Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and elsewhere.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Grant Shaffer's NY See
Here's this week's NY See, East Village-based illustrator Grant Shaffer's comic series — an observational sketch diary of things that he sees and hears around the neighborhood — and elsewhere.
The annual 9th Street Block Party is Saturday (on 9th Street)
[Photo by Steven]
The annual 9th Street A-1 Block Association Block Party is coming up this Saturday.
Here are a few details via the EVG inbox...
Resident artists, crafts people, and photographers will be showing and selling their work, and residents will be selling a la "stoop sale" — antiques, bric-a-brac, clothing, accessories, music, jewelry, etc.
Block businesses include:
• Shops: Beetle Bug, Enchantments, Flower Power, Good Beer, Love Only NYC, Mr. Throwback, Ollie's Place, Pink Olive, Polytima, Puppy Love Kitty Kat, Reason Outpost, The Wineshop
• Restaurants/Food Establishments: Cagen, Confectionery!, Dian Kitchen, Mahalo NY Bakery, Poke n Roll, Superiority Burger, Tacos Morelos, Thursday Kitchen, Whitman's
• Hair Salons/Barbers: Classic Man Barbers, Lovemore & Do, Maria Mok Salon, Neighborhood Barber, Tsumiki Hair
Find all this from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. There isn't any rain date. At the moment, though, the weather forecast is looking pretty good.
Today is Primary Election Day
You are getting sleepy... You will vote on Thursday, September 13th in the New York Primary. You will vote on Thursday. You will vote on Thursday. You will get out the vooooote. pic.twitter.com/Tp9N3cTQsD
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 10, 2018
And starting the day off with a cat GIF from Brian Lehrer.
So the state’s primary election is today. (The general election is on Nov. 6.)
Here is the official list of candidates for every race via the Board of Elections.
There are several places to find more reader-friendly primary guides, such as at Curbed ... Gothamist ... The Villager and the Gotham Gazette.
Polls are open today from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can find your polling site via this link.
And you can bring your "I Voted" sticker over to 99 Favor Taste on St. Mark's Place for your free barbecue and hot pot.
130 E. 7th St. is for sale
[Image via Marcus & Millichap]
From the EVG tip line comes this listing for 130 E. Seventh St., the 7-floor building on the southwest corner of Avenue A.
Marcus & Millichap is the broker, though the link is via Loopnet. Some details:
130 East 7th Street offers investors a unique opportunity to acquire a corner elevator loft mixed-use building in the heart of the East Village with strong in place cash-flow. Miss Lily’s, a popular Caribbean style restaurant occupies the ground floor. There is shared office space occupying the second floor followed by five floor-through loft apartments. All of apartments are three bedrooms aside from the penthouse unit which is a spacious four bedrooms duplex apartment with a 1,300 Square Foot private outdoor space.
And from the investment summary...
[Click to go big]
Curiously, the summary notes: "The other ground floor retail (7th Street side) is occupied by Avant Garden. They are on a lease that expires in 2088..." 2088? Helluva lease!
Anyway, the building's asking price: $22.95 million.
And here's part of an EVG post from August 2016 about the address...
---
The 7-floor building on the southwest corner has been through a luxury makeover in recent years. The new residential rentals were fetching $16,995 and $14,995. Longtime corner restaurant 7A closed in January 2014... and later replaced by Miss Lily's.
Public records show that the University of the Streets sold the building to Park Corner Development, LLC in September 2011 for $5 million.
After 46 years of music and arts programs here, the University of the Streets cleared out of the second floor in April 2015 and relocated to the Bronx.
The address was home to L.W. Schwenk… and here's a photo dated July 24, 1914, titled "Depositors at failed bank."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Penthouse life above 7A will cost you $16,995 monthly
You may now pig out at BarBacon on 4th Avenue
BarBacon has debuted at 127 Fourth Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street ... an EVG reader shared this photo from last evening.
This is the second NYC location (the other is on Ninth Avenue near 55th Street) for the bacon-centric bar-restaurant that celebrates the whole hog with swine-spiked menu items and drinks. You can find their "chef-driven bacon dishes" here.
This Fourth Avenue space was previously Royal, the lounge-pub place that closed in April 2016.
Previously on EV Grieve:
BarBacon looking to pig out now on 4th Avenue
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Wellness planning for the fall (and beyond)
The studio will have a physical therapist, registered dietician, personal trainer, chiropractor and other specialists available. (Find a list here.)
The planning takes place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. You can register here.
A few more details about Madame Vo BBQ, coming soon to 2nd Avenue and 6th Street
As Eater reported back in July, the owners of Madame Vo at 212 E. 10th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue are opening a restaurant specializing in Vietnamese barbecue called Madam Vo BBQ this fall on Second Avenue at Sixth Street.
The Madame Vo team is on tonight's CB3-SLA docket for a new beer-wine license. However, given the method of operation (restaurant) and the owners signing the agreed-upon stipulations, they will not be appearing before the committee this evening.
