RIP Hop Devil Grill

The Hop Devil Grill on St. Mark's near Avenue A is gone. Was way too bland and fratty for our liking, but they had some tasty suds on tap -- 31 or so on a rotating basis.



Looks like it will reopen....and be completely different. New concept? Why does this give us the fear?



They were shut down in February for allegedly serving minors; in July, they were reportedly denied a liquor license renewal due to prior violations for selling to minors.

P.S.
The Hop Devil Grill Web site was still up and running as of last night.

P.S.S.
Thanks to Jeremiah for reminding me in the comments that this space used to be Stingy Lulu's, which was there 1992 to, what, 2004? Hop Devil opened in March 2005.

Public "Enemy"

How long will Christian Slater continue to haunt Times Square now that his show was canceled last week?

There will be hell to pay for this

So that was a large group of (ahem) motorcycle enthusiasts hanging out on Avenue A Sunday afternoon. What do you think, some 50-60 bikes in total on either side of the street between Seventh and Sixth? Not real big on having their picture taken, huh? But one fellow was nice enough to finally say OK to this shot.

Still a landmark

Good news from the City Room about the former school at 605 E. Ninth St. between Avenue B and Avenue C:

A justice in State Supreme Court has rejected a developer’s bid to overturn a 2006 decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the former Public School 64 in the East Village, which closed in 1977, as a city landmark. The ruling is another step in a complex, decade-long battle over the fate of the building, which has become a symbol of broader struggles over gentrification.

Here's some history of the school, via the East Village Community Coalition Web site:

During the summer of 1911 P.S. 64 became the first Public School in the City to offer free open-air professional theater to the public. One of the reasons the school was chosen to premiere the series is because it was the first school in the city to have electric lights in its yard. Julius Hopp, director of the Theatre Centre For Schools tried unsuccessfully to stage The Merchant of Venice on the raised courtyard facing 10th street. The noise from the trolleys rumbling down 10th street made the performance inaudible but the thousands of people gathered across the street, packed onto the courtyard and peering from the tenement windows were treated to an impromptu rendition of Kipling's Gunga Din, recited by Sydney Greenstreet, one of the actors in the production. (Greenstreet became famous as the "fat man" in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca.) Undaunted, Hopp regrouped and presented the play two days later in the school auditorium. The thrilled audience got a chance to see the young Greenstreet and Warner Oland (later to play Charlie Chan) in Shakespeare's grand Comedy. Needless to say, the harsh stereotypical imagery of the play was not lost on the neighborhood's burgeoning Jewish community.

In the 1920's P.S. 64 was a required stop for politicians campaigning in New York City. Governor Alfred E. Smith, Mayor Jimmy Walker, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt all recognized how important it was to make time to speak in the school's auditorium. Walker railed against his opponent, then Mayor Hylan, Governor Smith confronted the Hearst News Empire, and Roosevelt assessed his strength with Jewish voters by the neighborhood turnout for his speech at P.S. 64.

(Photo: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)

Shit that you can't make up: Mental hospital edition

Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Charlie Parker, Sid Vicious and Edie Sedgwick have been among the many who have had a mental vacation at Bellevue. It's more than a nuthouse, of course: It's the oldest public hospital in the United States. Oh, well, now the original Bellevue building at First Avenue and 30th Street might become a fucking hotel. (New York magazine)

Get it while you can: Boss Hog is back

Somewhere in the deep recesses of the EV Grieve "drafts" folder, I had a post in the works titled "Whatever happened to...Boss Hog." They were my favorite local band for years...part of a post-scum rock scene on the LES that included the likes of Unsane, Railroad Jerk, Cop Shoot Cop and the Honeymoon Killers, among others.

Well, I won't babble on about Boss Hog's biographical nuts and bolts and the seismic demographic shifts that have eroded the Orchard/Ludlow corridor. Maybe another day. Anyway, after a handful of releases spanning 1989-2000...the band just seemingly disappeared after 2001. Mainstays Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez (husband and wife) had a son...and Spencer continued on with The Blues Explosion and Heavy Trash. I'd see the two around once in awhile, in Union Square or in store. But I'm not the "hey, I'm a big fan, what the fuck you guys doing now?" type person.

Today, Brooklyn Vegan drops a report that allowed me to delete my "Whatever happened to..." post. Boss Hog will be getting back together to play a few gigs next month.

BOSS HOG - 2008 TOUR DATES
Dec 3rd - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
DEC 5th - ATP Nightmare Before Christmas MINEHEAD, UK
DEC 8th - The Luminaire LONDON, UK
DEC 17th - The Bowery Ballroom NEW YORK, NY ??

If you want to know more about Spencer and the pre-Boss Hog days of Pussy Galore, Alex has you covered.

Meanwhile...from the archives....


