Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Bowery Poetry Club to get literary cafe, roast beef

The Bowery Poetry Club has a new tenant...



According to a partner in the deal, the plan is for a literary cafe that also will serve a Massachusetts-style roast beef sandwich. The roast beef will be via Harrison's in North Andover, Mass., which gets mostly rave reviews on Yelp. This will be the city's first Harrison's outpost. Tentative opening date: Feb. 1.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Bookstore-cafe wanted for the Bowery Poetry Club

Shockers: Former Village Fabrics has a new tenant, and it isn't an upscale eatery or bank branch

High rents apparently doomed Village Fabrics, which closed on First Avenue and 11th Street back at the end of the summer... We all figured something Momofukuey would take over the corner spot... Well! EV Grieve First Avenue correspondent Blue Glass brings us the news of the new tenant:




A consignment shop called Eleven... with the tagline "where style is only the beginning." I'll take it.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Closing sale at Village Fabrics

Village Fabrics to close next month

Papa John's decides to rename the East Village




The reader who passed this along also notes that Papa John's delivers their pizzas via cars...

Party guy Dr. Doom bringing his hedge funders and models to East First Street penthouse

I meant to mention this from Friday... Bloomberg reported that Nouriel Roubini, the NYU economist (dubbed Dr. Doom) who predicted the global financial crisis, bought that swanky $5.5 million, 3,700-square-foot home at 6 E. First St. that I featured back in June ...



This place had been on the market for nearly four years... At one point, the three-bedroom apartment with a custom walnut wet bar was renting for $25,000 a month.

Maybe Dr. Doom should have rented it instead?

Felix Salmon at Reuters did the rent-vs-buy calculation using that handy-dandy Buy-Rent Calculator at the Times. You can read Felix's assessment here. (Too many numbers for me...)

Anyway, The Wall Street Journal notes that the Doominator owns a loft on Leonard Street... "The apartment was famous for Mr. Roubini's parties, which drew hedge-fund managers and models and occasional coverage in the gossip columns."

Forbes had more on the party angle:

"Rumors of Roubini being a party animal have been wide-spread, reaching vast corners of the internet. Internet gossipers have hit back at Roubini for liking to party, considering him sort of hypocritical given his serious, quasi-painful professional demeanor. Roubini is said to have partied with Russian oligarch Roman Abramnovich, owner of English soccer team Chelsea FC, at St. Baart’s alongside celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, and Prince. Daily Intel even reports, with pictures, that Roubini’s “walls were ‘indented with plaster vulvas,’” at his current Tribeca apartment."




No word just yet if the plaster vulvas — which seem so 2007 — will make the trip to his new home. Read more about his party side on Gawker. [Bottom photo via Gawker]

Previously on EV Grieve:
After nearly 4 years, First Street penthouse finally in contract

Upright Citizens Brigade's future home on Avenue A now has stools in bags, so to speak



Just noting the continued progress here on Avenue A near Third Street. Those bar stools may cause a lot of cargo shorts owners to lose stuff out of their multiple-pocketed cargo shorts. (OK, so multiple-pocketed cargo shorts is redundant.) Hope they have a big lost and found.

Previously.

I'll be back again some day



Gudrun Georges took this photo of the lunar eclipse last night... she was on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue....

Meanwhile, LES NYC Window has a few shots too...

Monday, December 20, 2010

MTA always prompts holiday cheer


Per a reader from our post earlier today on the nostalgic MTA bus and train:

MTA can take this feeble attempt at holiday cheer and shove it up its poorly-managed ass. What could be more pointless. The last thing people need from the MTA are acts of nostalgic whimsy. What they really need are trains and buses that keep to something that resembles a schedule. They need a transit authority that is at least well managed enough so as not to require a fare increase every other fucking year. This Christmas, eat shit MTA.

Countdown to the lunar eclipse




Is there a Lunar Eclipse pub crawl?

Miracle on 34th Street, sort of



EV Grieve reader Crazy Eddie passes along this shot taken between First and Second Avenues... The MTA broke out the vintage rides for the holidays... And look — even the old buses don't get respect ... someone is parked in the bus lane!

Meanwhile, BoweryBoogie caught the holiday nostalgia train here.

