For-lease sign arrives at longtime home of Two Boots Pizza on Avenue A — surprising owner, staff

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

For-lease signs went up today outside Two Boots Pizza on Avenue A and Third Street — catching owner Phil Hartman and staff by surprise.

Hartman said they did not see the sign being installed. 

The timing is less than ideal: Hartman is hosting a private after-party at the pizzeria tonight tied to long-awaited screenings of his 1986 film "No Picnic" opening at the Film Forum.

As previously reported, the longtime home of Two Boots — at 42 Avenue A — was recently listed for rent for the first time in decades amid ongoing lease negotiations. 

Hartman has said he's "cautiously optimistic" about staying in the space, though the listing — and now the arrival of signage — adds a new layer of urgency to the situation. 

Two Boots has been on Avenue A since the 1980s. Hartman previously told us he'd find a home elsewhere in the East Village if necessary. He has no plans to leave the neighborhood he loves. 

Whatever comes next, tonight belongs to Hartman.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Two Boots' longtime Avenue A home listed for the first time in 30 years as lease talks continue 

• Checking in with Phil Hartman on Two Boots' future on Avenue A — and the East Village

Signed, sealed… not delivered? Warning posted on Avenue B mailbox

Photos by Stacie Joy 

There's a notice taped to a USPS mailbox on Avenue B at Eighth Street. 

The sign reads in part: 

WARNING DO NOT MAIL YOUR TAXES HERE!!!!! Last night at 2:30 in the morning I saw a man fishing out mail from the mail box ... 

The person who posted the warning says they plan to report the incident to USPS. (In case you do, too: 212-673-3771.)

Someone also glued the box shut for good measure... ditto for another mailbox on Avenue B and Third Street.

And now an EVG PSA: Use common sense when mailing anything important — and consider bringing sensitive mail directly to a post office... especially your "10 records or tapes for $1" postcard to Columbia House.

The end of 'Liberty' on 9th and A?

Workers are painting the building on the SW corner of Ninth Street and Avenue A. 

Will they paint around the "Liberty" mural by the UK street artist STIK? (Suuure!)

The mural arrived in September 2013... a gift from the long-closed Dorian Grey Gallery on Ninth Street... the work was to honor the history of Tompkins Square Park. 

Also, what does the paint job mean for Chico's "Tombstone" mural outside Doc Holliday's? It is pretty nicked up...

Friday's opening shot

The spectacular spring now of Tompkins... before the 50s (temps, not era) arrive next week...

Thursday's opening and parting shots

Morning view along Seventh Street at the entrance to Tompkins Square Park... and early this evening on Houston and First Avenue...

Avenue A's Key Food 1980s playlist, explained (sort of)

Interview by Stacie Joy

EVG photo on loan from Fotomuseum Winterthur 

Following our post yesterday about the 1980s-heavy playlist at Key Food on Avenue A (and the introduction on the EVG Key Food Playlist on Spotify), an anonymous (and highly placed) Key source agreed to talk, with one caveat:

"This is some proprietary information that is highly sensitive and could be commercially very damaging should it be disclosed…"

With that, right to the Q&A. 

Who is the Key '80s music lover who selects the deep-cut hits? 

It's genuinely a mystery. There are a few options with this service, but we decided not to mess with a good thing. 

Are you paying for a service for these amazing music selections? You mentioned they used to be on CDs, but now it's a system, correct? 

It's a satellite radio service — there's a satellite on our roof. We used to get a new CD sent to the store once a month.

The Paso Muzak Series 3000 Integrated Professional Amplifier T3130BGM 

Do you ever veto a song choice? 

We do not and cannot interfere with the song selection process — it is sacred. 

Aside from the December holiday season, are there ever non-1980s (or early) hits at The Key? 

Why mess with a good thing? 

Do you/does the '80s music lover have a selection of favorite Key hits? 

Here is a non-exhaustive list: 

• "Waiting for a Star to Fall" — Boy Meets Girl 

• "Call Me" — Blondie 

• "Hold On Loosely" — 38 Special 

• "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" — Cutting Crew

• "Surrender" — Cheap Trick 

• "Rock the Casbah" — The Clash 

• And any Dire Straits song 

When did the 1980s playlist start in Key history? Was it the actual 1980s, and nothing ever changed? 

We took over the store in 1993, and that's when it became a Key Food, so it had to be after that. 

Do you get feedback from customers and/or staffers about the music selection?

Aside from EV Grieve, not frequently. [Editor's note: AHHAHAHAHA.] 

Do you ever turn a song up really loud and dance down the produce aisle singing along? 

Only when no one is watching. The volume is connected to the intercom, so it would blast the intercom announcements if we did. 