The video for "Hustler" from the "Girl +" EP:



From CBGB in 1993:



An AmRep ad for their Big Action Box single:

Happening by the Holland

Since Jeremiah broke the news on Nov. 4 that the Holland may be gone for good, there has been plenty of chitchat among my circle of friends about the bar. Meanwhile, Brooks paid a visit to the getting-gutted bar and passed along some possibly good news that the Holland may reopen in the new year. By pure randomness, I happened to be by the ass-end of Port Authority Friday after work. I walked by the Holland on Ninth Avenue. It wasn't pretty.





Three workers were carrying crap out of the Holland basement and tossing it into the dumpster. Nothing was left inside the space where the bar was. And the workers didn't seem all that pleased that I was nosing around.

I kind of like Bass Plucked Lute for a restaurant name

One of the many vacant storefronts along East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue will soon be a Moroccan restaurant. (OK, we're assuming Moroccan given that Sintir is "a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people of Morocco.")

Noted

On the side of the Sheen Brothers bodega on 10th Street and Avenue B. This was not here the other day. The graffiti, not the bodega.

BOA unveils new plan to combat rising consumer debt

At 110 Third Ave.

As long as it's not so fancy pants that a taco will cost $5

At San Loco on Avenue A.

Looking at the South Bronx 1982-1984

The Museum of the City of New York has a new exhibition of interest.

Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson
Nov. 14 through March 9

Made between 1982 and 1984, the photographs in Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson focus on the burned out, abandoned, and razed structures of entire city blocks in the South Bronx, documenting the aftermath of a widespread urban economic crisis that plagued the United States in the 1970s.

Now and then at the Rainbow Room

The Rainbow Room, where the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie entertained well-dressed crowds on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is now in its 75th year of operations. The Post made note of what the United States was like when it opened:

When the Rainbow Room first struck up the band in 1934, the Great Depression was in full swing. Bank closings and home foreclosures were rampant and unemployment rates soared. The Giants had won the NFL championship by spoiling a foe’s otherwise perfect season. A Harvard-educated lawyer from the Democratic party had recently wrestled the presidency from the Republican incumbent with a message of hope — and, in doing so, secured House and Senate majorities. And, by no coincidence, strong yet fancy cocktails were all the rage.

Sound familiar?

The club, which is now only open two weekends a month, is awaiting word to see if they will get landmark status from the city.

Not ready for any of this

The Holiday Market at Union Square was being set up yesterday...

Duane Reade had their shit out in October.



Food Emporium had their stuff up the day after Halloween.




The holiday lights went up on 10th Street sometime this past week.



And 57th and Fifth?

I'm still trying to enjoy my Labor Day.

Last call for the P & G

Brooks has the bad/sad news that the P & G Cafe will close at the end of the year. There's talk of another P & G at another location some day.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The P & G Cafe: An appreciation

Related:
Alex has some more NYC-related videos...including one from Depeche Mode that features the P & G.

Five rather random photos taken around the vicinity of Penn Station last night

Important notice: We spent all your money

Thought that's what it said for a minute.

Clown rings opening bell yesterday; Post suitably outraged

The Post even devoted an editorial to the subject.

"Poison"

The Times checks in today with a piece on the East Village/LES rezoning battle. “I implore you to see the plan for what it is — poison,” said Malcolm Lam, who spoke on behalf of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side.

Anyone have a cigarette? Cigarette?

Johnny Thunders, 1978.

Condo bender

Where oh where to begin. From the Times today:

Here’s one mistake that stressed out financial workers may want to avoid right now: Don’t get so drunk over the bear market that you dial up your broker and buy a luxury Manhattan condo on a boozy whim.

But Kipton Davis, a Prudential Douglas Elliman broker from Virginia, thinks a little bourbon could be good for sales.

Just as a few drinks may coax timid traders onto a dance floor, it could help them muster the courage to buy multimillion-dollar apartments.

That’s why on Wednesday night, Ms. Davis lured a half-dozen bankers, traders and friends on a condo tour of four TriBeCa buildings by offering wine and whiskey at every stop.

“Alcohol brings everyone together,” said Ms. Davis, after showing the group a $9.9 million penthouse at 16 Warren Street with an eight-seat hot tub. As the crowd debated whether they valued the hot tub over the layout of the $2.25 million unit downstairs, they sipped Chardonnay and a Chinon.

But they did not deliberate for long. There was tippling to be done. The pack headed to a $3.3 million bachelor loft at 132 Duane Street, where they were greeted by another Elliman broker, Francine Hunter McGivern, and a small spread.

“Have some food. Don’t be shy,” Ms. McGivern said.

They helped themselves to chicken satay and samosas and washed the snacks down with Sancerre wine, and Lagavulin ($77 a bottle) and Talisker ($60 a bottle) whiskeys. They sipped and listened while Ms. McGivern stressed that her client, a banker, did not need to sell. He will hold out for a buyer willing to pay for his meticulous renovation featuring Miele fixtures and wood floors imported from Austria. The crowd seemed pleased.

“The thing I dig is the bar across from the powder room,” said Patrick Nichols. Twenty-seven and newly married, Mr. Nichols, a trader with Jane Street Capital, scribbled in a leather-bound notebook and snapped photos. He is looking to spend $2 million to $3 million on a two- or three-bedroom apartment. He said he did not know many people hurt by the slowdown, and he was not worried about losing his job.