While the buses and trains are vintage... the MTA is charging what fares are expected to be in 2020: $71.25.

Just kidding on that last part. (I hope.)

At the Mystery Lot: Spirits in the materialistic world



Ah, Jeremiah beat me to this today... an art installation of sorts along the 13th Street side of the Mystery Lot that reads MATERIALISTIC, though a few letters appear to be missing now...

Tompkins Square Park, 10:17 a.m., Dec. 20


WTF: 'Le Souk is back to Avenue B for New Years!'

A rather terrified Avenue B resident passes along this info about a New Year's Eve bash at the shuttered Le Souk...




The description mentions Le Souk's West Village location, but everything else points to Avenue B... where the restaurant/club lost its liquor license last year... Anyway, The Harem VIP Table Service Ticket is $250.

Hickey's is gone

For some reason, I found myself near Herald Square Friday evening. Enough to make anyone want to drink. Hickey's! Of course!



So I made my way over to 33rd Street near Seventh Avenue ... to the well-worn 40-year-old bar that I'll drink in any chance that I have...



Ahhhhh!. I have no idea when this happened. Another one lost. Of course, this closure has been rumored for years.

A few doors to the east, that suburbany-looking place called Stoudt NYC was MOBBED. So I went into the OK-at-the-right-time Blarney Stone next door. This was NOT the right time: Pre-Knicks game crowd. So I found a slot near the front door. An array of half-finished drinks sat there on a table next to me. A woman wondered in. I'm pretty sure she was carrying a glass of red wine in with her. She put down her wine. She started wolfing down the different drinks. Two half-empty bottles of Magners. And something that might have been a screwdriver. She asked if that was my bottle of beer. Yes it was. She nodded, picked up her wine and walked back out the door.

I felt a little better about Hickey's for a moment.

Read more about Hickey's at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York .... At A Guy Walks into 365 Bars, our friend Marty Wombacher wrote: "Hickey's is one of the last great dive bars in Manhattan. Stop by for a drink or four and let's keep this joint in existence!" You can read his recap here.

[Top photo via Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

Taqueria banner adds touch of class to Extra Place




BoweryBoogie first reported on Dec. 1 that Brooklyn-based Oaxaca Tacos opened in a storefront toward the back of Extra Place... I'm not sure how you let people walking by the alley know that you're back there... but I suppose this is one way...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Meanwhile, Extra Place continues to maintain its proud heritage

Perhaps he just saw Extra Place for the first time in 15 years or so?

Looking at Extra Place

The other morning outside Mars Bar


Kiehl's knows plywood



Our very own Kiehl's is expanding, opening a store on Lexington and 64th Street. You can read more about it at Racked.

Meanwhile, I recently walked into the flagship Kiehl's on Third Avenue and 13th Street... and I thought I had entered, say, Barneys.

Pollo Cafecito space on the market

Back in the fall of 2009, Avenue C's Cuban eatery Cafecito opened Pollo Cafecito, a take out/rotisserie chicken joint... I noticed that the space was closed this past summer for renovations or something... Now that I see the space is on the market ...



... Cafecito is still going strong, as far as I can tell...

Noted



Papa John's on First Avenue will be open on Christmas Day.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lights, camera...



Holiday cheer

EV Grieve Holiday Tree correspondent Bobby Williams shared photos from today's tree lighting in Tompkins Square Park...







Look for more photos and a video at LES NYC Window.

Why New York seems more suburban, exhibit No. 1,278

... last night at Madison Square Garden...



Via kasekaiserina.

The line in the clouds




This morning on Avenue D.

At the Tompkins Square Everywhere/Save Charas Projection

Last night, John Penley and filmmaker Vlad Teichberg hosted an event at the former P.S. 64/Charas space on East Ninth Street ... Teichberg projected work on the Charas wall ... Vlad and John provided the content along with Faith La and Ason Indigo... Shawn Chittle passed along these photos...










...the evening included a post-party at Kate's Joint...



You can find a video of the whole affair here.

Happy holidays, featuring Giuseppi Logan




You probably know all about Giuseppi Logan, though if not... here's more on him via WFMU. WFMU also posted this incredible video of Giuseppi and his son from Tompkins Square Park circa 1966 ...