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So the source of the playlist remains unclear ... but the 1980s hits continue, uninterrupted.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Don't Disturb This Groove: We made a 13-hour Key Food playlist on Spotify

Singapore Social is opening in the former Foul Witch space on Avenue A

Photo yesterday by Stacie Joy

Singapore Social, a Southeast Asian restaurant from the Singapore-based team behind Roberta's Pizza expansion in Asia and Europe, is coming to 15 Avenue A between Houston and Second Street. 

Signage arrived this week. 

Per the job-opening post, the concept will focus on dishes rooted in Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian cooking, including Hainanese chicken rice, nasi lemak, and laksa. 

The food will be "served in a vibrant, social, neighborhood-driven space built for New York's young, curious, and culture-forward crowd," per the listing. 

The space was previously home to Roberta's spin-off Foul Witch, which closed after service on Nov. 30 after nearly three years. 

Roberta's co-founders, Brandon Hoy and chef Carlo Mirarchi, opened Foul Witch here in January 2023.

Openings: Whits brings the sliders to St. Mark's Place

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Whits had its grand opening last week at 34 St. Mark's Place between Second and Third Avenues. 

The quick-serve venture is the work of Larry Kramer (above), who also operates Whitmans on Ninth Street (plus Hudson Yards) and Cello's Pizzeria next door here on SMP.

On the menu: sliders, hot dogs, fries and onion rings — hitting most of the core food groups. (Even more once the beer license comes through. Also, no vegan-veggie options yet, but those are in the works.)

When we stopped by, two couples dining here were quite enthusiastic about their meals...

Hours: Closed Monday; 4–11 p.m. Tuesday–Wednesday; noon–midnight Thursday; noon–2 a.m. Friday–Saturday; noon–11 p.m. Sunday.

First sign of Pizza PST on St. Mark's Place

There's a new-look storefront at 123 St. Mark's Place. 

In recent days, workers have added a black-and-white awning... along with a Pizza PST sign. 

As previously reported, the Moody Tongue space here between Avenue A and First Avenue will soon be serving Pizza Studio Tamaki's pies, an acclaimed Tokyo-based pizzeria led by Tsubasa Tamaki. 

The owners of Moody Tongue Pizza, Jeremy Cohn and Jared Rouben, are still the tenants and operating partners of this Pizza Studio Tamaki location. 

In February, the team hosted a pop-up, which marked Pizza Studio Tamaki's first appearance in the United States. Tamaki dough is fermented for roughly 30 hours, made with a proprietary blend of Japanese and American flours, then baked at high temperatures in a custom oven. (Pete Wells had a long read on Tamaki at the Times here.) 

Moody Tongue opened here in late 2024, billed as serving NYC's first Tokyo-Neapolitan pizzeria. 

You can follow the Pizza PST Instagram account for opening updates.

H/T Steven!

Wednesday's parting shot

Harold from Stuyvesant Street shared this view of the wisteria today outside 35 Stuyvesant St. at 10th Street...

[Updated] SantaCon president arrested; prosecutors allege misuse of funds

Photo from 20924 by Stacie Joy 

See update below.

First posted on 4/15

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Is this the "con" in SantaCon? 

The president of SantaCon was arrested today on federal charges accusing him of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for charity to personal expenses, according to CNBC. 

Prosecutors allege that Stefan Pildes used funds from the ticketed holiday bar crawl, which claims to raise money for charity, for a range of purchases, including home renovations, luxury vacations, and a Manhattan apartment. 

According to the indictment, only a small portion of the roughly $2.7 million raised through SantaCon was donated to charity.

A Gothamist analysis from 2023 found that "the organization raised $1.4 million through SantaCon programming from late 2014 through the end of 2022, and that less than a fifth of that money has gone to registered nonprofits." 

Updated 4/17 

The FBI released a bulletin saying they are "seeking victim information in SantaCon investigation." 

Per the bulletin: 

The FBI's New York Division is seeking to identify potential victims of Stefan Pildes, who organized and operated the annual SantaCon event in New York City, from at least 2019 to present. Pildes was recently charged with wire fraud. The FBI believes Pildes primarily targeted SantaCon attendees who purchased tickets to the event, as well as bars that participated in the event, between the timeframe of October 2019 to present. 

Find more info here.

Don't Disturb This Groove: We made a 13-hour Key Food playlist on Spotify

By EVG and Stacie Joy

Read part 2 here: Avenue A's Key Food 1980s playlist, explained (sort of)

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If you've spent any time in the Key Food on Avenue A and Fourth Street, then you already know: the grocery's soundtrack — emanating from the ceiling speakers — leans heavily toward pop and alternative songs from the 1980s, with some early 1990s to break things up.

