Brasserie Saint Marc debuts today on 2nd Avenue

[Photo yesterday by Steven]

At long last the longtime-coming Brasserie Saint Marc is opening at 136 Second Ave. here between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.

Florence Fabricant offered up preview on the restaurant, which is expected to open today, at the Times ...

An ambitious project, four years in the making, from Karin Agstam, a model and actor who owned the restaurant Station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is ready to open. Ms. Agstam was so smitten by the arched, brick-walled East Village space that she was determined to make it a restaurant. Now, it has a spacious bar area up front and a passage along an open kitchen that leads to a pair of dining rooms, one of which features Champagnes, and a garden.

And...

Glittering chandeliers and white marble-top tables brighten the space. As for the menu, the executive chef Frederick Piccarello, an experienced hand who was once at the Sign of the Dove uptown, has gone classic French. Escargots? Rillettes? Coquilles Saint-Jacques? Frisée aux lardons? Onion soup? Duck confit? Moules frites? Steak au poivre? Ms. Agstam’s favorite bouillabaisse? They’re all there. The menu also tips its hat to the neighborhood’s Eastern European roots with borscht and pierogies, and to vegans with an Impossible Burger.

There isn't any mention in the preview of the space being put to use to host meetings and events by organizations from the local Ukrainian community. This was a selling point when the applicants appeared before Community Board 3 for a liquor license in July 2018

According to the meeting's official CB3 minutes:

The applicants furnished five letters from organizations and businesses, including credit unions and a school within the local Ukrainian community, with a combined constituency of thousands of people, and seven people appeared to speak on behalf of the applicant who either operated a Ukrainian business within the building or the immediate neighborhood or through the Ukrainian community, each of whom cited the benefit of adding a full-service restaurant that could host events, meetings and dinners for local Ukrainian organizations...

As we've noted, a lot of work has gone into getting the former Bar 82 (RIP March 2013) into restaurant shape. The construction plywood went up here on May 6, 2016.

New Ukrainian restaurant at 136 2nd Ave. now in the hiring phase

It has been a slow-go over at 136 Second Ave., where workers have been completing extensive renovations on the space between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street for the past two-plus years.

On May 6, 2016, workers erected the plywood in front of the vacant storefront, last in use by Bar 82. (RIP March 2013.)

The restaurant, whose name hasn't been disclosed just yet (going as UKI Freedom LLC on CB3 materials), is now hiring...



The applicants, listed as Greg Lebedowicz and Jerry Lebedowicz, were previously licensed for Nitedreams in Greenpoint from 2003 to 2008.

Back in July, CB3 OK's a full liquor license for No. 136.

Here are a few items from the meeting's official minutes (PDF here):

• "The applicant has stated that this location will be a restaurant which will host Ukrainian events, meetings and dinners by organizations from the longstanding local Ukrainian community."

• "It will operate as a full-service French American Ukrainian restaurant, with a kitchen open and serving food during all hours of operation."

• "Its hours of operation will be 8 A.M. to 2 A.M. all days"

There is a basement space here fitted with a bar and dining room for those meetings and events.

No word on an opening date.

Thanks to Steven for the photos yesterday!

2 years later, 136 2nd Ave. ready for its restaurant

On May 6, 2016, we noted that workers had erected the plywood around the vacant storefront at 136 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street.

Two years of gut renovating later, and the owners here are ready to appear before the CB3-SLA committee for a new liquor license for the address.

According to the questionnaire posted to the CB3 website (PDF here), the unnamed full-service restaurant will serve American and French food nearly all day — the kitchen hours are listed as 8 a.m. to 4 a.m.

The sample menu shows a variety of pretty standard options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here's part of the dinner menu...



The applicants, listed as Greg Lebedowicz and Jerry Lebedowicz, are also seeking outdoor dining via a sidewalk cafe and rear garden. In total, the questionnaire lists an occupancy of 74 people with 24 tables — 15 inside and nine outdoors. There are also three bars with 38 stools in the two-level space.

The applicants were previously licensed for Nitedreams LLC on Banker Street in Greenpoint from 2003 to 2008, per the paperwork at the CB3 website.

The CB3-SLA meeting is next Monday at 6:30 p.m. The location: the Public Hotel, 17th Floor, Sophia Room, 215 Chrystie St. between Houston and Stanton.

Bar 82, which closed at the end of March 2013, was the last retail tenant at 136 Second Ave.

Former Bar 82 space gets the plywood treatment on 2nd Avenue

[Photo via Steven]

Workers yesterday erected the plywood around the vacant storefront at 136 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and East Ninth Street... there aren't many details available at the moment. However, the word from here is that the space will be home to a bar-restaurant.

Approved work permits on file offer the following (in the DOB's all-CAP style):

PROPOSED RESTAURANT LOCATED AT 1ST FLOOR, CELLAR & SUB-CELLAR. PROPOSED BANQUET HALL LOCATED AT CELLAR AND 1ST FLOORS; STOREFRONT RECONFIGURATION.

Banquet hall!

