A visit to Via Della Scrofa

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

The warmth of the small but well-stocked alimentari fogs up my glasses, and I can still faintly smell delicious espresso and chocolate-y scents even behind my face-covering mask as I enter Via Della Scrofa at 60 E. Fourth St. 

Co-owner Giovanni Bartocci is there to greet me and show me around the recently opened shop between Second Avenue and the Bowery as locals drop by for sandwiches and morning coffee.  

On this winter morning, the usually gregarious Bartocci is stressed about a recent immigration decision that’s forcing him to temporarily leave the country for his native Italy. Regardless, he still manages a smile and presses some individually wrapped cookies into everyone’s hands before they exit the store.

I wait until there’s a break in the foot traffic to talk with Bartocci about the store, the neighborhood and his somewhat uncertain plans for the future. (We’ll have more on his status in part two of our coverage tomorrow, in which we discuss Via Della Pace, his 17-year-old restaurant on Seventh Street and Second Avenue that was destroyed by a fire in 2020. Via Della Pace is set to reopen on Fourth Street this year.)

How did Via Della Scrofa come to be? 

My business partner Marco Ventura and I always wanted to open a little Bottega — a little shop. You can find one in every town in Italy where you go to buy just some guanciale, and you get out with a bag full of different things and go back in because you bought biscotti, pasta, candy, olive oil…but you forgot the guanciale [laughs]!

Plus, we couldn’t go back because of the pandemic, so we tried to recreate a little piece of Italy here. The name Via Della Scrofa came almost naturally for many reasons. We own Via Della Pace, the restaurant. And in Rome, the two streets are very close, like we will be when we can reopen the restaurant. 

On Via Della Scrofa in Rome, there is the famous restaurant Alfredo Alla Scrofa from Alfredo of the Alfredo sauce fame. And last, the “scrofa” is the sow…and if you walk in [to the shop], you want to eat everything.

What do you recommend for first-time shoppers at the store? What are the best-selling items?

I recommend not being shy and asking for suggestions from Marco or me. We will guide you and explain what we sell —we want you to experience our traditions in the best way possible! 

The best-selling item for sure is the Chinotto Neri — so good we went out of stock in less than 40 days, but it will be back by the end of January. Also, porchetta and guanciale cioli, Galatine Milk Candy — a lot of things!

Why is it important for you to have your businesses in the East Village?

We love the East Village! We have always been here; this is our neighborhood. It is like a home away from home! We always try to be here for the people of the East Village. We stayed open during the Sandy blackout, giving away food and we did the same for the people living in the buildings of the explosion in the opposite corner [of Via Della Pace in 2015]. People needed just to show us something to prove they were living there, and we were offering spaghetti al Pomodoro and a glass of wine anytime they wanted.

What’s next for the shop? Any future plans?

Now we just want to open the restaurant — we are focusing on that. After that, we don’t know. We are happy as long as people walk out of our locations with a smile. 

And if we will make a lot of people smile, then we will consider new adventures. 

You can keep tabs on the shop here. They are open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

And stay tuned for part two of our coverage tomorrow, where we talk about Via Della Pace’s reopening and the complex immigration issues that are forcing Bartocci to temporarily leave the country.

Catching up with Sabrina Fuentes of Pretty Sick

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m following a byzantine series of steps and underground hallways to find Sabrina Fuentes, lead singer of indie rockers Pretty Sick at a sold-out Mercury Lounge.

It’s Halloween night so there are random spooky decorations up, and the band is hosting a costume party so concertgoers are feeling festive. I bump into local faves Hello Mary, who opened for Pretty Sick (sharing the bill with Harry Teardrop) before finding Sabrina a few minutes before she’s due on stage with her two bandmates, dressed for the night as Santa Clause and Travis Bickle.

I trail her up the stairs and onto the stage, where her fans react with predictable fervor. People scream out suggestions for songs they’d like to hear from the band’s EPs, including the June release Come Down (released via the label Dirty Hit, whose roster includes Wolf Alice and the 1975).

This is the band’s first NYC in two-plus years, so there’s a full house who sing along to every song.

In the weeks after the show, I follow up with Sabrina to talk about music, feminism, friends and collaborators. The band, which Sabrina founded in 2013 at age 13, has been rehearsing at Rivington Music Rehearsal Studios ahead of recording a new full-length album upstate.

I’ve read that you started writing music at a very young age. What initially inspired you to do so?

