Saturday's parting shot

A moment on Ludlow Street this afternoon...

A Drybar opens on Ludlow Street tomorrow

EVG reader Alta Tseng shared this photo from... 179 Ludlow St., the building next to Katz's...

As the Commercial Observer first reported in August, the California-based salon chain Drybar signed a 10-year deal ($150 per square foot) in the retail space of the condoplex

And Drybar, the 13th in the city and the first in this neighborhood, opens tomorrow (Friday!) per the signage.

The condoplex earned the nickname "The Rat Castle" from the Voice back in 2008. (The then-abandoned project attracted rats galore at the time.)

As BoweryBoogie noted in August: "An ironic name for this Hell Square newcomer, though; in an area pillaged with liquor licenses, a Drybar moves in."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Notorious 'Rat Castle' being pitched as 'Swank' on Ludlow Street

Last day for Inutilious Retailer on Ludlow Street

Photos and text by Nick McManus

This Saturday marks the closing for Ludlow Street's art-concept-store Inutilious Retailer. (Word is the new building's owner at 151 Ludlow St. won't renew the lease.)

Opened last September by artist Adrian Miller, it has become a hub for local artists Cash4 SMELLS, Brandon Sines and Hek Tad to name a few. Over the course of the year, he has invited painters of all kinds to do work in his back yard in addition to featuring a different artist every week with on top of his basement stairs.


[The rooftop of Inutilious Retailer's building looking north]


[The backyard of Inutiliuos Retailer last week]


[Bike messenger Gary McKnight in front of Inutilious Retailer featuring a Frank Ape painting by Brandon Sine last March]

Someone apparently took a car door off the Banksy mobile on Ludlow Street

[Image via Banksyny]

This Banksy mobile showed up on Ludlow Street on Wednesday... part of the artist's month-long NYC street residency... as perhaps expected... someone took a piece of the installation (the back door on the driver's side) ... as this photo via Justin McWilliams of the East Village shows...




Banksy's piece on East Seventh Street was quickly altered ...and his some of his other work has been defaced as well this month...

Ludlow Street 10 years later; plus, a report on what's taking the Max Fish space

In a blog post yesterday, photographers James and Karla Murray take a walk down Ludlow Street and compare the storefronts to just 10 years earlier...

Many casualties of course... Max Fish... Pink Pony ... Ludlow Guitars... with El Sombrero next... Of course, you can always count on the enduring images from Katz's.

Find the now-and-then shots here.

Updated 6:09 a.m.

Meanwhile, BoweryBoogie has the scoop on what hopes to take over the Max Fish space... the second outpost of Sweet Chick — "a casual southern-style restaurant that offers a menu dominated by fried chicken and sides like waffles, biscuits, and slaw."

They opened the first outpost on Bedford Avenue back in February.

'Ludlow Street Masacre' continues: 27-year-old rehearsal space below Max Fish next to close

Spencer Wilking at the Voice reports that the 27-year-old rehearsal space under Max Fish at 178 Ludlow street will have to close this summer... Ken Caldeira and Sal Principato (vocalist for Liquid Liquid) opened the space in 1986.

But the end is very near. Landlord Arwen Properties has told Max Fish and Principato that they'll both need to vacate the building by early summer. (That's different from the August date we heard for Max Fish, who's moving to Brooklyn.)

"They're in no mood to bargain because they stand to make a killing in the anticipation of the hotel," says Principato, referring to the Hotel Ludlow, the latest boutique hotel that will soon open next door to Max Fish. "We're a liability. Who's gonna pay those big bucks with a bunch of musicians in the basement?"

As Wilking wrote: "Call it the Ludlow Street Massacre — the rehearsal space, Pink Pony, Motor City, and Max Fish, all closing."

Read the whole article here.

[Image by Spencer Wilking]

Notorious 'Rat Castle' being pitched as 'Swank' on Ludlow Street

The future of Ludlow Street has been a popular topic in recent times, with the loss of the Pink Pony and the impending Closure of Motor City Bar... not to mention an uncertain future for The Hat and Les Enfants Terribles...

As for future development, there's the longtime eyesore at 179 Ludlow adjacent to Katz's... a stalled development dubbed "the Rat Castle." (Among the notable points in this unfinished building's history: Madonna's reps reportedly checked out the retail space in 2007 to open a Kabbalah Center.)

Fast forward a few years: In November 2011, CB3 OK'd plans for the developer to complete the residences and retail portion.

Now an EVG tipster points us to a listing for the retail space at Newmark Knight Frank ...



The rendering shows the space being used as some type of boutique called ... Swank. Ha.



For further reading on 179 Ludlow... visit BoweryBoogie ... Curbed ... and The Lo-Down ...

More about Pink Pony and Motor City Bar closing on Ludlow Street

As we first reported on Monday afternoon, the 18-year-old Motor City Bar on Ludlow Street would be closing this spring. Their current lease expires at the end of the month. It was all but a done deal, a tipster told us.

Co-owner Francesca Romeo confirmed this to The Lo-Down yesterday, noting that the bar's landlord "did not give the option of renewal."

Also on Monday, BoweryBoogie had the scoop that the Pink Pony on Ludlow had also closed for good. In a follow-up piece, Cara Buckley at The New York Times reported that the cafe closed, in part, because the landlord increased the rent from $14,000 to $20,000 a month.

The owner, Lucien Bahaj, who also runs Lucien on First Avenue, said that the landlord "had been reasonable and patient, and was merely asking for market rent." Plus: "[H]is cafe had come to seem out of step in a neighborhood sprouting condominium towers, boutique hotels, mixologists and sports bars."

Here's more from Buckley's piece:

The bar captured a fast retreating moment in the evolution – some may say devolution – of the Lower East Side, a time when patrons read those books and flocked for documentary screenings and poetry nights.

Bahaj said this to the Daily News yesterday:

"It's not a tragedy. It belonged to an era and the era changed and I changed with it. All my customers have left or changed. The neighborhood used to be full of creative types — painters, writers, filmmakers. We don’t have that anymore."

Who do we have?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: Motor City Bar is closing on Ludlow Street

[Image via Tripping With Marty]

Velvet Underground founding member John Cale recalls his Ludlow Street apartment

These days, John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, lives in Los Angeles.

However, in The Wall Street Journal today, Cale revisits 64 Ludlow St., where he lived starting in 1964 ... where the fifth-floor apartment became a rehearsal space of sorts for Cale, Lou Reed and company.

The apartment belonged to experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad. Cale moved in to split the $25 monthly rent. "The building was filled with single-minded artists then like poet Angus MacLise, filmmaker Piero Heliczer, director Jack Smith and actor Mario Montez," Cale said.

To an excerpt!

Our apartment was a railroad flat — a long room running from the windows in the front to a small bedroom and a bathroom in the back. I slept on a mattress, under the windowsill in the front overlooking Ludlow. We burned crates and furniture in the fireplace to keep warm. There was no heat in the winter other than the gas stove.

Tony and I lived on what we could afford — mostly canned stew and milkshakes. Across the street in the morning, you could hear kids from the nearby high school singing doo-wop in the doorway there. Other kids threw rocks at us because they thought we looked like the Beatles. A lot of guys around here didn't like them early on.

Read the whole article here.

And here's Cale on the roof of the building the other day...



And here's the video for his newish single...



John Cale and The Wordless Music Orchestra perform tomorrow night at the Howard Gilman Opera House at BAM...

[Top photo — Michael Ochs Archives / Redferns]

Reader report: EarthMatters closing next month

177 Ludlow hit the market for $6.25 million last September, as BoweryBoogie first noted. The 5-story, 15-unit building has been home to EarthMatters Organic Market and Restaurant since 2001.

Last month, The Lo-Down reported that 177 Ludlow was in contract.

The future looked bleak for the organic food market, especially with the listing that appeared for the ground-floor space the market occupies (asking rent is $25,000 a month).

Indeed.

EVG regular samo heard that, now that the building has been sold, the store is closing for good on Sept. 20. Management apparently told employees last evening.

No word on the plans for the building. As BoweryBoogie wrote, "the stout property is being pitched as a perfect opportunity for either a hotel or condo conversion. Two options this battered part of the neighborhood certainly does not need."

[Photo via the EarthMatters website]

Stalled 180 Ludlow now apparently much brighter at night

A reader asks, "Any idea what's happening at The Ludlow construction site? Lots of new lights put up in the last day or so."

