[Updated] Here's Boulton & Watt at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space

After a 16-year run on the prime corner space at Avenue A and East Houston, Nice Guy Eddie's closed for this past June 16.

Darin Rubell, co-owner of GalleryBar and Ella, is one of the partners opening a new restaurant here. As we first reported in August, the space will be a gastropub called Boulton & Watt, named for the U.K.-based business partners who made many critical improvements to the steam engine in the late 1700s.

And yesterday, workers removed the rest of Chico's KISS-themed plywood to revel the exterior... a tipster told us to expect an opening date soon...

Updated 1:20

Here's another shot via Matt_LES...

A Kiss mix tape

As we've pointed out, renovations continue at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space on Avenue A at East Houston ... where (maybe!) a gastropub called Boulton & Watt is opening...

Anyway, must be a pain to reassemble Chico's Kiss plywood mural every day...

Before!

Now!

Though we do like the mix-and-match challenge...

Rumors about the new name for the former Nice Guy Eddie's space

Renovations continue at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space on Avenue A at East Houston... currently home to Chico's KISS plywood. As previously disclosed, Darin Rubell, co-owner of GalleryBar and Ella, is one of the partners opening a new restaurant here.

According to the rumor mill, the space will be a gastropub called Boulton & Watt, named for the U.K.-based business partners who made many critical improvements to the steam engine in the late 1700s.

Hopping on the Kiss train

We didn't get a chance yesterday to check out the progress of the temporary Kiss mural going up outside the former Nice Guy Eddie's on East First Street at Avenue A ...

So...

Previously.

Kiss alive II

Back with an update at 10 p.m. (Kidding! Probably.)

Kiss alive

This morning.

Previously.

Plus:
Bowery Boogie
Flaming Pablum

A Kiss for a Kiss

[Thanks to @NoSexCity for the above shot]

As you can see here, Chico and company are on the scene at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space on Avenue A ... at once painting over the Kiss mural on the East First Street wall and creating a new (temporary) Kiss mural for the plywood on the incoming new restaurant...

[Click images to enlarge]

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

Chico's plywood reservations

Chico's Kiss mural might be going away outside the former Nice Guy Eddie's...

... but it appears he will be painting the plywood during renovations of the new restaurant opening here on Avenue A and East First Street...

Rock and roll over at Nice Guy Eddie's

Oh, just checking out the scene at the former Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at East First Street... and the plywood is up...

...and it appears it will soon extend over part of the Kiss mural on the south wall...

The 16-year-old bar closed on June 17, and will be converted into a restaurant serving American comfort food.

Headline h/t

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

Forget about the rumor that Nice Guy Eddie's is becoming a new Life Cafe

Last week, a tipster told us that Kathy Kirkpatrick was retiring and closing the Life Cafe branch in Bushwick at the end of this month... which, as we learned Tuesday via a news release, was correct...

Now, a moment for a little background ... Last spring, Kirkpatrick brought in Gallery Bar owner Darin Rubell, who is part of the team taking over the Nice Guy Eddie's space on Avenue A, to help revitalize Life Cafe on East 10th Street and Avenue B. (There is more on this at the Life Cafe blog.)

Meanwhile, there were rumors that Rubell would eventually buy the Life space. However, the 30-year-old restaurant closed last September following a long-simmering battle with dueling landlords.

So back to our tipster, who figured if Rubell bought the Nice Guy Eddie's space and is turning it into a restaurant serving "American comfort food" (which he used to describe Life Cafe's fare) ... then "it wouldn't surprise me if Nice Guy Eddie's turns out to be a new outpost for the Kathy-less Life Cafe."

ONLY speculation. But the pieces possibly appeared to be adding up to this ... especially since the Life Cafe trademark was for sale.

I asked Kirkpatrick about this possible scenario...

"Darin Rubell did not buy the trademark and therefore it's impossible for him to open a venue called Life Cafe at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space," she said via email yesterday morning.

However, she said that Rubell is one of the partners who has taken on a new lease at the soon-to-be-former Life space on 983 Flushing Ave. in Bushwick.

"The landlord expressly stated, for his own reasons, that he did not want Life Cafe in his property any longer," Kirkpatrick said of the Brooklyn location. "However, the new lease holders expressed their wish to keep the spirit of Life alive. They did not to acquire the trademark. It will not be called Life Cafe. That is, he acquired a new lease and the assets of the cafe only, not the name or concept or menu."

Looking at (the former) Nice Guy Eddie's this afternoon

As BoweryBoogie noted this morning, workers have quickly gutted the former Nice Guy Eddie's space on Avenue A at Houston/East First. Workers have scrubbed the Eddie's name from the exterior. The 16-year-old bar closed last Sunday, and will be converted into a restaurant serving American comfort food.

And kiss the mural goodbye?

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

Last night at Nice Guy Eddie's

Nice Guy Eddie's closed for good last night after a 16-year run on Avenue A... EVG reader Rob sent a long a few photos from the evening/early morning...





...and later, at the end of the night (morning) ...





Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food" coming next here via a team led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar.

Previously on EV Grieve:
How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

[EVG photos taken on April 8]

Nice Guy Eddie's made their closure public this week on Facebook. The 16-year-old bar's last day is Sunday.

As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

An EV Grieve reader who was at the April meeting noted that Rubell was noncommittal about keeping the Kiss mural on the restaurant's south wall along East First Street. (There was something to do with the size of the new windows for the space or something.) It seems rather unlikely that the mural would remain... As Greg at Eater put it, "That sweet, sweet Kiss mural will probably be the first thing to go."

While I like Kiss (well, mostly) and Chico's work, I don't have strong feelings about the mural ... or the bar... was never a place that I went to very often, if at all in the last 10-plus years. Still, I know people who do like it. (The bar and the mural.) Ditto for the burger on the Avenue A side.

If the mural does go... the entry points into the neighborhood have dramatically changed ... 14th Street and Avenue A is, for now, an empty lot ...

[EVG reader Tom]

Astor Place will be a (the?) Death Star...

And Avenue A and Houston with a new restaurant on the northwest corner and the Union Market on the northeast corner...

Nice Guy Eddie's closing Sunday

An EVG Facebook friend shared this news with us...



As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

Reminders: CB3/SLA meeting tonight; what is Nice Guy Eddie's future?

CB3's SLA Licensing Committee meets tonight at 6:30 — JASA/Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery. We looked at the agenda here. The full docket is here.

Here's a recap of a few of the more interesting items on the docket:

• Major alterations are in store for the public spaces at the Standard East Village (April 12)

• 34 Avenue A is now off this month's CB3/SLA docket (April 9)

• Joe's Bar is joining the Sophie's-Mona's family (March 29)

Meanwhile, it looks as if Nice Guy Eddie's run on Avenue A at East First Street is coming to an end. (As far as we know, CB3 member Dave McWater is still involved with the current ownership of Eddie's.)

An entity called Downtown Dining LLC is looking to open a restaurant in this space, according to documents on file at the CB3 website (PDF).

The applicant's paperwork doesn't mention anyone by name. However, in the section about principals having other businesses in this area... three are listed: Tower Brokerage, Ella and The Gallery Bar...

Knowing that Josh Boyd is a principal at Ella and The Gallery Bar, I sent him a message via Facebook about the Nice Guy Eddie's space... Boyd responded that he isn't involved with the new venture; that his partner Darin Rubell is.

Rubell, who's related to Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell, is also the founder of Mercadito on Avenue B.

In any event, at this point, I don't have any other details on the venture... no word on the fate of Chico's Kiss mural either...

[Old photo of the mural via Eater]