Bar 82, which closed at the end of March 2013, was the last tenant here. At the time of the closure, a tipster told us that the landlord did not want another bar or restaurant in the space... and was looking for "dry goods" as the basis for a new tenant.

Apparently the landlord changed his/her mind after nearly three years of sitting on an empty space.

H/T Steven!

Identity getting a new Identity on East Sixth Street

For a bar called Identity, this place on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and Avenue B sure didn't have one. (You know — Identity.) Two floors of a little bit of anything. Sports! DJ! Darts! From the outside, it looked like a place you'd find in a suburban strip mall with a crowd to match. (I admit — I was never inside. Still. C'mon.)

But! All this is changing... As we understand it, the owner dismissed his bar staff... and now you'll find four former bartenders from the recently closed Bar 82 here — Dan, Jackson, Meghan and Nicole.

[The owner] is letting us be the vibe. If we pull its head out of the water we can make it a bar to remember," bartender Jackson Riffe told me via Facebook. "It's an awesome opportunity to keep us together and rock that crazy Bar 82 vibe into the future. Just trying to keep some real Lower East Side culture on the Lower East Side."

So in the coming weeks there be making plans on putting to use the underutilized basement space. Meanwhile, Identity's resident DJ, C2, is gone... and Jackson, who works weekend nights, is now playing the music from behind the bar — "1977-style punk with country songs about booze and drugs, with some 60's hot French go-go music paired with surf songs about the jungle."

[Image via Time Out New York]

What's next for the now-former Bar 82 space on Second Avenue

As we first reported on March 22, Bar 82 was shutting down at the end of the month ... We never did hear any official word why the neighborhood spot on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place was closing...

Last night was the bar's grand finale ... Meanwhile, a tipster hears that the landlord does not want another bar or restaurant in the space... and is looking for "dry goods" as the basis for a new tenant.

Per the tipster: "So, Duane Reade? Chase? We could use a Chase on this block ..."

[Updated] Reader report: Bar 82 is closing

Word was spreading last night that Bar 82, with its ample back room for bands, poetry readings and other events, is closing at the end of this month. At least one performer with an act booked after March 31 took to Facebook last night with the news.

Several other sources confirmed the impending closure. The bar opened here on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place in 2008... the bar was a reincarnation of sorts of Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81, which sat for decades on East Seventh Street until a rent hike KO'd it.

We'll have more information on the closing as it becomes available.

Updated 1:31

Per Bar 82's Facebook page:

Bar 82 is going to close it's doors at the end of March. We would love to see you all before then. I'm going to keep this page open after the fact to tell everyone where your favorite bartenders might end up just to be cool. Please come by and say hello and goodbye and hello again somewhere else. It's important to us bartenders. We love you peeps.

Next De-Flea Market tomorrow at Bar 82

Tomorrow: De-Flea Market at Bar 82

We always enjoy these.... thanks to Our Lady of Perpetual PMS for organizing and hosting...

And a few photos from the March De-Flea Market via Stacie Joy...

Today at Bar 82

Sunday at Bar 82

Today at Bar 82

'De-Flea' Market for Animal Rescue tomorrow at Bar 82

From the EV Grieve inbox...from our friend Our Lady of Perpetual PMS...

'De-Flea' Market for Animal Rescue'
136 2nd Ave. (bwtn St. Marks Place & 9th Sts.) in Bar 82's spacious back room

• Purchase great gifts by local artists this holiday season & help support Infinite Hope Animal Rescue, this month's featured rescue organization!
• Each month we host a different animal rescue charitable organization.
• Shop affordable & local — not corporations! — while helping to support a great cause: jewelry, art, stellar vintage, punk crafts, rock n roll wood cuts, antique oddities, food, beauty products & more!
• $5 raffle goes directly to Infinite Hope. Winners pick prizes of vendor art, donated goods & services from local businesses & more

3 till 8 pm: 2-for-1 well drinks, $3 select bottles & drafts, $5 wine
Bonus: 3 - 5pm: $1 off any drink with each raffle ticket purchased

Previously.

'De Flea' Arts & Crafts Market returns this afternoon

From the EV Grieve inbox...from our friend Our Lady of Perpetual PMS...

After a July-August summer hiatus, this artist-run, monthly arts flea market returns to the East Village! The "De Flea" Market benefits a different animal rescue group each month! We'll be raffling off a ton of great prizes and 100% of the raffle proceeds go to our guest charity.

This month our guests will be WAGGY TAIL RESCUE. Shop cheap jewelry, vintage clothes, kitsch-punk accesories/crafts & more. Handmade artwork from local artists & personalities such as Lynn Von (Da Willys, Vondells), Cid Scantleberry, Our Lady of Pertual PMS & more.

A laid-back good time in the tradition of East Village activism, infused with rock and roll spirit, for a good cause! Held in a spacious back room where DJ Chandler provides the music, & Ms. Chloe provides the libations in the front bar. 2 for 1 happy hour specials if you wish to indulge.

Held once per month on the second Sunday!