Well, the amazingly stalled 180 Ludlow project is a little outside our usual coverage zone. But! We walked by last night... and there do seem to be more lights... Yes? No? Maybe?

Perhaps for a Haunted Work Site this Halloween season? (We wish! Sounds so unsafe!)

Anyway, for more about the ongoing saga here (hotel! rentals! hotel again!) you can catch up at BoweryBoogie and The Lo-Down.

Your chance to clutter up Ludlow Street even more

New to the market ... 159 Ludlow, which is currently going for $2.5 million.

A 25 wide vacant lot which is off the corner of Stanton Street. The lot has 4,250 square feet of buildable air rights. The property is in a neighborhood that is undergoing lots of development. There is also a lot of demand for retail space for bars and restaurants and art galleries. This zoning allows commercial as well as residential development. This property is a prime development opportunity or a great user opportunity. For a user they can build a nice town house or use the lot for parking. The seller can get a variance for the buyer to build under the old zoning.

The Ludlow sales reach new heights

And they still haven't updated their Web site to include the new hotel/condo/whatever that's currently stalled next door.



Yeah, guys -- that thing.


[Image via Curbed]

Max Fish turns 20 this week; will open Miami outpost (temporarily)

Ludlow Street mainstay Max Fish opened on Dec. 2, 1989. And to mark the occasion... Slamxhype has the story:

In celebration of the legendary New York City bar’s 20 year anniversary, Aaron Bondaroff, Al Moran and Ulli Rimkus bring the downtown institution Max Fish to Miami for the week of Art Basel. Taking over a functioning bar space in downtown Miami, the team will be recreating an art installation out of the core elements of the Lower East Side location and importing it’s colorful cast of characters for the week.

And Slamxhype also included this Max Fish video from CityCapture.com.

"Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate"

Vice magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary this past weekend. To mark the occasion, the editors allegedly reissued their very first issue from 1994, which included this piece titled "Ludlow Street, Mon Amour."

The first paragraph:

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is not a fashionable destination. Populated primarily by dive bars, nodding junkies, and boarded-up storefronts, the thought of anything even remotely related to trendiness, fancy clothes, or art happening down here would be pretty hard to believe. In fact, the only reason anyone from another neighborhood would even set foot on the LES in 1994 would be if they were looking for illicit substances, of which there are plenty.

The last paragraph:

Whether or not the seedy Lower East Side will ever catch on as a trendy destination is open for debate. My guess is probably not. In fact, I hope not. Seeing Ludlow Street overrun with normal people looking for a “hip kick” would turn my stomach faster than a bad bag of dope. But last weekend, if only for one night, the Lower East Side was most certainly the place to be in New York.

I'm curious if anyone fell for this prank...

Related:
Hipster Media Magnate Picks $2M East Village Flower (Curbed)

Ludlow Street's iconic Kleen-Stik Industries becomes a cantina

Between Stanton and Rivington at 139-141 Ludlow, at the site of the Kleen-Stik Industries, Inc.

Oh, sorry...This is just a prop set for filming the TV series Cupid today. But don't give anyone any stupid ideas!




In October, our friend BoweryBoogie reported that the beloved graffiti exterior of the building had been cleaned. Perhaps this is why...for the film shoot?

A New View of the Lower East Side (I'll say!)

Meanwhile, the above post made me curious about the 19-story Ludlow Hotel rising on, uh, Ludlow, right behind The Ludlow. (Clever, these names!) What do you do if you forked over money for a space in The Ludlow with nice southern exposures...which will soon be exposed to a 170-room hotel? (And what about The Ludlow's slogan: "A New View of the Lower East Side...")



Curbed had this shot last month:



Haven't seen mention of the new hotel at The Ludlow site.

They should really update their Web site, too. None of the images reflect the new construction going on next door. Seems a little misleading to me...

Wigshelf

On Ludlow Street. Alongside Katz's.

Speaking of Ludlow Street

I've loved this block from day one. Sure, this has been well-documented, but it's just hard to walk down the street anymore without getting upset.

Life before...and after the luxury high rises on the LES

Spending too much time on YouTube these days...I came across these videos by Paul Dougherty, a longtime video maker.

Here's his YouTube page.



Also, check out the his other videos, including inside shots of St. Brigid's.

[OH!: Just found that Jeremiah had linked to these back in January! Sorry Jeremiah!]