Ray's Candy Store named best East Village restaurant

Ray was pleased to learn that Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A was named "Best Restaurant" in the East Village by readers of Time Out. (Officially the Time Out Love New York Awards.) Fried Oreos for everyone! For dinner!

The other reader awards in this neighborhood were ... Bar: Alphabet City Beer Co. on Avenue C ... Cafe/Coffee Shop: Coffee Project New York on Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square (they were picked the best in the city) ... Shops: East Village Cheese on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue ... and Local Culture: UCBEast on Avenue A and Third Street (the runner-ups in this category were City Cinemas Village East and Anthology Film Archives in case you were wondering ... like I was)...



Thanks to EVG regular Peter Brownscombe for the photos...

How Zoltar passes his down time?

By reading Time Out?

Wait.

OK.



Or maybe this a paid product placement? Or just highjinks? After all, poor Zoltar had to endure another fallen piece of plexiglass on this frigid day ...



Photos by Derek Berg

Noted

In Time Out New York's annual Eat Out Awards... readers picked Superdive as the Best New Bar.

Articles that I didn't get around to reading

Uh-oh...

And who's the lucky 'hood?



Williamsburg! Woo!

No. 2. Lower East Side!

Sample:

Best place to meet people on the Lower East Side

Vanessa’s Dumpling House

Pickup lines to try while you wait for your food:

Beginner: “So, how long have you been in line?”

Intermediate: “I just found a quarter in my couch—can I buy you a dumpling?”

Advanced: “I bet you’re just like this dumpling: smooth and slick on the outside, complex and delicious on the inside. I am too.”
118 Eldridge St between Broome and Grand

Three stars for Superdive

Time Out reviews Superdive this week.



Let's see what they have to say:

Rowdy frat bars don’t usually pique our interest. But Superdive so perfectly replicates the Alpha Beta experience that, fine, we’ll do a reluctant keg stand. But just one.

And!

It’s like a fictional frat house, with a lack of decor so striking — a couple of couches, a long ugly bar, a few tables hosting beer pong — it could’ve been achieved only by drunk dudes who slept through the campus-center poster sale. The crowd appears to have stumbled out of an Abercrombie catalog and on most nights packs the place full. In fact, on weekends you’ll want a reservation — an absurd requirement for a place that postures as the ultimate dive bar.

And!

Like it or not, Superdive’s management has achieved what they presumably set out to do: bring pledge week debauchery to a Manhattan bar. A bartender summed it up best: “If someone pukes, we probably won’t kick them out.” We’re intrigued and horrified at the same time.

Time Out still making amends for last week's "Mosaic Man" cover snub

In this week's issue.




Previously.

Time Out gives the Mosaic Man some love (a few days later...)

A few of us were curious why Time Out's current cover story on places to eat and drink and go to DBGB and the Cooper Square Hotel and recapture cool and stuff in the East Village didn't include any credit or mention of Jim "the Mosaic Man" Power. A photo of one of his iconic works is on the cover. One commenter even encouraged people to write a letter to the TONY editor. Give Jim his due.

Anyway, for whatever reasons -- perhaps this was already planned! -- a feature on Jim popped up on the TONY Web site yesterday afternoon.



The feature begins:

You probably recognize the image on our cover and homepage this week — and that was the point.

Why didn't Time Out give any credit to Jim "the Mosaic Man" Power?

He's the creator of the iconic image seen on TONY's new cover, of course. But we didn't see him get any credit in the issue.



And on the Web:



Here's Jim's Web site.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Uh-oh

Uh-oh

And on the Web:

"I fucking hate the changes that have happened. I’d prefer drug dealers and criminals to the yuppie shit that goes on here now"

This week's Time Out features "Great Walks," the best outdoor treks in the city. They select a stroll through the East Village, dubbing it the "Public Eye Watch." Good people watching, you know.