East of Bowery

I've been spending time lately at East of Bowery, a site that features the work of writer Drew Hubner (or Huebner) and the photography (and mp3s!) of Ted Barron, who's behind Boogie Woogie Flu. Hubner writes about his misspent drug days circa 1980s East Village. Each post includes an iconic photo taken by Barron, like the one above of the International Bar in 1986. For the record, according to a post by Barron introducing East of Bowery: "I didn't know [Hubner] then, but it seems we were in the same place at the same time. Life is sweet."

James Bond in New York

As you read here exclusively, the new James Bond movie opens today -- The Quantum of Solace...Which reminds me there has only been one Bond film with scenes in New York -- 1972's Let and Let Die, the first one starring Roger Moore. Which I've seen now, oh, 10,000 times. Well, it's not the best Bond film...and a little, uh, dated, in terms of diversity. Still.



Did Felix Leiter really just say "Get me a make on a white pimp mobile"?





The Live and Let Die novel by Ian Fleming was published in 1954. In that, Bond stays at the St. Regis; he tries to make himself seem more "American" to throw off the enemy.

Bonus excerpt!

First!

"He was reminded to ask for the 'check' rather than the 'bill,' to say 'cab' instead of 'taxi' and to avoid words of more than two syllables."

Later!

"He spent the morning on Fifth Avenue and on Broadway, wandering aimlesly, gazing into the shop windows and watching the passing crowds. He gradually assimilated the casual gait and manners of a visitor from out of town...[Bond] had a typical American meal at an eating house called 'Gloryfied Ham-N-Eggs' ('The Eggs We Serve Tomorrow Are Still in the Hens') on Lexington Avenue."

Here are a few screenshots from the movie, filmed in part in Harlem:

The Lung Block and other shots of NYC circa 1933

Jason Kottke had a post yesterday with many photos of New York from the 1930s. The top shot is from 1933...

Also from 1933..."The Lung Block, Lower East Side, got its name from many cases of respiratory diseases."

More of the photos are here.

How you can help save the Bowery

Rob has the details at Save the Lower East Side!

Peter Frampton called: He wants his van back

Oh my. Our friend Hunter-Gatherer took this shot (and others!) of this boss van (with Jersey plates, natch) in SoHo. He has been humming "Dream Weaver" ever since....

An inside look at the Blind Pig

Oh. In an earlier post, we mentioned the five East Village bars that the new Time Out was touting in its bar guide issue thing. Based on the comments, not everyone is familiar with the Blind Pig, which is on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. Well, we're no help: We've never been there. But we did find this informational Blind Pig video on CitySearch. Highlights: The high-five at the 56-second point! Up high, broseph!

Noted

Lipstick Jungle, the NBC series based on the Candace Bushnell novel, is cancelled.

At the Donnybrook

Stopped by Donnybrook the other day for a drink. This is the new upscale Irish pubby place that opened at the corner of Clinton and Stanton on Oct. 24.



Having lived across the street for nearly 10 years, we were curious about what became of the space. (We had moved up the way before the former occupant, the Lotus Lounge, closed.) First, the bar. Well, it looks as if the owners (same as Lucky Jack's) spent a fortune renovating the space. Everything is spiffy and buffed. They'll spend a fortune on Pledge.



The folks working were friendly. The bartender said they'd be serving "hearty Irish fare" in the next two weeks. There were two TVs on (mute) with some sort of sports; one TV was tuned to a rugby match that a group of people from the UK were enjoying. The Dave Matthews Band was playing on the house stereo. (And not just any old Dave Matthews -- this was a live recording with an extra side of jam!) We had two draft beers (imperial pints) and two glasses of wine. Our check was $32. It was all perfectly pleasant.



But would we ever go back? Well, it's just not really our thing. We like a little more grit and grime. And history. A friend, who has lived in the neighborhood for years, popped by for a drink and dryly remarked that it's "a little slice of Murray Hill right in the LES." (He must not get out much in the neighborhood these days.)

While at Donnybrook, we started reminiscing about the cluttered Christian Ministries thrift shop that was housed here before the Lotus. We bought some kind of dresser that weighed like 300 pounds. The proprietor, who looked like Jeremiah Johnson, was kind enough to help us lug it up five steep flights of stairs. He refused a tip. But! He wasn't in a hurry to leave. "May I ask you a question?" Uh-oh. "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?" Somehow we got him out the door with only a pamphlet for the trouble. We also thought about the bodega where wd~50 is now on Clinton Street; the bodega with the cock-fighting ring in the back. Anyway, we did a little too much reminiscing at the Donnybrook. Which made me think that this bar is out place. Or rather, we're just out of place.

Bird watching

As mentioned in the previous post, we paid a visit to our old neighborhood the other day. (We're acting as if we had moved to Maine...we're just up the street, but we don't come down here that often anymore.) New restuarants/bars and million-dollar condos aside, I was happy to see the fellow with the rooftop pigeon coop was still there.

"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: