'Gem Spa is open!'

We've fielded more than a dozen queries in recent days about the situation at Gem Spa on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place. The iconic corner shop has reduced its hours, stopped selling newspapers and magazines, and lost Zoltar in recent weeks.

The "everything must go" signs outside are also — understandably — throwing people for a loop. (We're told the shop is selling off the overstock in the basement.)

People have assumed that the shop has gone out of business — or is in the process of it...


[Photo by Steven]

Yesterday, Parul Patel, who is running the shop for her father Ray, the owner since 1986 who's in declining health, posted the following on the Gem Spa Instagram account:

Gem Spa is open! Contrary to rumors that are circulating we are not closed and very much open for business. However there have been some changes. We have been forced to clean up our storefront and scale back our hours due to landlord and staffing issues.

The Zoltar machine was removed by its owner due to our scaled-back hours in order to prevent vandalism. A couple of months ago, we lost our cigarette and lotto licenses [a negligent employee sold cigarettes to an undercover minor] which made up for 80% of our revenues. This has significantly impacted us and as a result we have had to cut back on things such as newspapers and magazines as we simply cannot afford to carry them at this time.

We will resume carrying limited titles in about four months once we get our cigarette & lotto licenses back. Thank you to our loyal and beloved customers for their outpouring of love and support. We hope to see you soon!

She remains hopeful that the sales of egg creams, coffee, soda and other corner-store conveniences will carry them through through these next few months...


[Egg cream photo by Stacie Joy]

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to Gem Spa

[Updated] What is happening at Gem Spa?

Several readers were shocked this morning to see that Gem Spa, a 24/7 hub of activity on the southwest corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place for years, was closed.

Steven took these photos just before 9.



Last week, we heard that Gem Spa was going to reduce its hours, closing from midnight to 7 a.m. Business has been off at the shop since April, when Gem Spa lost its license to sell lottery and tobacco products (with the exception of e-cigs) due to an employee twice selling cigarettes to an undercover underage buyer. The state suspended the store’s license for six months, which apparently also leaves them unable to apply for a license to sell beer.

The Patel family has owned the store since 1986. Mr. Patel has been in declining health, and his daughter Parul is handling the store’s management. EVG contributor Stacie Joy spoke with her outside the shop on Sunday. While she acknowledged some issues with the landlord (he wants a clean look out front, for instance), she didn't give any indication that the shop was in danger of closing. She had ideas on how to help business in the interim, such as offer an "egg cream happy hour."

Meanwhile, the Zoltar machine along with the newspapers were removed from outside the shop in late May. Parul said they don't make a lot of money on newspapers and so the margins are too slim (people also steal them all too often).

Another sign making regulars nervous: The everything-must-go notices outside. According to Parul, they're simply thinning out the back stock of hats, scarves and sunglasses ...




[Photo in April by Stacie Joy]

We'll update this post as soon as we learn more.

Updated 10:40 a.m.



Gem Spa is open, per Steven. Their new hours are 8 a.m. to midnight. And their iced coffee is only $2.

Updated:

Jeremiah Moss has a post on Gem Spa here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A visit to Gem Spa

I don't see you over there — yes, you!: Zoltar is MIA outside Gem Spa

A shocking sight is in store for visitors to Gem Spa on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place.

ZOLTAR IS MISSING.


[Photo yesterday by Steven]

So are the newspapers.

We reached out to ownership to learn why Zoltar is not at his post, where he has told fortunes and offered wisdom on this corner starting on Sept. 23, 2012, not that we've been keeping track.

An employee told EVG Animatronic Fortune Telling Machine correspondent Steven that the 'tar — as no one calls him, tbh — will be back in a few days. We'll believe that when we see him again and insert our $2 to learn who he likes in the Belmont Stakes.

Meanwhile. Enjoy this EVG video flashback to September 2012...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Zoltar arrives on St. Mark's Place, sees 'a great deal of happiness' in return for $2

Zoltar is the greatest thing to happen to St. Mark's Place since ______________?

Zoltar awaits a service call; fortunes, wisdom on hold

A visit to Gem Spa

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy

Updated: Since this post, Zoltar has been removed from the shop's front. Gem Spa has also reduced hours and discontinued newspaper sales.

Parul Patel is running a few minutes late for our appointment and she calls to say she’s on her way. So I use the time to take in Gem Spa, the iconic corner shop and newsstand at 131 Second Ave. and St. Mark’s Place that has a long history in the neighborhood — and not just for its signature egg creams. (Look at the Gem Spa Wikipedia entry for its sprawling legend.)

Patel, whose 76-year-old father Ray owns the shop, soon arrives, issuing a flurry of instructions to employees as she sets up the house special chocolate egg cream (seen below with pretzel stick and chocolate-covered jelly ring).









As her father’s in declining health, Parul has been handling the store’s management. The Patel family has owned the store since 1986.

Parul says the egg cream has been made for almost 100 years at this address. While chocolate is the current best-selling flavor, she also offers vanilla, strawberry, orange creamsicle, and black-and-white.

She plans to debut some new flavors soon – and scoop! – I saw the creation of the first-ever cookies and cream version.