I’m not sure what inspired me originally. Sound has always been the sense/medium that appealed to me. I can’t imagine working with or on anything but sound/music. I’m a sonically inclined person, I guess. Rock is the genre I work with the most because it comes naturally to me and the message of rock and roll is the most freeing.

What’s your earliest memory of music?

Hard to say. Probably lullabies my parents and grandparents sang to me.

How do you feel like NYC has shaped you as a person, as an artist?

Growing up in NYC is so different than anywhere else in the world. You have access to so much more and it really is such a privilege creatively to have been able to see and hear the things around me from a young age. I feel like I was forced to grow up really fast for a number of reasons, and NYC definitely added to that.

As an artist, I feel like I got to be like a kid and experiment, explore and play around with music more than I would have if I were anywhere else.

You’re a native New Yorker and now going to school in London. What do you miss about the city? Does being away make you appreciate NYC even more?

I actually graduated from school in London already; I’m just living there now. I come back to the city for about half the year (on and off) and spend the time in between in London. I miss the energy of NYC and the way people interact in public. I think I see the flaws of the way this city is a bit more now that I’ve had a step back from it, but I think that happens whenever anyone leaves home.

I appreciate the sense of community and the great people who are here way more now. I’m much more comfortable here, but I like moving and traveling — it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

Through the years, several articles about you refer to you as a “riot grrrl.” How do you feel in general about the term? Do you find it limiting at all?

I don’t mind it, but I don’t know how accurate it is — haha! Riot Grrrl refers pretty specifically to feminist rock music movement from the late ’80s and early ’90s, and while I’m a feminist, I don’t really consider my work to be particularly political or feminist-y. I’m just a woman writing rock music and people like to use buzzwords like “riot grrrl” or “feminist” to write an article ’cus it’s easier than having to think critically. It’s not a limiting label as much as it is kind of inaccurate and reductive, but I don’t really care what people call me; I’m just grateful they’re giving my music a chance.

You’re friends with Hello Mary, who opened for you on Halloween night at the Mercury Lounge. Do you see a more robust community now for young bands in NYC than when you started out?

Oh my god, yeah. There was like a four-year period where a lot of the DIY venues who booked local bands closed, and all of the slightly bigger NYC bands moved to LA ’cus there were just more opportunities.

After the pandemic, the band scene has been doing so much better, and people are more excited to go see music and wanna get involved in some way. A lot of people who move to NYC these days are yuppies and PR-girl types who don’t give a shit about going to see live music or listening to alternative music, so it’s great the youth are actually excited about it.

Speaking of that Halloween night show, how was it playing again in front of an audience?

It felt so good to be on stage again at home. That was our first show in NYC since August of 2019!

Another friend, Manon Macasaet, directed the “Allen Street” and “Bet My Blood” videos. What’s it like working and collaborating with friends?

It’s great. All of our videos were made by my friends who are NYC artists like Manon, Maggie Lee, Leander Capuozzo,Oliver Rivard, Jake Moore and Richard Kern.

All of the crew are artists and homies too. For example, sculptor Sofia Lelani and painter Karmel Spanier made the set and props for the “Bet My Blood” music video, and designer Sasha Melnychuk made the costumes.

Another example is all the cars in the “Allen Street” video were lent to us by a Red Hook-based drag-racing team called New Day, which is run by Louis Shannon, who operates Entrance Gallery in Chinatown. All of the actors and video vixens are artists, organizers, skaters, and oddballs from the Lower East Side. Community in NYC is really important to me and Pretty Sick as a whole, which wouldn’t exist without it. I love NYC and its people. Fanatically.

You can keep tabs on the band on Instagram.

A Visit to Made Up There Farms

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

I’m carrying an EpiPen to visit beekeeper Idan Cohen on East Third Street near Second Avenue. I’m hoping the bees won’t be able to tell I’m allergic. However, it’s all worth it to see the hives, bees and honey Idan tends on the rooftop of his building. 

After some “getting to know you time” with the bees and rooftop garden, I head downstairs to watch Idan’s wife and kids sell the fall 2021 harvested honey to passersby and neighbors and learn more from the apiarist about the process of local honey-making.

How did you come to tend bees on the rooftop of your building?

I love cooking. It’s a passion that always leads me in search of local and fresh produce. That search brought me to build a rooftop farm on our building in the East Village eight years ago, producing most of the vegetables and herbs we consume in the summer. 

