A look at Poetica Coffee, opening soon on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Poetica Coffee is set to officially open next Monday, April 24, on the SW corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place (don't be surprised if the doors open a few days earlier for a sneak preview).

Owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov and his two-and-a-half-year-old son Noor invited me inside to look at the latest location for the Brooklyn-based coffee shop... 

Parviz was quick to credit Kegeyan Interior Designs for the look and feel...

There's a free lending library with books to browse and read. You can also drop a book off or take a book home with you...

All the artwork and books were picked up at thrifts except for this mosaic that Parviz brought back from a trip to his native Uzbekistan ...

The storefront was the longtime home of Gem Spa, the iconic newsstand-candy shop that closed in May 2020. Despite her best efforts, Parul Patel, who had been running the store that her father Ray has owned since 1986, could not withstand the mounting financial challenges coupled with the pandemic.

As previously reported, Parviz said he was unaware of the previous tenant (there wasn't any mention of the last tenant in the marketing materials) when he signed the lease. Since then, he has studied up on Gem Spa and seemed to be in awe of its long history.

Parviz said he's contacted Parul several times and will try again when they open. His offer to sell Gem Spa merchandise for the family remains open. And he's currently working on selling a Gem Spa-inspired egg cream, which he admitted is a challenge to perfect. He said that he wanted to honor the location's legacy.

Poetica currently has a few photos of Gem Spa on display...

Poetica Coffee will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. to start. The café will serve housemade pastries, including croissants and several varieties of baked pierogies, which are more prevalent in central Asia than boiled or fried dumplings. 

Follow Poetica Coffee on Instagram for updates. 

Sunday's parting shot

New sidewalk addition on Avenue A and Sixth Street... Gem Spa RIP 2020.

Let's go to the Stuyvesant Casino!

Renovations continue at 131 Second Ave. at the SW corner of St. Mark's Place where an outpost of Poetica Coffee is opening early this year. (Top photo by Steven)

For decades, this storefront was home to Gem Spa (RIP May 2020). Workers have uncovered some local ephemera on the front pillars (as we noted here). 

The latest reveal ... a flyer for Stuyvesant Casino, a nightclub located in what is now the Ukrainian National Home at 140-142 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street from 1910 to the 1950s... (thanks to Kevin Goodman for this shot...)

Per this NYSMusic site: "The Stuyvesant Casino offered sumptuous food, dazzling decor, and a first-class house band. High rollers and hitmen were among the clientele, particularly Big Jack Zelig, head of the Eastman Gang after the death of 'Kid Twist' Max Zwerbach, in 1908."

A look inside the under-renovation Poetica Coffee on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

We've been noting the changes of happening on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place with the departure of the long-running "Stomp" and the closure of the decades-spanning survivor Dallas BBQ. 

Meanwhile, work continues on the SW corner ... where an outpost of Brooklyn-based Poetica Coffee is opening in the first quarter of 2023. 

Owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov invited EVG contributor Stacie Joy in for a look at the in-progress conversion of the space...

... including a tour of the under-renovation lower level ...

... where Mukhamadkulov plans to have a barista training area as well as an employee lounge and the restrooms...

The café will serve housemade pastries, including croissants and several varieties of baked pierogies, which are more popular in central Asia as opposed to boiled or fried dumplings... and with coffee beans from a roaster in Brooklyn. 

Mukhamadkulov has said he'd like to honor the longtime former tenant, Gem Spa... so perhaps they'll be an egg cream on the menu too.

Storefront renovations and reveals on 2nd Avenue and St. Mark's Place

Many readers pointed out the storefront renovations underway now at 132 Second Ave. at the SW corner of St. Mark's Place (top photo via Steven; shot below by Derek Berg from Friday)...

As EVG contributor Stacie Joy first reported on Oct. 3, an outpost of the Brooklyn-based Poetica Coffee will be opening here in the months ahead. This will be the second Manhattan location for the brand, which has seven spots in Brooklyn.

And on Friday, owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov sent us this photo of some local music ephemera that was uncovered on one of the storefront pillars... a band flyer for a show on May 7, 1974, at the long-defunct Brandy's II on the Upper East Side. (Brandy's Piano Bar is still there.)

Not sure who these lads are at the moment... the band's name is MIA here...

The retail space was the longtime home of Gem Spa, the iconic newsstand-candy shop. Gem Spa officially closed in May 2020 amid ongoing financial challenges worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mukhamadkulov previously told us that he would honor the memory of the decades-spanning former occupant in this renovated space. 

Exclusive: This is the new tenant for the former Gem Spa space

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

An outpost of the Brooklyn-based Poetica Coffee will be opening at the SW corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, the longtime former home of Gem Spa, the iconic newsstand-candy shop. 

Owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov (pictured below) received the keys to the space — officially 36 St. Mark's Place — on Friday. This will be the second Manhattan location for the brand, which has seven spots in Brooklyn.

Mukhamadkulov, from Uzbekistan, has said that he has wanted to own his own café since he was a kid and watched his father work as a coffee wholesaler.

The café will serve housemade pastries, including croissants and several varieties of baked pierogies, which are more popular in central Asia as opposed to boiled or fried dumplings... and with coffee beans from a roaster in Brooklyn. With the landlord's permission, Mukhamadkulov would like to add an enclosed sidewalk cafe on the St. Mark's Place side.

Mukhamadkulov said he didn't know about the history of the space when he first rented the storefront (there wasn't any mention of the previous tenant in the marketing materials) ... and he has since explored the history of the address... and reached out to Parul Patel, who ran Gem Spa in recent years, with an offer to sell their merchandise free of charge. 

He said he wants to honor the location's legacy and has "big shoes to step into."

Here's how the interior looked as of Saturday...

Gem Spa, home of the egg cream according to some sources, officially closed in May 2020 amid ongoing financial challenges worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parul Patel, who had been running the store that her father Ray owned since 1986, made a gallant effort to save the iconic corner shop that dates to the 1920s. This post has more background on Gem Spa's last few years.

And more history, via a Vanity Fair piece from May 2020:

The tributes that followed Patel's closure announcement ... teemed with references to the art in which the store had served as a backdrop: Madonna's turn in "Desperately Seeking Susan"; Patti Smith writing about going for an egg cream with Robert Mapplethorpe in her memoir "Just Kids"; a pair of lines from an Allen Ginsberg poem ("Back from the Gem Spa, into the hallway, a glance behind / and sudden farewell to the bedbug-ridden mattresses piled soggy in dark rain"); the back cover of the New York Dolls' first album; the title of a 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting; Lou Reed's song "Egg Cream.: The works traced a timeline of the East Village that both belonged firmly to the 20th century and remained top of mind.

[Noted]

[Men Sobbing]... as seen at the former Gem Spa space (RIP May 2020) on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place... (and first spotted by @jeremoss! 😍)

The Gem Spa signage shines brightly in this Ohio farmhouse

While Gem Spa has been permanently shuttered for the past two-plus years, a refurbished piece of the iconic corner shop lives on in a 19th-century farmhouse in Mount Sterling, Ohio.

Jason Sheehy, the owner of the just-mounted sign, splits his time between NYC and this town about 25 miles southwest of Columbus, Ohio, where he helps his father on the family farm. 

In recent years, he became friends with Parul Patel, who ran the store on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place that her father Ray had owned since 1986. After the shop closed (read the history here), Patel auctioned off parts of the Gem Spa to help pay for her father's care. (According to The New Yorker, he had been suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease akin to Parkinson's.)

There were several bidders, but no one matched the reserve price for the yellow Gem Spa sign from the St. Mark's Place side of the business. 

"The auction ended and I texted Parul and told her I was interested," Sheehy said in an email yesterday. "We ended up settling on a price and made the deal."

Why did he want to make an investment in the sign?

"Gem Spa to me was the East Village," he said. "I used to be in Gramercy and spent most of my time in the East Village. Coming down Second Avenue — the glow of Gem Spa meant I had arrived.

"I loved the selection of magazines about obscure things. The history of the place. It just was to me, the heart and soul of the East Village," he continued. "So when the opportunity to own the sign popped up….I couldn't pass it up."

Keeping the sign company in the farmhouse are items from the now-closed O'Lunney's Times Square Pub, which shut down during the pandemic. ("I built an Irish dive bar," he said.)

Meanwhile, he continues to keep in touch with Parul.

"I was texting her [Tuesday] night," Sheehy said. "She's delighted that the sign, and her family's legacy, lives on — even if it's 500 miles away."

Where are they now? Catching up with Gem Spa's former Zoltar in Bushwick

Archival photo from the vast EVG Zoltar collection

In May 2019, local card-carrying members (hi!) of the Zoltar Fan Club were heartbroken to learn that their favorite Animatronic Fortune Telling Machine had been removed from outside Gem Spa on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

As we learned in June 2019, Zoltar's owner found a new home for his words of wisdom outside OMG Pizza in Bushwick.

And that's the last we heard about the situation... until now. 

At the Times, Alex Vadukul has an update on Zoltar ... as well as a conversation with local businessman and arcade owner Carlo Muraco, who seems to have a lock on the NYC Zoltar market.

First, Vadukul speaks with some passersby outside the pizzeria in Bushwick about this Zoltar's past.

"I definitely put a few bucks into that thing when I was drunk," said Patrick Reid, 30. "After skating in Tompkins we'd meet up on St. Marks and pull up to it, maybe hang out a bit in front of it before heading off to the next adventure. He told me once I could walk a path to greatness, but I think he's bad juju."

"It's bizarre this remnant of Gem Spa has ended up here in nowhere Bushwick," said Amrit Dhillon, 26. "It's interesting to see how New York eats itself up and spits itself out again, like a living organism."

Saddam Alsaidi, 27, who works at the pizzeria, knew of Zoltar's past life across the river. "I know he used to be famous in the East Village," he said. "He was a big deal."

The article also gets into the disagreement that led to Zoltar's Gem Spa ouster... as well as comments from Parul Patel, who had been running the corner shop for her father until the official closing in May 2020.

"I'd only heard he’s out there in Bushwick," Ms. Patel said. "It's nice to know there's a piece of us still out there in the city. Even though he's not in the East Village anymore, he is a real living artifact of Gem Spa."

You can read the article, which includes several links to EVG's deep reservoir of Zoltar posts, right here.

Zoltar first arrived at Gem Spa on Sept. 23, 2012.

Meanwhile, there is a new Zoltar outside the March Hare on Ninth Street.

The remains of the Gem Spa can now be found in homes (and a barn) across the U.S.

Gem Spa closed just a little more than a year ago on the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place. 

Parul Patel, who had been running the store that her father Ray owned since 1986, made a gallant effort to save the iconic corner shop that dates to the 1920s. However, whatever financial progress she was able to make was not enough to overcome a global pandemic. 

Late last year, Patel auctioned off the Gem Spa's sign, rolldown gate and other miscellanea.

At The New Yorker this week, Michael Schulman tracked down the owners of these Gem Spa relics.

Jason Sheehy nabbed one of the big yellow storefront signs (seventy-five hundred dollars), plus a milkshake machine (three-fifty). Sheehy lives on a grain farm in Ohio, but "the East Village has always just been my jive," he said. Both items will live in his nineteenth-century farmhouse, part of which he has turned into an Irish pub, furnished with a bar and stools from O’Lunney's Times Square Pub, another pandemic casualty.

Diana Goldfeder Stewart, a graphic artist in San Francisco, bought an egg-cream sign for her kitchen (three thousand dollars). Her family operated the store from the twenties through the fifties, when it was called Goldfeder's. She grew up hearing stories about her great-grandfather Nathan's chocolate-sauce recipe. ("He served what was called Goldfeder's Famous Egg Cream.") Like a lot of Gem Spa fans, she was anxious about what will replace it. "That corner — it's a magical corner for so many people," she said. "It can't be just nothing there."

As this photo from yesterday shows, nothing is here for now. The storefront is on the rental market.

Top photo from April 2019 by Stacie Joy

EVG Etc.: Crowdfunding for B&H Dairy; Selling off Gem Spa

Photo by Derek Berg

 

• Two East Village businesses detail their retail struggles (ABC 7) 

• Jacqueline Lewis, senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church, which was destroyed by fire on Dec. 5, talks about celebrating Christmas in 2020 (WNYC ... previously on EVG)

• B&H Dairy on Second Avenue is in danger of closing again (GoFundMe) 

• The great Cozy Soup 'n' Burger on Broadway at Astor Place could use some business too (Official site)

• Gem Spa is auctioning off its sign, rolldown gate, etc. (Official site ... previously on EVG) 

• Investigation: NYPD used excessive force during George Floyd protests (Gothamist) 

• New York State doing its best to permanently shutter restaurants (NBC 4)

• Second-generation Chinese New Yorkers are trying to help businesses in Chinatown establish an online presence and adapt to the pandemic (Gothamist) 

• The future of independent theater (B&B)

• A food vendor on 14th Street — in 1904 (Ephemeral New York) 

• 10 punk Christmas songs (Alternative Press)

• Diversions: The Stooges and the legend of "Metallic KO" (Dangerous Minds)

• And I appreciate Alex keeping the blogging spirit alive in this era of Substack, etc. He always has interesting posts. Give him a visit. (Flaming Pablum) 

Sunday's parting shot

A new tribute to Gem Spa (closed for good in May) on this freshly repaired sidewalk on Ninth Street ... photo by Steven...

The former Gem Spa space is for lease

[Photo from Saturday]

The former Gem Spa storefront on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place is now officially on the rental market, billed as "First time available."

The listing at RIPCO doesn't have much info, other than square footage, location, etc. Pricing is available by request.

And while Gem Spa's address was 131 Second Ave., the marketing materials list this as 36 St. Mark's Place.

Potentially concerning (and confusing) is that the listing includes Paul's Da Burger Joint next door. The listing notes that the two spaces are available separately or combined...



The fact that the space was on the market was news to the owners of Paul's, who have a few more years left on the lease.

"I’ll assume at the moment it’s a mistake, as I spoke to the landlord today about something unrelated and nothing was mentioned," Matt Wardrop, who has been running Paul's since 2007, told EVG contributor Stacie Joy on Friday.

He added this on Sunday: "It seems as if that listing was created like that to draw more potential tenants for the corner. Someone can express interest for the whole lot and then the broker can say that only the corner is available. We are still here, doing the best we can given the current state of events. We enjoy serving the community and our loyal customers. We look forward to staying open and continuing to do what we love the most — feeding our loyal friends!"

Stacie stopped by Paul's on Friday...



Here's Angel, who has been here nearly the entire time since the restaurant opened in 1989, with his daughter and co-worker Daniella...



Gem Spa officially closed on May 7 amid ongoing financial challenges worsened by the COVID-19 crisis. The corner has a long history as a candy store and newsstand.

A depressing last look at Gem Spa

Workers finished dismantling the former Gem Spa space today on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

The work focused on removing the rolldown gates that East Village-based musician-artist Paul Kostabi painted last September ... Steven took these photos...









Parul Patel, who had been the running the shop that her father Ray has owned since 1986, said that she plans to auction the rolldown gates, splitting the proceeds with Paul Kostabi. (She will also continue to sell Gem Spa merchandise online.)

Workers also removed some Gem Spa ghost signage...





The iconic shop, home of the egg cream, officially closed on May 7 amid ongoing financial challenges worsened by the COVID-19 crisis.

Dismantling the former Gem Spa

[Photo by David Sippel]

This afternoon, workers took down the Gem Spa signs from the now-closed corner shop-newsstand on Second Avenue and St Mark's Place (photos below by Steven)...









Parul Patel, who had been the running the shop that her father Ray has owned since 1986, told me that she intends to sell the Gem Spa signs, and has a few suitors already. She was at the scene overseeing the removal today...


[Photo by Stacie Joy]

She also plans to auction the rolldown gates that East Village-based musician-artist Paul Kostabi painted last September, splitting the proceeds with him. (She will also continue to sell Gem Spa merchandise online.)

The iconic shop, home of the egg cream, officially closed on May 7 amid ongoing financial challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis...


[Photo by Steven]

Updated:

A look at about 7:30...