Their questionnaire (PDF here) on file at the CB3 website provides a few more details about the place. For starters, the listed hours are noon to midnight daily. In total, there 13 tables to accommodate 52 diners as well as a five-seat bar.
As for the food at Madame Vo BBQ, Eater had this to say in a fall preview post:
This barbecue offshoot will have tabletop grills for meat and seafood in various marinades including curry, lemongrass garlic, and honey fish sauce. It’s typically a celebratory food in Vietnam, and here, the barbecued proteins then go into customizable summer rolls.
No. 104 previously housed Wall 88 for seven months until last fall. Previously, the address was the Lions BeerStore — part retail shop, part restaurant — for 16 months.
On 2nd Avenue, signage arrives for Uluh Tea House (and they're hiring)
[Photo by Steven]
Back in May 2017 we heard about a Chinese restaurant opening in one of the two newly created storefronts at 152-154 Second Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street. (They will join the Pure Green-PlantMade combo in the retail spaces.)
Signage arrived yesterday for the venture — Uluh Tea Shop, which is hiring. Sounds like it will be a pretty big operation. Positions wanted include managers, servers, Chinese Cuisine head chef, pastry chef, Cantonese Dim Sum Chef and kitchen staff.
152-154 Second Ave. is the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel that Icon Realty bought, gutted, added three extra floors and opened as luxury rentals a few years back.
Another dim sum place, Dim Sum Palace, is opening soon a few blocks away in another Icon-owned building at 59 Second Ave.
H/T Lola Sáenz!
Start me up: Waiting on a Friend opens on 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place
[Photo by Steven]
A new bar called Waiting on a Friend recently debuted here at 132 First Ave. at St. Mark's Place.
The corner space had been VBar St. Marks before a conversion to Colibri last September. Not sure who's behind the new venture at the moment. (You can find the bar's Instagram account here.)
We had some reader-submitted photos in mid-to-late August as the place was under renovation...
The bar is named for the song by the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album Tattoo You... one of the reader photos shows a new mural inside the bar of the album cover ...
And, as you may know, the "Waiting on a Friend" video was shot on St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue... where Keith and Mick eventually saunter into this corner space, when it was the St. Mark's Bar & Grill. There, the other band members are already assembled (this old EVG post has pics from the shoot) ...
Reader report: New owners for Fine Fare on Avenue C?
An EVG reader shared this photo from inside Fine Fare on Avenue C at Fourth Street.
Per the reader: "There was a bunch of work going on ... One of the employees told me they had new owners and were putting in an expanded meat and produce section."
This Fine Fare location is no longer on the tri-state grocer's website (the stores are independently owned and operated) ...
We reached out to the Fine Fare corporate office for more info on the Avenue C market. Will update if we hear back from anyone.
And back to the reader: "Glad they're fixing the place up, but hope the prices stay low!"
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Tuesday's parting shot
Derek Berg took this photo of London-based hairdresser Joshua Coombes on First Avenue at Seventh Street today.
Coombes has been in the East Village in the past ... providing free haircuts (and shaves) to the homeless.
You can watch this "National Geographic" segment on Coombes, who believes small acts of kindness can make a big impact.
And you can see more of his work with the homeless on his Instagram account.
A 9/11 moment at Engine Company 5
Local firehouses throughout the city commemorated 9/11 today. James and Karla Murray shared this photo from this morning outside Engine Company 5 on 14th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue during a moment of silence.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Company lost Manny DelValle Jr., a 7-year FDNY veteran who grew up in the Bronx. He was 32.
As the Murrays wrote:
Manny had just finished an overnight at Engine 5 ... when the call came in around 8:47 am.. that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Engine Company 5 was assigned to team up with another company to walk up 80 floors and stretch the hose line. Manny Delvalle Jr. was carrying the rollup lines of hose and an oxygen tank. The last time Manny was seen, he had stopped on the 10th floor to give a woman oxygen. His unit had made it to the 15th floor when they were called back when the building began to rumble. They looked for Manny but could not find him and after the North Tower fell at 10:28 a.m., he was reported missing.
Here's more about him from his obituary in The New York Times:
At home in the Bronx, Mr. DelValle took advanced classes in salsa dancing. He loved Latin music but listened to everything. "Rap," said his brother Pete Moyer. "And R&B," added his sister Grace Nolly. "Old school," said his father, Manuel Del Valle, to be specific.
Mr. DelValle, who graduated from the University of Maryland, was also an accomplished moguls skier and roller skater, a traveler, a lover of war movies and, his family says, a lady's man. He also got Engine Company No. 5, where he was assigned, to participate in the Puerto Rican Day Parade. He was the one in the family who always sent a card and gift to siblings, half-siblings and cousins.
According to previous reports, 26 firefighters from the neighborhood's four stations died on 9/11.
A visit to the Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen on 7th Street
This past Friday morning, EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by Streecha Ukrainian Kitchen, the basement cafe that helps generate income for the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church up the block on Seventh Street.
