Angels & Kings closed today for "maintenance issues"

Such as peeling off notices from the NYPD?

And TMZ checks in...

Fall Out Bar

As Gawker reported last night, Angels & Kings on 11th Street near Avenue A was shut down for serving minors & morons. Pete Wentz is one of the bar's owners.

Anyway, when the bar opened in May 2007, Joshua Stein filed the following report on Gawker.

When emo-troubadour Pete Wentz opened Angels and Kings, a bar in the East Village, our douche canary in our douche mineshaft keeled over and died. First of all, Pete Wentz is going to be there. As he tells Page Six: "Yeah, I'm just gonna be local and drink umbrella drinks." So this isn't your normal dive. According to one of his business partners, this is a dive where "anyone can go and have sex in the bathroom and not get in trouble." So it's located in international waters?

The end of Evolution (or whatever the place was called)

Went by the bar on the corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street -- the one that had so many names I'm not even really sure what it's called -- for the flamethrowing contest* last night... and it was...



...closed. 4-ever. Apparently they did spend all their money on new awnings.



I will be hosting a screening of "Cocktail" later today* outside the bar with Hunter-Gatherer and Jeremiah Moss.

* not true

Report: LeSouk to continue haunting the East Village

Down by the Hipster has the story: "Bad news for Avenue B residents — Le Souk's liquor license has been reinstated. In a shocking decision, the New York State Appellate Division, First Department overturned a decision that resulted in the cancellation of Le Souk's license, saying it was "not based upon substantial evidence because it relied on a 'guesstimate' in determining that Le Souk was overcrowded on the night of Jan. 13, 2007.'" (Via Eater)

Bars/retail spots that have been sold/are for sale: Ludlow Guitars, 210 Rivington

While continuing to poke around the Tower Brokerage site...Not sure how long these have been listed.

There's quite a list, though...Such as:

As for rentals: The Ludlow Guitars space is available for $16,000 a month...



For sale: (and in contract) The old Silver Revolver at 210 Rivington.



Plus plenty more storefronts that you've seen around with the big yellow Tower Brokerage signs...and an unnamed bar on Avenue C:

Bar For Sale - Avenue C!
Approx. 1,100 sq. ft. with Backyard, Full Kitchen & Full Liquor License!
Price: $100,000...Rent: $7,500/mo...10-year lease.

For further reading:
East Village portfolio (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

This is the No. 1 bar in NYC?

Something called The Clubplanet Nightlife Directory has named its top-10 bars of NYC. And No. 1 bestest of the best bars?

#1 Best Bar in NYC
Elsa
217 East 3rd Street
New York, NY 10003

Just when you think East Village will forever stay in its un-gentrified hip-ness, a snazzy, upscale place like Elsa opens, as if the be-seen type of bars simply spilled out of the over-packed Lower East Side, and nestled in the surrounding neighborhoods. Well, the better for East Village scenesters. One thing is sure— if you like your drinks well-mixed, Elsa is the place to be, mostly due to its signature cocktails, courtesy of the best bartending pros, which is why its made our list as one of the best bars in New York City. And in case you were wondering about an appropriate outfit — you can get tailored on the spot two days a week. Elsa is styled after a tailor shop, but those old-school sewing machines are not a simple decoration. Now, we’ve already heard about linking the idea of shopping and drinking (boutique lounges), or drinking and doing your nails (Beauty Bar), but drinking while waiting for your hand-made jacket, that’s quite a new take on New York watering holes’ versatility.

East Village finally gets the hookah bar it so desperately needed

And how many different restaurants has this spot been since it was the lighting supply store? At 107 Avenue A near East Seventh Street (next to 7A).

Cabin fever

Matt Harvey's "Bash Compactor" column in this week's NYPress looks at the not-so-secret, secret speakeasy on Avenue A... Before heading Down Below, he asks a fine question:

Last Saturday night on Avenue A, post-college boozers were spilling out onto the sidewalk from a jam-packed Niagara. Watching drunken couples falling over each other in an attempt to snag a cab, I wondered, if the recession is so deep, why aren’t these people on Greyhound buses back to Rochester?

Timber

The transformation of the former Mo Pitkin's space at 34 Avenue A continues....seems as if the folks behind the new bar, Aces & Eights, are giving it a ....



rustic log cabin/lodge kinda look...



It has come a long way from the vintage feel of Mo's...

Aces & Eights signage up at former Mo Pitkin's space

As I mentioned last Monday, a new bar has opened in the former Mo Pitkin's space at 34 Avenue A. I was told that the building was purchased by the folks behind the fratty Yorkville saloon Aces & Eights. Now, rather temporary-looking signage is up...




No indication yet how the performance space upstairs will be utilized. (Beer pong tourneys?) Something tells me that you won't be seeing, say, Kiki & Herb or Murray Hill headlining anytime soon...The 2-for-1 happy hour is in keeping with the four other bars on the next block -- Double Down, Kelly's, Nice Guy Eddie's and The Library -- that have the same deal.

