The makeover at Zips continues: Now the graffiti is gone

As I noted last Friday, the former Zips Deli on Avenue B at Fifth Street is getting a makeover



The hot rumor — which means it's wrong — is an upscale diner-type place. (As long as it's not another cafe-bakery-small-plates-type place. Or a bar. Or yogurt. Or...)

Anyway, while on the way home from work, I noticed the paint job...and removal of the graffiti...





This will not make the Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve very happy.

Meanwhile, the work permit made an appearance the past week.

Unzipping the mystery at Zips (trying to, anyway)

There's no shortage of chitchat among a few neighbors [that I happen to know] of the former Zips Deli on Avenue B at Fifth Street. Rumors abound that this space will become an upscale diner-type place, though I never report on unconfirmed facts, unsubstantiated rumors or other un-words. Oh, oops. Anyway! Something is happening here...



Yesterday, a worker was removing the graffiti from the front doors.



And there has been plenty of hammering and nailing kind of thing happening behind the brown-papered doors. An EV Grieve tipster who caught a look inside said the interior is shaping up to look like an upscale diner-type place, though you likely already knew that by now.




The EV Grieve tipster frets that what goes in this spot could have a negative impact on the neighborhood...if it's something obnoxious that attracts the let's-be-loud-and-pee/barf-in-the-streets-real-late-and-yell-for-a-cab crowd from outside the neighborhood. The people who are already going to a few places just south of here on Avenue B.

Related:
Check out this shot of Zips on Flickr...

What's new on East Fifth Street?

Might become a popular stop before Dart League night at the Ace.

Seeing more of Seymour (er, Butcher Bay)

The plastic and plywood came down at the former Seymour Burton location -- now called Butcher Bay -- on 511 E. Fifth St. this past week.



Given the size and scope of the project, we thought they were renovating the Sistine Chapel inside or something.

East Fifth Street update

Wow, that was fast. This is all that's left of 532 E. Fifth St.




Previously on EV Grieve:
Demolition on East Fifth Street

Demolition on East Fifth Street

Given the small parcels of open space on either side of 532 E. Fifth St., this four-story house was a rarity...which, of course, made it an endandgered species in this era of build-a-condo-on-every-piece-of-open-space development. It has been a four-unit apartment building. (As of last fall, a three-bedroom apartment was going for $3,500.)

Sure enough, the building is now being demolished. Don't know what's going in the space just yet, but the rumor among some locals is, of course, a condo.

Those locksmith guys will even leave a card on a building being demolished.

One of the condo-rumor spreaders frets that such change will usher in even further development (even in this economy) on this little stretch of the East Village.