On this day, as with previous Fridays spanning nearly four decades, volunteers — parishioners from St. George's — gathered in the subterranean space at 33 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square to help prep the cafe's specialities, such as vareniki (Ukrainian dumplings).
[Volunteer Daria Rekucha]
[Rekucha and Anastazia Baran]
Dima Kovalenko, here in the orange shirt, is the chef and oversees the kitchen...
[Volunteer Anna Sinchuk]
[Volunteer Tetiona Grygorash]
Streecha, which is an old Ukrainian word for meeting, is a perfect place for doing so. The decor is, well — church basement, but the food is hearty and inexpensive...
Streecha reopened last Wednesday after the usual summer hiatus. The cafe is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a 9 a.m. start time on Saturday and Sunday. Visit Streecha's Instagram account for daily specials.
Looking at two dormant Bowery storefronts
In June 2017, there was news that The New Stand — a hipsterized convenience store — was opening a retail outlet at 306 Bowery, Patricia Field's former storefront.
Fifteen months later, the space between East Houston and Bleecker sits very empty... without any signs of activity...or any signs at all...
The New Stand didn't respond to an email query about the address. The company, with several NYC locations, is reportedly expanding elsewhere in the country.
Meanwhile at 347 Bowery at Third Street...
The ground-floor retail is still vacant. Early this year, signage arrived for Pilotworks, which was planning a "culinary incubator" for its food businesses to sell products.
The market was set to be open by now. The Pilotworks signage is gone... and the space sits empty...
A rep who gave me the information in February is no longer working with Pilotworks. The new contacts did not respond to questions on the status of the project.
Also, the COOL tag that arrived on or about Aug. 12 remains on the side of the retail-residential complex, where the penthouse fetched $17 million...
Updated...
Ah, a new tag arrived in the past 24-48 hours...
Previously on EV Grieve:
The New Stand coming to Patricia Field’s former storefront on the Bowery
More about the new venture from Pilotworks on the Bowery
Monday, September 10, 2018
'Afro-Punk' screens at MoRUS Thursday night
Via the EVG inbox... this is happening Thursday evening...
Prior to its emergence as a global brand, Afro-Punk was a grassroots community of Black musicians, artists, skaters and activists existing within the punk rock scene as captured in the eponymous documentary shot and released by James Spooner in 2003.
As part of its Political Punk Exhibit, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will screen "Afro-Punk," the 66-minute film that inspired the AfroPunk festival, co-founded by Spooner and Matthew Morgan. Spooner will be in attendance to introduce the film and for a post-screening talk; all of which will take place on Thursday beginning at 8 p.m. Suggested donation is $5 per person.
MoRUS is located at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street. Read more about the screening and the Museum's political punk exhibition here.
Today on St. Mark's Place
A Con Ed crew here between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... a bike ready for more rain...
Photo by Steven
Full reveal at 253 E7
We have a full reveal now at 253 E. Seventh St., the new 6-story condoplex — aka 253 E7 — here between Avenue C and Avenue D.
You can see how it stacks against the rendering...
Two of the units hit the market a few weeks back, as noted here.
Per the Streeteasy building description: There are "8 superbly appointed apartments with soaring 9’ ceilings, ranging in size from 709 to 1,653 square feet. Most apartments feature a private outdoor space and an allotted few have access to private keyed elevator landings. The Penthouse apartment boasts a private paved roof; the Townhouse apartment features a private grass planted garden."
The available units range in price from $1.275 million (one bedroom) to $2.795 million (three bedrooms).
Workers tore down the former four-story residence that stood here back in late 2015.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Options for this lovely East 7th Street townhouse include demolition
New building in the works for 253 E. 7th St.
The disappearing 253 E. 7th St.
253 E. 7th St. is now a pile of bricks
Property at 253 E. 7th St. now for sale; perfect for a 'dream custom mansion townhouse'
New plans for a 6-story building at 253 E. 7th St.
[Image of No. 253 from 2014 via Massey Knakal]
Met Fresh now open on Avenue D
The Met Fresh Supermarket opened Saturday at 119 Avenue D between Eighth Street and Ninth Street.
Met Fresh is part of the Associated Supermarket Group, whose brands include Associated, Compare, Met Fresh, Met Foodmarkets, Pioneer and Gourmet a'Fare.
Anyway, here's a look at the store... the produce looks pretty solid... there's also a small deli counter...
The cereal selection is fairly limited ... most of the Kellogg's brands are represented ...
They also carry the Avenue A brand of products (exclusive to the Associated Supermarket Group) ... like the seltzer water (four for $3)...
There are grand-opening sales, like, four 10-ounce packs of Café Bustelo for $10 and two boxes of Kellogg's Raisin Bran (13.7 ounces) for $4. Oh, and these are 10 for $5...
Lastly, they don't have any beer just yet. A worker said it will be another month before it arrives. THEN maybe we can do an all-important price comparison!
Previously on EV Grieve:
Met Fresh Supermarket announces itself on Avenue D
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