Meanwhile, add futurist to the skills of former Mo's regular Ben Lerman. The ukulele-playing comedian had this to say to New York magazine in September 2007 upon hearing the news that Mo's was for sale:

“Like Brownies, Fez, Sin-é, Tonic, and many others before, Mo’s will be just another arts venue replaced by yet another bland, chic meat-market with delicious mojitos. The people moving into the town don’t want live entertainment. They just want to get hammered and drag someone home to their luxury condo. Which, when you put it that way, actually doesn’t sound so bad.”

Bar with no name opens in former Mo Pitkin's space

We were surprised to find the former Mo Pitkin's space reopened as a bar this past weekend. We knew something was in the works for the place. In any event, there was a "soft opening" -- as they say -- this past Friday in which a reliable EV Grieve operative reported that the place looked "sketchy" in sort of an Upper East Side way. There's no indication outside what the place is called. In any event, it's apparently run by the folks behind Aces & Eights, the fratty Yorkville saloon on First Avenue and 87th Street.

The former Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction bar/restaurant/performance space at 34 Avenue A closed in October 2007. It was owned in part by Two Boots honcho Phil Hartman. According to the Observer last November, the building was sold for $4 million.

We stopped by ourselves last night...but the place was closed...no word yet on what will become of the performance space upstairs. There is a rather rumpled-looking banner advertising loft space for rent hanging from the second level, though it looks like it's for LiveinNYC.net. (They have no listings for spaces on Avenue A.) It would be a shame if this becomes just another bar...losing the performance part of the space in the process.

A look inside Sunday night...

A work permit at Ryan's Irish Pub

There's now a work permit in the window of Ryan's Irish Pub on Second Avenue near Ninth Street. (One wasn't visible when the place first closed earlier this month.) I had been told by a reliable source that this closure was only temporary. You can click on the photo for a better view...looks as if they're remodeling the restrooms and reconfiguring the stairs. No change of occupancy.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Ryan's Irish Pub (temporarily) closed

Ryan's Irish Pub (temporarily) closed

Was surprised to find the always reliable Ryan's Irish Pub on Second Avenue near Ninth Street closed the other day...




However, a source told me this is just temporary, and that they're doing a little "remodeling." Still, you'd think the Ryan's folks, who also own Bull McCabe's and the Thirsty Scholar, would put a sign on the door telling what's going on now...

About last night's CB3 SLA meeting...

Yesterday, I noted that Sintir, an aspiring Moroccan place under wraps at 424 E. 9th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, was going before the Community Board 3's SLA Licensing Committee.

So, how did it go? Bailly Roesch was there last night to cover the meeting for Eater.

Here's the lowdown on Sintir:

Sintir . . . met some opposition from nine members of the Block Association. They collected a petition with 109 signatures trying to block the restaurant and cited ads the owners had apparently posted on their MySpace pages advertising upcoming live music performances. After a half an hour struggle, the ap was denied, the owner was in tears.

You can read the rest of Roesch's report here.

Two items of interest:
There's a new restaurant going into the old Affetati/East Village Pie Lounge space at 131 E. Seventh St. Cure will serve Italian cured meats and cheeses along with Italian wine.

And! One thing that I was confused about...I noticed on the CB3 site that there was a transfer from Lucky Stiffs to something called Stokes (a sports bar, natch) at 211 Avenue A. According to Grub Street: "They were approved to open the bar with the stipulation that the outdoor patio be removed from the request."

Drop Off Service is at 211 Avenue A near 13th Street. Do they share an address with the now-closed Boysroom next door on the corner? Never been to Drop Off Service... just want to make sure that I didn't miss anything.



BONUS:
Salvatore D'Aquila, the first boss of what is now the Gambino Organized Crime Family, was shot and killed on Oct. 10, 1928, in front of 211 Avenue A.

Tribe has closed; owner wants "a classier place"

Yesterday afternoon a tipster passed along news that Tribe, the decade-old bar on the corner of St. Mark's Place and First Avenue, had closed. Indeed, a walk by the place last night confirmed this.




According to the Real Deal:

Tribe's final day was last Thursday, said owner Matt Wagman, senior partner at Riteon, a partnership that operates four other bars in Manhattan. While Tribe drew loyal crowds and "always turned in really nice numbers," the bar closed after negotiations failed with landlord Tara Allmen, who had asked for a "100 percent increase" in rent when Tribe's 10-year lease expired December 31, Wagman said.

Allmen, a physician, inherited the building from her mother, Renée Allmen, along with several other East Village properties, and recently completed renovating the four residential spaces in the building. She called Tribe "an eyesore."

"I want a classier place," she said, adding that Tribe "was not going to enhance the aesthetic of the building."

Previously on EV Grieve:
I'm not waiting on a lady...say, what the hell is Mick wearing anyway?