Future flavors also include mocha and hazelnut or Nutella flavor. Upcoming offerings may include ice cream and milkshakes, and new flavors of e-cigs, as well as adding jewelry and handbags to the hats and accessories already being sold outside the shop.



Last month, Gem Spa lost its license to sell lottery and tobacco products (with the exception of e-cigs) due to an employee twice selling cigarettes to an undercover underage buyer. The state has suspended the store’s license for six months and also leaves them unable to apply for a license to sell beer.

Neighborhood icon (and EVG favorite!) Zoltar arrived in 2011, when the machine’s owner offered to license it to Gem Spa. (They keep 50% of the profits.) Zoltar seems to be busiest at night although he gets to pose with tourists often during the day.





The store recently joined Instagram — you can follow it here.

Gem Spa has also been enjoying some media exposure of late, including a deep dive on the shop's history at Gothamist... and a visit by NY1's affable Roger Clark.











“Gem Spa serves and loves its locals, tourists, and eccentrics,” Parul tells me, before sending me on my way with a chocolate-covered jelly-topped graham cracker and a smile.





Visit our previous A Visit To features here.

Saturday's parting shot

Zoltar with a tag outside Gem Spa on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place this morning...

Happy New Year's Eve Day!

The vendors outside Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place have already moved on, though. (And has the Kmart on Astor Place already started selling Easter candy?)

Zoltar is — more than usual — increasing spiritual energy this morning

There's some sandalwood burning here outside Zoltar's residence at Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place...

Well it's 1969 OK

Thanks to the EVG readers who pointed out this post via @NYTarchives... showing Gem Spa (Gems Spa then) on the corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue circa 1969...

View this post on Instagram

The word “iconic” gets thrown around a lot these days, but when it comes to New York City street life, Gem Spa, at St. Mark’s Place and 2nd Avenue, warrants the description. Just 6 months before the @nytimes staff photographer Carl Gossett Jr. captured the famous storefront in 1969, the paper described the corner soda fountain as a “hippie hangout.” In the subsequent years, Gem Spa would become a neighborhood anchor for the punk and New Wave music scenes, and be featured in an eponymous painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a poem by Allen Ginsberg. #eastvillage #newyork #history #photography

A post shared by The New York Times Archives (@nytarchives) on Dec 3, 2018 at 1:32pm PST

Headline H/T

Dec. 1

At Gem Spa today...

Friday's parting shots

The FDNY's new novelty-hat day at Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place... photos today via Derek Berg...

2nd Avenue cab crash

Derek Berg came across this scene this morning just before 8 on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place... unfortunately, we don't know what caused the cab driver to crash into the curb and send the trash can toward Gem Spa's entrance...



No one was injured... and thankfully this didn't happen at 8 a.m. on a non-holiday Monday...

Back to the future

Zoltar had been partially covered with a trash bag outside Gem Spa the past few days. The front pane of glass in his house of birch-veneer fortune telling fell back and knocked his head wrap off to the side.

Anyway, EVG regular Lola Sáenz notes that a coin-operated, fix-it machine team has repaired Zoltar's home of nearly five years here on Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place...



To a wealth of wisdom.

For the time being, Zoltar is unable to see the future

Uh-oh. Fortune trouble outside Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place. Zoltar is currently out of commission.

Hopefully the gold head wrap softened the blow when the front pane of tempered glass fell back and cracked Zoltar in the skull ...

LinkNYC-Zoltar showdown on 2nd Avenue

The latest LinkNYC kiosk went up yesterday on Second Avenue near St. Mark's Place...near the watchful eye of Zoltar. Not so sure this will be a friendly rivalry. ("I see you over there...")

Gem Spa hat trick

Photo outside Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place via Derek Berg

Parting Tuesday shot

Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place via Greg Masters...

Front pages for The Greatest

At Gem Spa this morning...

H/T Steven

Zoltar's 'wealth of wisdom' for Lily Tomlin at Gem Spa

[EVG file photo]

The New Yorker has a piece with Lily Tomlin, whose promoting Season 2 of the Netflix show "Grace and Frankie."

In the late 1960s, Tomlin lived on Fifth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery. For the interview, Tomlins stops by Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, where she recalled:

“I’d come to Gem Spa on the weekends and I would rail against the rock culture, because it was so misogynistic. I would fight my way in, and I’d shout out from behind the throngs. I’d say, ‘I need a box of business envelopes!’ ”

Later, she gives her $2 to Zoltar out front:

“Zoltar’s been around a long time,” she said. She fed in the bills, and the machine spat out a yellow ticket.

“Is that it?” Tomlin said, rapping on the glass. “What a rip!”

“For a small fee, Zoltar will give you a wealth of wisdom,” Zoltar said in a booming voice.

The fortune was read aloud: “A happy reunion with a loved one will make life all that you ever wanted it or dreamed it to be. You have a very trusting nature and are easily taken in by so-called friends.”

“My God in Heaven!” Tomlin said.

Zoltar's true identity revealed

EVG reader MA makes the discovery outside Gem Spa this evening...

Zoltar sees a future without graffiti (at least for the next few days)

Over outside the Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, Zoltar is receiving a summer scrubbing….

As these photos via EVG reader Lola Sáenz show, a worker is removing the various tags that well-wishers have left on Zoltar's home of nearly three years…





Now if someone will please just return his crystal ball.