Here's one of their stops:

If there isn’t a swarm of roaring motorcycles outside the cute little brick facade of the Hells Angels’ HQ (77 E 3rd St between First and Second Aves) — rumored site of drug deals and racketeering since 1969 — there’s probably at least a pair of grizzled bikers watching the leggy denizens of nouveau East Village go by. “I lived here 25 years,” croaks one yellow-toothed Angel who declined to give his name before almost literally throwing us off his turf. “What do you mean people-watching? I fucking hate the changes that have happened. I’d prefer drug dealers and criminals to the yuppie shit that goes on here now.” Hurry on to Second Avenue and don’t look back.

P.S.
You may also do the "Sweet Tooth Walk" on the LES.

[Photo via Forgotten NY]

"One last breath of life in this dying hick-town mall that used to be Manhattan"

Was flipping through this week's Time Out -- "your ultimate bar guide" -- when I came across this ad for Circa Tabac on Watts Street. I'm a big Nick Tosches fan, and don't recall having ever seen this ad:

Bars and quality of life

Time Out tackles community boards and liquor licenses:

It was only a decade or so ago that the presence of restaurants and bars in neighborhoods like the East Village and Lower East Side defined a new quality of life there. Now . . . those same establishments are degrading neighborhood conditions. The fears usually amount to sidewalks littered with noisy smokers, loitering cabs and loud cell-phone conversations at 4am.

OH, THANKS A BUNCH, TIME OUT NEW YORK

In this week's "Best 'Hoods" issue, the East Village gets the nod for "best bar scene." As the magazine notes: "Hate on college students all you want: Fancy pants, fuddy-duddies and everyone in between still love the E-Vill for a night of boozing." Just what we need! More TONY-toting bargoers! Here's the write-up on the "E-Vill." (And if that catches on...)

Meanwhile, on the too-many-bars front. Save the Lower East Side! has news on the most recent CB3 meeting...while Tim at Colonnade Row has the latest on the Box.

Welcome to the East Village!: We're rich, drunk, snotty and LOVE John Mayer!

Also in Time Out this week:

What do you think of when you hear…We asked New Yorkers to play a little word association with NYC neighborhoods. Let the stereotyping begin!

East Village:

“Snotty — they like to go out every day, like to drink.”
Sohaib Marie, 22; Sunset Park, Brooklyn


“Rich people who come from a rich family. They listen to John Mayer.”
Thomas Morales, 16; Bronx


“They’re fun people. Easygoing, easy to mix with.”
Carson Roberts, 26; Bronx

Enjoying the great outdoors

This week's issue of Time Out New York has a cover story on 25 things to do outdoors in New York City before the summer ends. I didn't actually read the article. But I do like the outdoors! And lists! So I decided to make my own list of things to do outdoors before the summer ends.

1. Drink.

Feel free to add any suggestions. (Ideas more creative than "shoot a Yunnie" get bonus points!)

EV Grieve Etc. -- Time Out New York edition

New York City native David "deadpan" Duchovny is out pushing the new X-Files movie and is the subject of the Time Out New York Hot Seat this week:

Time Out New York: I hear you’re moving back to New York with your family this fall. How long has it been since you last lived here?
David Duchovny: Over 20 years. Has it changed?

TONY: Not at all. Especially not the East Village, where you grew up.
David Duchovny: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s very different. But the East Village was always struggling to have an identity. I think it always will.

Well, this short-n-snappy Q-and-A format doesn't lend itself to any thought-provoking, in-depth answers... he's a bright guy, and I'd like to hear more on why he thinks the East Village has always struggled to have an identity. (And I wonder if House of D questions were off limits?)

Meanwhile, this issue of Time Out features an "Activism for every attention span" cover package. "Inspired by a readers' poll of top concerns, we show you how to improve our city, no matter how much — or how little — time you're willing to give." Among the concerns tackled:

• Overdevelopment is killing your neighborhood
• Affordable housing doesn’t exist

This is exactly the reason why we'll never get a Wal-Mart in this town

Ha on that headline. Anyway, for whatever reasons, the editors at Time Out New York thought it would be a good idea to ask New Yorkers to strip for this week's issue. And there were plenty of volunteers. See for yourself. (Really NSFW.)