The 7B days of Christmas the holidays

7B/Vazac's/Horseshoe Bar at the corner of East Seventh Street and Avenue B is always looking festive in this season of being more festive than usual.

Here's more about the renovations underway at HiFi on Avenue A

You may have noticed some work happening over at HiFi, one of our favorite bars around (long live EL DJ!).

Proprietor Mike Stuto explained all in a blog post yesterday at the HiFi website. For starters, workers will be renovating the interior and exterior of the bar at 169 Avenue A near East 11th Street... which means HiFi will be closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and maybe a few Wednesdays in the coming weeks.

"We’re going to do this long-awaited redesign in little pieces so we don’t have to close down on the weekends," Stuto wrote.

And what about the redesign?

[T]he idea is to NOT change the vibe, appeal, and personality of HiFi. We hope that will all stay pretty much the same as it has always been ... The short description is that we will be redesigning the entrance and storefront, changing the furniture and the colors, and adding in a 40-ish capacity room with its own separate bar that will have a myriad of uses; from private parties to trivia nights, comedy nights, readings, and even some live music. For those of you who still pine for the days when I ran a rock club in this space, this is NOT a return to the golden era of Brownies ... there will be no drum sets played inside HiFi."

You can see the transformation for yourself when the bar is open.

"So for the next few weeks please join us for a strangely-fun, sometimes-truncated, surely-temporary version of the bar while we jump through the hoops of framing, painting, bathroom-relocating, new-room-building, furniture acquiring and re-upholstering, and many other re-workings ..."

Lucy's will return Aug. 12 or 13th

Or maybe Aug. 2 or 3. Hard to tell really. Anyway, time for the usual summer break here on Avenue A. No Smiley Face sign this time though. :(

Josie's opens tonight on East Sixth Street

Tonight at 6, Josie's opens at 520 E. Sixth St., former home of the late, great Joe's Bar here between Avenue A and Avenue B.

The bar closed last Thanksgiving after proprietor Joe Vajda died. (Joe's opened in that space in 1973. Joe and two other partners previously had a place across the street.)

Earlier in the year, as we first reported, Richard Corton and his business partner Kirk Marcoe, who own Mona's and Sophie's, purchased the bar from Dottie, Joe's longtime domestic partner.

The two considered all this as more of a restoration than a renovation. So you'll find a space that looks and feels very familiar... Which is all good.

As Dave on 7th noted after a recent look-see:

"The bar has been beautifully refinished. I spent 10 years of my life in this bar and I think what they're doing is going to be beautiful and authentic."

Indeed.

Corton and Marcoe even found a company in Los Angeles to replicate the exact same wallpaper that adorned Joe's through the years...

And here's a shot of the old wallpaper before it was removed ...

There is a new pool table and jukebox ... and likely some new music. Dottie took all of the country-and-western CDs with her...

Also, expect the return of the giant, Soviet-era Lowenbrau clock (once it's working again). But there aren't any seedless mandarins.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Joe's Bar is joining the Sophie's-Mona's family

Good things: Lucy's back open sooner than expected

A few weeks ago we noted that Lucy's was on another break ... per the sign on our favorite on Avenue A...

But. Last night, the lights were on, the door open, etc. And Lucy was back behind the bar a week earlier than expected...

Lucy's returns on Dec. 12 (frown)

Lucy's is on another break... as always, we look forward to her return...

And where's the smiley face sign?

At Joe's Bar, a freshly painted gate, mystery and, apparently, roaches

On Friday evening, we walked by the now-closed Joe's on East Sixth Street — hopeful that one of our favorite bars had reopened.

A worker had just finished up painting the bar's front gate. We stopped and asked if the bar was reopening. The worker looked startled, and said, "I didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't have anything to do with it." With that, he hurried inside the adjacent building leaving us wondering, To do with what?

The bar is still closed in the eyes of the DOH. On Oct. 5, the DOH hit them with 71 violation points. The DOH returned on Oct. 21, and found improvements, though there were still 32 violation points. There are two listed sanitary violations on the DOH website ("critical" violations are displayed in red):
1) Live roaches present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.
2) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.

As the world ends: Subway Inn, now with Atomic Wings

Every so often we venture away from the neighborhood...

An EV Grieve reader reports on a recent visit to well-worn bar favorite the Subway Inn on East 60th Street near Lexington ... And?

"The place was full of overgrown fraternity guys watching sports and eating chicken wings."

Not chicken wings!

