Post covered the story yesterday… with a pretty good Post-y headline…



From the article!

East Villagers are up in arms over a Halal food cart stationed on Avenue A, where residents are complaining of foul-smelling falafel, generator noise and filth — in just three days since its unwelcome arrival.

Per a resident..

“It’s already noisy to begin with. There’s already the sh–tiest bars on earth on this corner, so you’re already getting everyone who is obliterated here, and now you add this.”

[Editor's Note: Not 2A?!]

And from the cart folks…

“They need to understand that we’re in a free country — and we can’t please everyone,” Maribel said. “Legally, we have a right to be there — we’re not bothering anyone, and I don’t think it’s fair that we move.”

Unrelated, we also spotted an unattended Citi Bike outside the cart during the weekend…



Previously on EV Grieve:
Angry residents don't want this food cart on Avenue A and East 2nd Street (35 comments)

Angry residents don't want this food cart on Avenue A and East 2nd Street

Some residents who live on Avenue A and East Second Street are unhappy about the recent arrival of a Halal cart. And there is a movement afoot to get the cart booted from the southeast corner of Avenue A and East Second Street.

Here's a flyer hanging in a nearby apartment building:



According to one resident: "Aside from blocking bike racks, garbage cans (upon seeing me photograph, the cook moved the garbage can further into the crosswalk (ILLEGAL), he has deposited grit and ashes from his grill on the sidewalk."




The resident also talked with the Halal employee about all this. "He simply stated that he knows the residents aren't happy but simply — talk to his boss."

Another couple took up the argument with the employee as well. "All the vendor said was, 'Tony likes our food. Do you know Tony?' Well, we don't know Tony and the block doesn't like your food truck blocking our sidewalks."

Casa Gusto closes on Avenue A

We recently noticed the Casa Gusto, the relatively new gelato shop at 199 Avenue A near East 12th Street, was closed. We thought maybe it was a seasonal thing. Not so. The space is for rent. Casa Gusto didn't seem to last too long. They just opened at the beginning of the year, taking the storefront of the former Milo Printing.

A new sidewalk outside Ray's, and, thankfully, the same old stand

[Bobby Williams]

On Tuesday, the city started putting in a new sidewalk on Avenue A from East Seventh Street to just past Ray's Candy Store… displacing the familiar stand out front in the process ...


[BW]

Yesterday morning!


[EVG]


[EVG]


[EVG]

By last night, workers had moved the stand again...


[BW]


[EVG]

We were wondering what was going on with the stand. Just kinda moving around out in the open. We asked Kim, who works the day shift, what was happening… and he assured us that the stand, which may actually pre-date Ray, was returning to its usual resting place outside the store.

And just like that this morning...

Chico's 9/11 tribute mural reappears on Avenue A

[Image via Google Street View]

We can't really recall the last time that we saw Chico's 9/11 mural on Avenue A at East 14th Street … it has been covered with ads for years now. (The above screen grab via Google Street View is from the summer of 2011.)

However, the billboard was recently removed, bringing what's left of the tribute back into view, as these photos from an East Village resident and EVG reader show…




The proprietor of Dion Cleaners on the corner was unaware of what the building's landlord has in store for the wall.

Here's a video via Michael Paul showing a new billboard going up on Feb. 17, 2012...



Chico created this mural on the night of Sept. 11, 2001. As one Times reader said of the work: "It filled me with hope and sadness and some kind of love for all of the other New Yorkers living through the hours and days yet to come."

And this was the second 9/11 mural to disappear in place of revenue-generating ads in the East Village. Back in 2003, Cooper Union had the "Forever Tall" mural painted over at 35 Cooper Square to make way for ads. (The whole building was eventually demolished anyway.)

Evening on Avenue A

Photos by Bobby Williams

8 a.m. or so, Avenue A, Nov. 2

Report: Empire Biscuit opens today

[Photo from last week]

Empire Biscuit officially opens this morning at 8, according to DNAinfo. (Empire was open last night from 6-10.)

Per DNA:

The flaky Southern favorites will be topped with a selection of gourmet spreads, including goat cheese and black pepper butter, pineapple and thyme jam and pumpkin pie spread, owners Jonathan Price and Yonadav Tsuna said.

Here is their menu:




Starting Friday, Empire — located at 198 Avenue A — will be open 24 hours. The space was previously home to Habibi Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Incoming Empire Biscuit on Avenue A launches Kickstarter campaign (121 comments)

Something cool on Avenue A

Headline and photo via @fnytv

Today in photos of people wearing live snakes around their neck on Avenue A

Why not. At East Sixth Street via Bobby Williams.

Anton's pigeons out for a stroll above Avenue A

This afternoon via Michael Sean Edwards ... who captured a familiar and welcome sight along here near East 10th Street — Anton van Dalen's birds...

Avenue A is for... Avoid?