Not just a few familiar tracks in rotation — we're talking a steady stream of synths, power ballads and the occasional deep cut that has you lingering in the aisles longer than planned. 

After a few reader notes (and several in-store listening sessions through the years), we decided to take this more seriously. 

So… we made a playlist. 

The EVG Loves Key Food playlist on Spotify is now live, currently 183 songs strong (about 13 hours) — all inspired by what's been playing over the store's speakers. 

A quick note: just because a song made the playlist doesn't necessarily mean we like it. (In fact, many of these songs kinda suck, but we don't discriminate when it comes to the soundtrack of our shopping lives.)

You can find everything from the expected to the "wait, really?" — the kind of mix that makes a routine grocery run feel like a slightly surreal trip through, say, 1987. 

Just ask Brooks Headley, owner of Superiority Burger and a Key Food soundtrack superfan. 

Headley, who creates epic, Shazam-defying playlists for his vegetarian diner at 119 Avenue A, is always running to Key Food to grab things like three out-of-season tomatoes, ripe bananas, every pack of Arnold potato buns, and a case of broccoli. ("It's an integral part of R&D for new dishes," he says.) 

Brooks, the floor is yours:

I have always been struck by the music! It’s so special. I am even apprehensive to be quoted about it. I love it so much! And don’t want to ever change. It's this pastiche of 80s music with an emphasis on deep cuts. I have been known to extend my shopping to finish out, say, "Talk of the Town" by Pretenders, or more recently, "Woman in Love" by Barbra Streisand, which had me belting out the words. 

I feel the best place for shazaming is near the tofu and tempeh at the end of aisle 1 near all the weirdo probiotic drinks (fuck Erewhon coming to NYC! All hail Key!) The crowd rules, neighborhood folks. Grocery stores are quiet despite being full of people. No one's talking, just silently cruising through. I swear to God I once heard the version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" by Fun Boy Three, but I didn’t take a video for proof, so did it even happen? 

And now, 13 hours of the Key Food soundtrack ...

   

We'll keep adding to the playlist as new-to-Key tracks surface, as we did the other evening with "I'll Be You" by the Replacements, the lead single from the band's sixth studio album, Don't Tell a Soul, in 1989. 

Coming tomorrow: A long-awaited revelation — just who is programming this music for Key? Answer HERE.

UPDATED: Small-dog run in Tompkins Square Park closed over tree safety concerns

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Updated: The small dog run is back open... crews were there trimming this morning. Looks like the tree is good to stay!

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The small-dog run in Tompkins Square Park has been closed in recent days due to a tree limb that Parks says could potentially endanger both dogs and the public.

A Parks Department source said crews initially arrived with a bucket to make some cuts but found more extensive damage than expected, prompting Forestry to take over. 

Staff noted falling bark, cracking limbs and a deeper, less visible crack in the tree.

A service request has been submitted, and Parks is awaiting repairs. (Hopefully it is a repair and not a removal.) 

There is no set timeline yet for when the run will reopen. 

Openings: Sweeties Candy NYC on 1st Avenue

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Sweeties Candy NYC recently debuted in the lower level at 93 First Ave., just south of Sixth Street. 

The shop leans into two current trends: pick-and-mix candies (#candiesTikTok and #SwedishCandyTikTok) and photo booths. 

Sweeties offers 160 varieties of candy from around the world... (and yes, they have Bubs, the skull-shaped candy gummies — #BubsTikTok.)

When we stopped by, the photo booths hadn't been set up yet...

You can follow Sweetie's on Instagram or TikTok. 

Posted hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Many readers-residents know this space as the longtime home of Royal Bangladesh Indian Restaurant, which ran from 1978 to 2022... and as one of the three restaurants at the address with Milon and Panna II, which still enjoys viral moments of its own. 

This basement space was previously home for a minute or two to the apostrophe-free Smokers Basement, a smoke shop-exotic snack joint.

Tuesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

In the low 80s, it was the most summer-like day of the year, and you could tell in Tompkins Square Park...

Camp classics: Catch rare screenings of 'The Brenda and Glennda Show' on Saturday

Longtime East Village resident Glenn Belverio will be part of a screening and performance event this Saturday afternoon at Coney Island's Sideshow theater. 

The event features two rare screenings of Belverio's 1990s public-access program "The Brenda and Glennda Show," which blended drag, political action and camp humor in downtown NYC. 

The screenings include an early 1990 episode, "Takeover of the Empire State Building," featuring a guerrilla-style rooftop talk show staged by drag performers and ACT UP activists, as well as "Target Bush/Wigstock 1991," which documents the march on President George Bush's summer house in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Brenda and Glennda rallying for National Health Care at Wigstock in Union Square. 