Anyway, we haven't been here since last December. So we paid another visit... Pretty typical crowd here and now. Off-duty Bloomingdale's workers. Several tourists. A rummy or two. That one guy singing along to Fleetwood Mac. And the jukebox wasn't even on.

Oh.

Not sure when this happened, but Subway Inn has apparently teamed up with Atomic Wings ...

You can have them delivered right to your table.

A convenience for hungry Subway Inners or the end of the world?

Either way, it's your colon.

Joe's Bar is alive and well!

So, yeah — Joe's is open on Sixth Street tonight... we decided not to go in... Still, we did have a start yesterday when the place was closed... and their phone number was "not in service at this time."

Joe's Bar is closed, but why — and for how long?

Uh-oh. Joe's on East Sixth Street between Avenue A and B is closed. No note out front with any explanation. I called the bar. The number is "not in service."

The bar was closed in October 2009 for one week in what an insider called "an insurance snafu." However, the phone wasn't disconnected when that happened.

We hope that this is all just temporary. The last thing we need is the loss of another good neighborhood bar ...

If you have any information or know a bartender here, then please let us know: grieve98@gmail.com

Lucy's is closed until Aug. 12 (smiley face)

A reader just asked yesterday morning what was going on with Lucy's on Avenue A. Seemed like the place has been closed the last few days. And no note, like usual.

However! A note appeared yesterday.... Lucy is on holiday again...

Also, this note doesn't quite stack up against previous closed notes...

Blarney Cove prepared for the warmer weather

At our beloved Blarney Cove, where nothing ever becomes too fancy.

[Photo by the long-lost Intern of EV Grieve]

Lucy's is on a holiday, friends

And on Avenue A, Lucy's, an EV Grieve favorite, is on one of its usual holidays... back open next Thursday...

We always like the sunny, handwritten signs marking her vacations... Like!

Tonight, let it be Löwenbräu

After a hard day at work...

[Via Brad]

... it's off to the International...

Photo courtesy of Uncle Waltie.

Jumpin' at the Coal Yard

As we reported back in the summer, the painfully generic Lilly Coogan's shuttered on First Avenue near Sixth Street... And, Molly and Shawn from the International the next block north, have taken over this space....

And the bar is now open... and, we're not ones to fuss, but....



By far the best new bar to open in the East Village of late... simple...inexpensive... full of locals (at least earlier in the business day) ... and no TV (thank you!)...

7B adds a little Megadeath on the jukebox

International Bar owners taking over Lilly Coogan's

As I noted back in late June, a transfer for the former Lilly Coogan's space is on the docket for this month's CB3/SLA meeting on Thursday night ... And an eagle-eyed tipster notes that the telephone number on the notice hanging outside Lilly's is the same as the International Bar.

If this is the case, then this is very good news... after sitting empty for a few years, new owners Molly and Shawn reopened the dear old International on First Avenue near Seventh Street in 2008 ...the new International is one of the best bars in the East Village... a place for neighbors that's blissfully free of jackasses.

Jeremiah had a feature on the new International back in June 2008...

Blarney Cove survives the fire

And who knew that the Blarney Cove had a Twitter account? @blarneycove

The Blue and Gold puts a sign up to help prevent future FREAK OUTS

We were all a little shaken yesterday with Fork in the Road's news that the Blue and Gold on Seventh Street was closed for gut renovations... thankfully the B&G management left a comment on the post saying they were merely putting in soundproofing in the ceiling...

And, while walking by last night, I spotted a helpful sign in the window...

Terror and relief in 60 minutes: The really bad then good news about the Blue and Gold

The EV Grieve inbox recently exploded with the news from Fork in the Road that the Blue and Gold Tavern on Seventh Street was going through a gut renovation.... yet another beloved spot RIP.... Noted a reader: "Makes you realize how precarious it all is, it can be snatched away in an instant, and you think, 'i should have gone there more often.'"

BUT! The B&G management chimed in on the Fork post:

The Blue and Gold is soundproofing the ceiling - and will reopen by Thursday - May 13. To do a proper soundproofing job the old ceiling needs to be removed. The rest of the bar is not being gutted. Heavy duty plastic is protecting the walls, bar and pool table.

Given the loss of the former Verchovyna Tavern aka George's Bar aka Bar 81 a few doors down... it's understandable that we're all a little touchy about this... By the way, "East Fifth Bliss" filmed scenes at the Blue and Gold the other week... In the novel, the lead character drinks at the Homestead (called the Homeplate) on First Avenue, which, of course, closed years back...so another bar had to stand in for the Homestead...



[Photo via the Voice]