Well, no. But we have talked with a lot of people in the last month who are dreading the Construction Hell that awaits parts of Avenue A ... between the new residential complex at 181 Avenue A, aka the former Mary Help of Christians lot between East 12th Street and East 11th Street ... and the impending destruction of 100 Avenue A between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street ... which will yield a new residential building and retail space...



And for good measure... there's the out-of-place-looking 7-Eleven opening soon enough on East 11th Street...



Not to mention the loss of the familiar — the Odessa Cafe and Bar, which had been around since 1965. At least the Joe Strummer mural is coming back to East Seventh Street and Avenue A.

Remembering Merlin on Avenue A

[Today]

We posted the following item in August 2010 ... Every year since Merlin (Paul Robert Hogan) died on Aug. 16, 1996, someone creates a memorial for him on Avenue A at Sixth Street where he lived for eight years on the sidewalk.

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I wanted to follow-up on the Merlin's Memorial post from yesterday...



Bob Arihood, who took the shot above, documented the scene on Avenue A and Sixth Street on Neither More Nor Less after Merlin passed away on Aug. 16, 1996...



As Bob wrote:

A wake and vigil of considerable moment, lasting for the better part of 2 weeks , was held in the neighborhood at Merlin's corner . Some nights the sidewalk and street around the memorial were so densely packed with people that it seemed that everyone in the neighborhood and the surrounding communities was attending , crowded together ,all kinds of folks , from all professions and callings , from high and low paying their respects to Merlin .

Here's Merlin on his corner as many people here remember him...



Per the Times from July 1996:

There are few certainties in this changeable city. But on Avenue A and Sixth Street, a place that has been convulsed by change in recent years, one thing has remained constant through the riots and real-estate booms: Merlin, a 41-year-old homeless man who uses only one name, has made the intersection's southeast corner his residence for eight years. Neither blizzards nor blistering heat have routed him from atop a set of wooden pallets in front of a Con Edison substation.

"People move in and out of the neighborhood, but I never budge," he said last week, lounging beneath a pair of tattered umbrellas, his only guard against the sting of the sun. A stroke has left him partly paralyzed, and frostbite cost him several toes three winters ago.

To strangers, he is but another intrusion on the East Village's gritty streetscape, a reason to avert their eyes. But to many local residents, he is a cherished asset: a timekeeper, a message center, a town crier and a source of good, solid conversation. "Merlin is a social hub," said Tatiana Bliss, 25, a local artist. "If you're looking for someone, Merlin probably knows where they are. If you want to leave something for a friend, he'll make sure they get it. He makes this crazy city feel like a small town."

Jeremiah also writes about Merlin today, asking the following: "Could such a memorial happen for a homeless man in the East Village today?"

Nino's is back open on Avenue A

[Bobby Williams]

Nino's — the real Nino's — is back open as of today on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place...Nino Camaj has reopened the pizzeria that he previously sold...



... the pizza was just as good as we remembered it... though the interior still needs to be warmed up a bit. Plenty of time for that.

No sign of a soda fountain machine just yet, though they do sell Italian ices...

Previously on EV Grieve:
New Nino's will be the old Nino's

Alphabets opens new outpost on Avenue A

As you may have noticed, a new outpost of Alphabets opened Saturday on Avenue A between East Fourth Street and East Fifth Street... the gift shop, which has been around since 1985, is located at 115 Avenue A near East Seventh Street... However, as we understand it, this location will be closing in the coming months...



According to public records, the building at 115 Avenue A was sold last August for $3 million. The LLC that bought the building shares the address as the notorious 9300 Realty (owned by Croman Realty). A tipster told us that Alphabets could not negotiate a new lease. Thankfully, they found a nearby space.

Incoming Empire Biscuit on Avenue A launches Kickstarter campaign

Renovations continue at the former Habibi Lounge space on Avenue A near East 12th Street ... where Empire Biscuit will be serving country-style biscuits and biscuit sandwiches 24 hours a day (and no liquor license) ...

Now founders Jonathan Price and Yonadav Tsuna have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $62,500 by the end of the month to help with the opening costs.

Per the campaign:

Besides potential construction delays, the major risks for our restaurant are post-opening. We have a strong team in place, a carefully developed concept and menu, a great location and space, and a nuanced financial model. So the basic challenges/risks that remain are controlling food cost and labor once we're up and running.

You can find more info here. Or you can watch the above video ... (they discuss the need for $$$ at the 4-minute mark).

Empire Biscuit is expected to open in 6-8 weeks.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Reader report: biscuits and jams for former Habibi Lounge space on Avenue A

RUMOR: FroYo for Avenue A

Work continues at 70 Avenue A, part of the storefront that previously housed East Village Pharmacy. (They moved to East Third Street and Avenue A in 2011.)

According to multiple tipsters, some kind of FroYo operation is rumored to be moving into this space. No other details at the moment — just FroYo...

Flea market continues outside home of former flea market on Avenue A

This afternoon between East 11th Street and East 12th Street... photo by Bobby Williams.

Previously.