Belverio will be interviewed onstage by author and New Yorker writer John Colapinto, followed by an audience Q&A and live performances by Brooklyn-based drag artists Nancy Nogood, Reina NoBuena and Oliver Herface. 

Find ticket info here.

Residents question city’s plan to shift shelter intake to the East Village

Above: Project Renewal, 8 E. 3rd St.

City officials and local residents packed a meeting last Tuesday (April 7) evening to discuss the planned closure of the Bellevue men's shelter and the relocation of intake services to the East Village.

As previously reported, the city — via an "emergency executive order" from Mayor Mamdani on March 5— said it will close the longtime Bellevue facility on 30th Street by the end of April, citing deterioration of the building. 

Beginning May 1, adult men seeking shelter would be directed to Project Renewal's facility at 8 E. Third St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery, while intake for adult families (without minor children) would move to 333 Bowery between Second Street and Third Street.

The proposal drew criticism for what several elected officials and residents described as a rushed and non-transparent process. 

Local City Councilmember Harvey Epstein questioned why the decision was presented as a done deal with little advance notice or community input. 

Assemblymember Grace Lee also spoke, raising concerns about the neighborhood impact beyond the East Village into her 65th District, the Lower East Side and Chinatown; the lack of advance notice; and the absence of a clear operational plan for how the intake site would function day to day.

A central theme throughout the evening was the distinction between an existing shelter and an intake facility. While residents said they were generally supportive of Project Renewal and familiar with the current shelter operations, several speakers emphasized that intake sites function differently — with a higher volume of people coming and going, often in crisis. 

Representatives from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), including Commissioner Erin Dalton, said the site would have a limited number of beds and that people would be processed indoors rather than lining up outside. 

Still, many attendees expressed skepticism that activity would remain contained or limited to a steady flow. One official described arrivals as a "trickle" throughout the day — a characterization several neighbors challenged as unrealistic.

Several residents raised quality-of-life concerns, including potential increases in drug activity, theft, public urination and emergency vehicle traffic.

Others focused less on the use itself and more on how the city handled the rollout. Some opponents also circulated materials ahead of the meeting, raising additional concerns about zoning and safety — including whether a citywide intake operation is appropriate for a residential block and whether the change would trigger a "fair share" or environmental review.

That question came up during the meeting as well. DHS officials said a fair-share analysis was not required because a shelter already exists at the site. However, some attendees argued that converting it to an intake facility constitutes a different use. 

DHS officials said they would continue working with the NYPD and local stakeholders on a safety and operations plan, though details remain limited with the May 1 start date approaching.

A Mamdani administration official told the Post the East Village intake sites would be temporary until a permanent location is developed elsewhere, a process expected to take years.

Meanwhile, some Third Street residents say they are planning to file a lawsuit to block the relocation.
For now, the plan remains in place, with intake services set to shift to Third Street next month.

An EVG reader on Second Street attended the meeting and shared notes; other residents also contributed insights.

Signage alert: Nuts Factory on 3rd Avenue

We're officially on nuts watch on the NW corner of Third Avenue and Nnth Street. 

Signage arrived yesterday for Nuts Factory, aka, "your nuts and candies neighborhood shop." (Photo below by Steven.)

This will be the 11th NYC outpost for the brand, with locations in New Jersey and Massachusetts as well.

Vivi Bubble Tea closed here early last fall, after its 10-year lease expired.

Closures: Cosmic Cat Cafe on 2nd Street

Photos by Stacie Joy 

A for-rent sign hangs in the window at 170 E. Second St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... bringing an official end to the Cosmic Cat Cafe here. 

On Feb. 9, two notices appeared on the front door: a closure notice from the Department of Health and a letter from the landlord.

According to the landlord, due to the "extreme weather," a cold-water pipe broke in the building "and created a leak that found its way into the cafe." 

Meanwhile, the DOH apparently visited that day, which seems odd if the place was closed... they handed out 71 violation points, per public records, including: 

• Food Protection Certificate (FPC) not held by manager or supervisor of food operations. 

• Food preparation area, food storage area, or other area used by employees or patrons, contaminated by sewage or liquid waste.

• No hand washing facility in or adjacent to toilet room or within 25 feet of a food preparation, food service or ware washing area. Hand-washing facility not accessible, obstructed, or used for non-hand-washing purposes. No hot and cold running water or water at inadequate pressure. No soap or acceptable hand-drying device. 

And the cafe never reopened. There hasn't been any notice about a closure — temporary or permanent — on the cafe's Instagram account. 

A first-time cat owner opened the space in September 2022.

Monday's parting shot

Early this evening on Fifth Street and Avenue B, as captured by Kerry McKay.