A natural addition to the farm was beehives. I wanted to not only produce honey but also have my daughters learn about bees and how to care for them. Nothing would make me happier than to watch them gardening and beekeeping as adults. 

What’s the beekeeping process like? How did you start, and how is this season’s harvest going? 

The season starts in the spring when temperatures rise over 60 degrees, and the bees become more active. A lot of our work as beekeepers has to do with making sure the bees are happy and thriving and free of disease. That requires opening the hive every two weeks and making sure the queen is laying eggs, the workers are producing honey, and that the bees are pest and disease-free. If you help them stay healthy, they will do the rest. 

You, your wife and your kids sell the honey on Third Street near Second Avenue from time to time. Aside from that, where can neighbors go to purchase the honey? 

My daughters, Ellie (age 7) and Eve (4), wanted to share the honey with our neighborhood, so they decided to open a farmstand on sunny days and call it Made Up There Farms. 

For those who missed us, you can reach out through my Instagram account or through my wine and cider project at wipwines.com, and we can set up a pickup. 

Any expansion plans? 

We plan to add a third hive next spring and make natural mead — honey wine. I like the idea of drinking a hyperlocal wine made in the East Village from East Village flowers.

Another holiday visit with Frankie Christmas

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

We last checked in with the undisputed king of East Village Christmas, Frank “Frankie Christmas” Bianco, at this time last year. 

This year Bianco, a Brooklyn native who has lived here since 1980, welcomed us back to his winter wonderland apartment on Avenue D with an update on the lighting schedule...   

“This year, I shattered my previous record and was able to put up a total of 11,875 lights, about 1,500 more than last year. To finish by Dec. 1, I usually start decorating as soon as the Labor Day weekend finishes. For the last couple of months, it took me about 200 hours to complete each room in my apartment. I usually spend an hour or two each night of the week decorating and get the bulk of it done on the weekends, where I may spend up to eight hours decorating.”

What else is new?

“It’s a tradition to get at least a half dozen Christmas tattoos every year since moving down to the LES. I have 11 new snowflake tattoos and the Grinch’s hand holding an ornament. Similar to my Christmas tattoos, I always make sure to add a few new decorations to my apartment as well. I purchased a Christmas Tree from Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the largest Christmas store in the world located in Frankenmuth, Mich., and my favorite new addition, a Swarovski 2021 snowflake ornament.” 

...and now take a tour...

 

What can we look forward to next year? 

“In 2022, I’m somehow putting up more lights than I did this year! It’ll be tough, but I’m confident I’ll be able to [string more than] 12,000 lights. I’ll also be returning to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland to find new additions to my collection, and most important spread the Christmas Spirit!”

Read our Q&A with Frankie from last year at this link. 

Because you've always wanted to know what the inside of the long-empty 6 Avenue B looks like

Photos by Stacie Joy

The 6-story building on the NW corner of Avenue B and Houston has been empty/abandoned for years.

Recapping some of what we know (and have reported) about 6 Avenue B. The liquor store in the retail space closed when the owner passed away in 2009 at age 89. (Chico created the tribute to her in February 2010.) 

And as previously noted, this is one of the abandoned buildings owned by the estate of the mysterious team of Arthur and Abraham Blasof, now both deceased. 

In January 2013, workers were spotted hauling out some junk from the building...  in December 2014, bricks fell from the building, breaking the foot of a passerby, as the Lo-Down reported at the time. And an SUV took out part of the sidewalk bridge in November 2018.

And that sidewalk bridge has been up for YEARS. (Six? Seven?) 

However, there are newish work permits on file for the address, some related to the (AT&T?) antennas on the roof. Workers have been inside the building lately.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy looked inside the other day. In the photos below, you'll see the state of the place. 

"The old parquet wood floors are beautiful and the tile work is amazing," Stacie said. "Doubtful it will be preserved but it was something to see."

At the annual Tompkins Square Park tree lighting

The annual (no. 30!) holiday tree lighting took place late yesterday afternoon in Tompkins Square Park. 

Albert Fabozzi, the founder of the lighting ceremony, was on hand for the ceremonies...

Entertainment included the Carolers of Olde New York from Theater for the New City and music from the Mandel & Lydon Trio ... (with refreshments via Veselka and C&B)...

There was a nice turnout. EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos of some of the attendees...

And as noted last night, the Parks Department apparently forgot to wire the tree... and so organizers had to scramble to hire an electrician at the last minute. In the rush, the bottom portion of the tree was not lit, so to speak... but a good time was had by all [of the people we talked with]...