In recent weeks the former Nino's Pizza storefront on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place has been blanketed in graffiti... making it difficult to see what might be going on inside the vacant space. (Not to mention the brown paper.)
The other day a worker wiped away part of the tags, offering a view of the interior...
[
From St. Mark's looking north]
[
From A looking to the west]
The wall separating the former Hop Devil Grill at 129 St. Mark's Place has been removed, creating one big(ger) space...
There are
work permits, dated Oct. 14, on file with the DOB for "interior demo."
No word if there's a tenant for the space or if the landlord is just giving it the vanilla box treatment to show potential tenants.
James Morrissey, who owns The Late Late on East Houston and now
VNYL on Third Avenue, had been after the spaces to create
The Honey Fitz. Those plans were put on hold, though Morrissey told
DNAinfo back in February the he "remains interested in the location, assuming all outstanding lease issues have been resolved."
A for rent sign (
which arrived back in April) is barely visible now at the Nino's space...
Nino's
closed in October 2015. As previously reported, owner Nino Camaj accepted a low six-figure amount to walk away from his remaining 10-year lease and surrender the pizza shop that he opened in 1989. He had been in
a dispute with the landlord over back rent and a closure due to a gas leak in the building.
Hop Devil Grill and its sister bar next door, The Belgian Room,
were seized by the state in April 2015 for nonpayment of taxes.