Also on the liquor license docket: Sigmund Pretzel Shop

Sigmund's, the new gourmet pretzel shop at 29 Avenue B near Third Street, is applying for a license to serve wine ... which is fine (heh, rhymes)... but how about some beer for those pretzels? And has anyone been here yet? Just curious what this place is like...

Updated:

Food blogger (and EV Grieve reader) BaHa paid a visit to Sigmund's last month... She wrote about it at her site, With Leftovers. Briefly though, she said: "These babies are pretzels at their best."


Previously on EV Grieve:
Avenue B's pretzel logic

39 Second Avenue for lease

For some reason I can't remember anything ever being in 39 Second Avenue, on the northwest corner of Second Street. At least not in the last few years... Anyway, this prime space is now for lease...



The listings at Winick include a few inside shots...



And, apparently, proximity to the Mars Bar is a selling point...



(But no mention of the Anthology Film Archives, which is across the way...?)

At least East Village shoplifters still have good tastes in books

Still catching up with the Sunday Times, where I noticed this article about an uptick in shoplifting at bookstores...

Fiction is the most commonly poached genre at St. Mark’s Bookshop in the East Village of Manhattan; the titles that continually disappear are moved to the X-Case, safely ensconced behind the counter. This library of temptation includes books by Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo and Jack Kerouac, among others.

Never too early to start thinking about the Bowery-side pool parties

While trudging through the slushy, mucky leftovers from the storm of the century/decade/year/weekend on the Bowery, we spied the terrace with spa-pool atop 52E4, seemingly ready for action. No mere snowstorm will knock over these canopies!




The pool parties to come here at the 15 stories of condo will no doubt provide a treasure trove of blog posts some time later in the New Year. For that, we are grateful.

Help save the doomed MTA lines

On the Mark on 13th Street

A new barber shop is ready to open on the south side of 13th Street near First Avenue...




...complete with an old-school barber pole...

Happy Holidays from the Hells Angels

Yeah, they put up some lights every year on their Third Street HQ. For some reason I never took a picture of it, though...and the setting makes for a fine holiday greeting with the snow...

East Hardware closing

The signs at East Hardware at 79 Third Avenue near 11th Street say that the store is moving from its ground floor space in the Third North NYU dorm...




When I asked where they were moving, I received a blank look. Pause. "We're not. We're just leaving this location." Rent hike. I said that I was sorry to hear this. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders. "That's life."

Yes, especially here.

Polishing up the Pee Phone

Yesterday, a man was busy cleaning up the Pee Phone on Avenue A and Seventh Street...He was cleaning the glass, scrubbing off some graffiti...generally just making things cleaner...



...so that we all can see these...



More Pee Phone Photos:
Pee Phone: Still Gross Yet Sexy as Hell! (Slum Goddess)

Strange Happening Atop the Infamous "Pee" Phone at 7th Street and Avenue A Wednesday Night (Neither More Nor Less)

Pee Pee Phone On E7th St.& Ave. A (Melanie)

Great Jones Cafe back open today? (Update: No)

The signage on the door (and Web site) indicates that the Great Jones Cafe on Great Jones near the Bowery will reopen today.



A fire knocked the eatery out of commission back in mid-November. As the Web site states, call ahead first.

UPDATE: A reader noted that the Web site now says Dec. 29 for the opening date.

Noted

To plan your holidays.

As for New Year's Eve, Eater reported on Superdive's special:

For the low, low price of $75, party goers will get seven hours of endless kegs of beer, premium cocktails, Champagne, music, dancing and last but not least, kissing!

As the snow continues to melt...

...Pope John Paul II gets a new hat at St. Stanislaus Church on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Avenue A...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

10th Street and Fourth Avenue ready to fall? (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The Scouting NY guide to the City (Scouting NY)

All Patti Smith, all the time. Which is good (The New York Times)

Bloody wheelchair battle at EV shelter (Gothamist)

Jude Law defends tossing his fruit at NYU students (New York Post)

Hanging out with Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

"Monpura," a successful Bangladeshi film, opens tonight at the Theatre 80 on St. Mark's Place.

More neighborhood snow shots at BoweryBoogie and Musings by Melanie and Blah Blog Blah. And some at Coney Island. (Lexiphane)



And at Maxwell's in Hoboken ... From the press release:

A selection of oil paintings by Jon Hammer exploring the charms of a vanishing natural resource. Bars, taverns, and tap rooms, whether they are of historic vintage or more simply valued as a neighborhood hangout, are constantly under threat of extinction. Cookie cutter Irish-pub-in-a-box and sports bars proliferate with the speed and tenacity of fungal spores. This group of paintings seeks a visual fungicide for that trend in some of the best old-fashioned watering holes. Some are New York City legends, others are humbler, and a few, sadly, are already gone. Each work attempts to preserve a bit of the quiet, dusty, organic clutter that brews over time in a good saloon. They function as a two dimensional attitude adjustment hour.

John Penley's photo blog

Longtime East Village activist/photojournalist John Penley has launched a new photo blog, where you can find provocative shots from the neighborhood such as this...



Visit his site here.

For further reading on EV Grieve:
John Penley leaves his photography collection to archenemy NYU; still annoyed by NYU students