"Back then this whole area was just people who were into art and you know…"

From tiki to minimalistic Marfa

It looks as if the former Waikiki Wally's space on Second Street is ready for action...It's Marfa, which is either taken from Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" or the town in Texas. Or, um, maybe it's just Marfa.



They have drink specials...



...and some food...(the sign says the full menu debuts Feb. 12...)





And why are these photos so blurry? It's as if I took them while jogging by or something. Anyway! It wasn't open when I walked by last night some time before 7. Pretty spare decor. Not one piece of Polynesian kitsch spotted. Not even a sliver of bamboo.

The tiki Gods aren't smiling: Waikiki Wally's washed up?

As you know, it has been reported that Lucky Cheng's will be moving from its First Avenue digs to Times Square one of these days...Wasn't sure what was going to happen to Hayne Suthon's other place, Waikiki Wally's... just around the corner on Second Street -- the quirky place where people have gotten their Don Ho (RIP) on since September 2002...From the looks of it, Wally won't be making the move. It's closed. According to a message on The New York City Ukulele Meetup Group site (by the way, I'm not a member), there was a goodbye party for Wally's on Jan. 3. "It will change themes and is being converted from tiki to minimalistic Marfa !! Come take a commemorative piece of Wally's thatch or bamboo ... "



So, with this closure and the loss in recent days of Love Saves the Day and Old Devil Moon, can we assume that kitsch is out...?

Downtown Beirut, around 1990, about 3 a.m.

I can't remember when it closed, 1994? On First Avenue.

Speaking of Downtown Beirut, I came across an article on menright.com about Carolyn, a downtown fixture and bartender at Downtown Beirut and member of Killer Instinct, X.K.I. and Bad Tuna Experiment.



According to the article:

Carolyn was new in town, working for an answering service and as an occassional punk extra in clueless Hollywood versions of the Lower East Side. She spent the nights she wasn't working on the benches in Tompkins Square, or on the stoops around Stromboli's Pizza on St. Mark's Place. She didn't have enough cash to get into the clubs very often. Drink of choice: a forty-ounce Bud.

The article talks about her bands and early years in the neighborhood. And whatever happened to her?

Carolyn resumed her long-interrupted college career and graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College. She got married. She studied for a PhD in English (specializing in Medieval Germanic Languages), wrote grammar exercises for college textbooks, and appeared on Jeopardy. (She won the trip — not the money.)

Carolyn is now the mother of a daughter by the name of Harriet, has a house in the woods, and is a Senior Editor for a major textbook publisher in New York City. Unlike many of her contemporaries on the Lower East Side, she survived. This is her hidden past.

And here's BTE with "Beer Picnic."

Two Saturdays, two pub crawls

Remember in Night of the Living Dead, when Ben boards up the farmhouse to protect himself and that useless Barbara from the zombies outside? Oh, no reason that I bring this up...just that during the last two Saturday afternoons, the East Village was host to several particularly larger-than-usual pub crawls.

On Dec. 6, I ran into a group (40 to 50?) around 1:30 p.m. who were on some golf drinking game. They started at 7B, then to Manitoba's. According to the "required behavior" on a sheet one of the pub crawlers showed me, you had to "speak with Canadian accent re: ice fishing, hockey, Inuit culture, donuts. French Canadian is acceptable" while at Manitoba's. Maybe this is funny in the pub crawler's universe.

Then, it was Zum Schneider, where pub crawlers had to "talk like a Nazi. Every other sentence must be 'Zat's what she said.' Or. 'Zat's what he said." The tomfoolery continued at Kate's Joint, Croxley Ale House, The Library, Essex Ale House, Arlene's, Motor City (where they were to sing Bob Seeger songs and curse the automakers and bailout) and, finally, Mason Dixon. Oh, and everyone was dressed in doctor's scrubs, golf duds or pajamas.

Last Saturday afternoon, there was a Santa pub crawl (not part of Santacon, which is a whole other story) nearly 100 strong that I encountered on Avenue A. Two of the participants, women roughly 25 years old, asked me where Sophie's was. They were nice enough for being so drunk (already) and oblivious to their surroundings. They were coming from the Double Down. After Sophie's, Niagra was the next stop. I asked them some questions. Where else were they going? Well, hard to say. The one had the list written in pen on her arm and the ink was starting to smudge. They lived in Hoboken. This crawl was some officewide thing that grew. They did it because "it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon."

Except if you live here.

Hop Devil Lounge vs. Hop Devil Grill

As you probably know, the owners of the Hop Devil Grill on St. Mark's near Avenue A remodeled the joint to rebrand as the Southwestern themed...Hop Devil Lounge. The Hop Devil redux opened on Dec. 3. Been meaning to stop by, sort of, purely for research reasons. But I did pick up the new menu! Which I compared to the old menu...which leads me to think...



...they cut back on their clip-art budget.

So, anyway -- there's a Southwestern theme...and burgers. And lots of beer.