Some 13th Street residents want the fried-chicken smell to stop

Some residents who live behind Wing Stop at 426 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue have been treated to the nonstop smell of fried chicken in recent months, they say. 

Wing Stop, a multinational chain of aviation-themed restaurants specializing in chicken wings, opened here in late April. 

A resident who lives behind the fast-food establishment in the A Building at 425 E. 13th St. shared this photo of the Wing Stop's industrial ventilation system, which "is blowing the smell of fried chicken into roughly 50 condominiums."

"We are getting blasted all day, every day," said the resident, who's doing outreach for the building's board. "I've lived here for 14 years — it's literally unbearable." 

The resident said the new management at 426 E. 14th St. has not been responsive. 

Condo reps have been in touch with the Wing Stop corporate office. (The company is publicly traded, and while many locations are franchises, this location is corporate-owned.) After multiple calls to the corporate office, the resident received an email from the company in late June: 

We appreciate you reaching out to us in regards to our restaurant NY New York — E. 14th Street. 

We discussed this with our VP of Construction and Operations and we are within our rights per the terms of our lease. 

We suggest that you reach out to your landlord to discuss your concerns. 

The resident and others facing Wing Stop, which has daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to midnight, say they are at a loss over what to do now. 

"Since Wing Stop opened, we are unable to use our balconies, open our windows or even use our AC systems because the ongoing smell of fried chicken and/or french fries is blasted directly into our homes," the resident said. "It comes so quickly without warning and continually throughout the day, so there is no way to mask the smell because you don't realize it until it hits you. Then you feel like you're wearing it — it's truly disgusting."

Reader report: Why does this block of East 4th Street smell?

From the EVG inbox...concerning East Fourth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C

A terrible smell has been lingering since the blizzard like a dead dog — or, not to be overly dramatic, a dead person.

This morning the area was surrounded by yellow tape. A police cruiser was blocking the street to traffic, and a Con Ed van was parked at the scene.

EVG correspondent Stacie Joy had actually taken some photos of the block, which is now closed off for Con Ed and other assorted emergency vehicles.

A resident says that Con Ed is here responding to a service outage. As for the possible source of the smell, one of the Con Ed workers said that their meter readers didn't pick up any natural gas. Yay!



Meanwhile, farther down the block at Avenue C... the FDNY was on the scene...



The FDNY, witnesses said, was there because of a manhole fire (it is manhole fire season!), which they believe led to the service outage up the block.

A manhole fire could cause a smell ... though residents have noticed the aroma going back to Sunday. No one could place the smell. Some suggested a very large dead rat. Some went with fermenting garbage. Another theory included "maybe someone hit a deer."

Other theories are also welcome, probably.

A lot of people are saying the East Village smelled like smoke or burning tires or something tonight

[Photo tonight by William Klayer]

Seriously folks, why does the East Village/Lower East Side smell like burning rubber right now?

— Mikey IQ Jones (@thegreatiq) February 23, 2015

@evgrieve know what that burning smell is? smells like a fire in a restaurant, part electric part meat

— beth rosner (@beth_rosner) February 23, 2015

Why is the east village filled with smoke? Hope people are ok...

— Ali B. Goode (@AliBrmBrm) February 23, 2015

Please tell me I'm not the only one smelling a LOT of smoke in #AlphabetCity #EastVillage #LowerEastSide area right now...

— Madi Tsuji (@MadiTsuji) February 23, 2015

Anyone else smelling heavy smoke in the air on the #LowerEastSide #EastVillage #NYC?

— Tom Krieglstein (@tomkrieglstein) February 23, 2015

There hasn't been anything official yet … just a few reports of several manhole fires tonight… here and elsewhere…

@thegreatiq @evgrieve many fires/smoke in manholes. observed 3: 5th/C, 6th/C 7st/BC popping & smoldering earlier tonight

— WiFi-NY (@WiFi_NY) February 23, 2015

Why the East Village smells like a campfire this morning

Oh, morning! Pretty nice out. Kinda misty/smoky though... and there's a noticeable odor...

@evgrieve why does our hood smell like a campfire?

— Amy Marsh (@amyruthmarsh) April 7, 2014

Thanks to some alert EVG Facebook friends ... here's the answer... via NBC 4:

The smell of smoke wafted over New York City early Monday after a brush fire broke out in a state forest in central New Jersey, authorities say.

Storm Team 4 meteorologists say that winds most likely carried the smoke to the area Sunday evening. Winds died down overnight, settling the odor over the city. The odor should be observable for the next eight to 12 hours.

Working on the EVG Odorama feature now...

Resident claim: Living above Mighty Quinn's can be mighty smelly

Mighty Quinn's opened last Wednesday on Second Avenue and East Sixth Street, and people have been very enthusiastic about the Texas and Carolinas-inspired barbecue.

As Eater noted, pitmaster Hugh Mangum "is smoking all his meat in a pit the size of most people's livings rooms, using oak, apple, and cherry wood."

Sounds good, though perhaps not if you live in one of the apartments upstairs... A reader left this comment on a previous post:

The giant room-sized meat smoker has serious ventilation problems. We live in the building and our apartments & hallways reek of barbecue, all the way to the top floor — it's coming up through the radiators,walls & floors. Additionally, the ventilation system on the roof is going 24/7 & sounds like a jet plane idling. I'm sure everyone on the block can hear it. It's quite intrusive. The Health Dept. is coming to check it out. We're distressed! There's a reason smokehouses are located down country roads — they stink up the place, even if the food is delicious...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Life behind IHOP: 'My apartment now smells like the kitchen of a cheap hotel after the breakfast rush'

Noted

ON a recent evening, an unusual experiment took place at a lounge in downtown Manhattan. Nine blindfolded women were asked to determine, by smell alone, whether any among a group of nine men was worth pursuing. (The New York Times)

(Hope that she wasn't here...)