3 things about Narcissa, the new restaurant at the Standard East Village

[EVG file photo of Café Standard]

The Standard East Village is ready to debut its new restaurant.

Florence Fabricant has a quickie preview of it at the Times.

• The place is called Narcissa, named for a cow on hotel operator André Balazs’s upstate farm, Locusts-on-Hudson near Rhinebeck.

• The place will serve "as much produce as possible" from said farm, Locusts-on-Hudson.

• The place "will convey a breezy informality that suits the neighborhood," Ms. Fabricant writes.

While "breezy informality" sounds nice, it also sounds like a different place than what the Help Wanted ad for the restaurant described.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE IS:
• Charismatic and possesses natural ability to engage and serve diverse guests and high-profile clientele
• Confident and proactive without being overbearing.
• Able to thrive in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
• A clear thinker in high pressure situations.
• A background with a 'farm-to-table', product driven menu.
• Conveys a personal sense of style and sophistication.
• Comfortable interacting with high-profile guests in fashionable & socially dynamic environments.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Big changes in the works for the Standard East Village lobby, outdoor space; Café on the Bowery anyone?

What it takes to work at the Standard East Village's 'highly anticipated' new restaurant

It's officially Rabbit Season now at the IBM Watson Building

The 14-foot red rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons is now up and ready to leak pellets greet visitors to the IBM Watson Building at 51 Astor Place…



It was impressive enough to cause people to stop and photograph it during a snowstorm yesterday. (Present company included.)



Word is the thing weighs 6,600 pounds.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Meanwhile at the IBM Watson building, the Jeff Koons rabbit sculpture has arrived for the lobby

Silent night, ungodly cold night

A few scenes from Winter Storm Janus (Janus? Really Weather Channel?) last evening... courtesy of Bobby Williams...

It will get worse before it will get colder

First Avenue and East Seventh Street tonight.

Photo by Raquel Shapira.

There is currently no wait to play ping-pong now in Tompkins Square Park

Just FYI.

Photo by Derek Berg

$1 million bail set for driver who crashed into East Village Farm and Grocery; prosecutors mull homicide charges

[Fox News]

Queens resident Shaun Martin, who was allegedly drunk and high on PCP when he plowed his car into East Village Farm and Grocery last June, was ordered held on a $1 million bail today as the District Attorney's office weighs potential homicide charges, the Daily News reports.

Akkas Ali, the florist at the corner store on Second Avenue who was critically injured in the crash, died on Jan. 1. According to Serena Solomon at DNAinfo, Ali, 63, went into cardiac arrest when a tracheostomy tube that he needed to help him breathe because of his injuries became lodged in his throat.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance originally charged Martin last summer with two counts of first degree vehicular assault, two counts of felony assault with serious injury, a felony count of operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs, felony driving while ability impaired, and felony DWAI by drugs and alcohol.

According to the Daily News, while free on bail in early December, police arrested the 32-year-old Martin for threatening to shoot someone while possessing cocaine outside a club in East Elmhurst.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Car smashes into East Village Farm & Grocery on Second Avenue; 6 reported injured

Crowdsourcing campaign for injured East Village Farm and Grocery worker raises nearly $19,000

Report: Injured East Village Farm and Grocery florist has lost his memory, use of his voice

[Updated] RIP Akkas Ali

Snowy afternoon grifter alert

EVG reader the East 2nd Street Cadillac w/the tiger in it guy shares the following with us

The guy who has been written about numerous times on E.V. Grieve is making the rounds this afternoon. I chased him off East 2nd St. between 1st Ave & Ave A (close to the Taco stand) around 1 PM today as an unwitting lady was about to give him money.

He's the white guy who approaches folks on the street and his M.O. is usually something about his wife and kids being locked out of their car. He says he'll give you his driver's license or car keys or cell phone (probably all stolen items) for you to hold as collateral to prove that he's honest and will pay you back. Then he asks for anywhere from $10 to $50 or more.

Today he's saying that his car is stuck in the snow. He's in his 30's or 40's, slightly balding, about 5'9", 160 lbs with dark beady junkie eyes.

He is getting increasingly aggressive — especially with women — I've had female friends say that he's grabbed their arm or really stepped into their personal space or insisted that they come with him to his car.

He scares easily so stand up to the little punk.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East Village grifter alert: Beware the broken vodka-bottle scam!

East Village grifter alert: Beware the man with the sob story who offers you a wedding ring as collateral

Watson still hasn't learned how to shovel snow

Oh! Just a scene this afternoon outside the IBM Watson building (formerly known as 51 Astor Place) ... At least Ken Jennings can push a shovel.

Photo by Derek Berg

New restaurant getting their 'schnitz together' at the former Something Sweet space

Renovations are happening at the former Something Sweet bakery on First Avenue and East 11th Street… where Schnitz, which serves old-fashioned schnitzel sandwiches with unconventional toppings at Smorgasburg in Williamsburg and Dumbo, is opening its first proper restaurant...

Schnitz will serve sandwiches, soups and salads from its East Village location. (You can find their menu here.)

There's also a sign announcing their arrival…


[Photo by Blue Glass]

From the look of things, though, there is plenty of work left today before you can have your schnitzel.



Something Sweet, the family-owned bakery, closed in July 2012.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Smorgasburg favorites Schnitz planning restaurant at former Something Sweet on First Avenue

Something Sweet still looking for help to revive its beloved business

Something Sweet space for rent on First Avenue

Maria's Cafe is leaving the East Village for West Harlem

We recently heard that Maria's Cafe was leaving her sliver of a food stand on East Third Street and Avenue C… Our source said that she would be subleasing space from a restaurant on Broadway around East 10th Street… We had it wrong. Well, the Broadway part is correct … however, it's Broadway and 131st Street in West Harlem.

As we understand it, there just wasn't enough business anymore on this corner, where nearby storefronts have been boarded up … the building on the corner is in disrepair, and will eventually be demolished… Word is the buildings from 26 Avenue C to the corner will eventually be razed for housing of some sort…



Plans were filed with the city in July 2005 for a new 6-floor residential building here … The city disapproved the plans in May 2006, and nothing more happened with the project.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Maria's Cafe is leaving the corner of 3rd and C

Concern for 32 Avenue C

Digging in for the new dorm on Cooper Square

Just looking, via the handy blogger portals on the plywood, at the activity in the pit at 200 E. Sixth St. and Cooper Square, where a 13-story dorm for Marymount Manhattan College will rise …



Can't be any fun living adjacent to this site… we could hear the noise from a block away…

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

City OKs 13-floor dorm for Cooper Square

Updated: Here's what the newest East Village dorm will look like

2 new wine shops for First Avenue

Two new wine shops are coming soon to First Avenue… There's Urban Wine & Spirits at 45 First Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street… in the former beloved We Buy Gold & Diamond storefront…



There is a web address, though it doesn't appear to be active yet…

Then! Up the Avenue between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street … someone is taking over the former Tinto Fino space…



We don't know anything about this shop just yet..

Asbestos abatement underway at the former Salvation Army's East Village Residence

Just a quick follow-up to our post from last Wednesday about the pending demolition of the Salvation Army's former East Village Residence on the Bowery at East Third Street.

For starters, the asbestos abatement has apparently commenced here ahead of ripping down the building to make way for a 13-story mixed-use residential development.

As for that development, BoweryBoogie points out an intriguing (and pretty fucked-up) possibility … designer Giauco Lolli-Ghetti of Urban Muse bought the space for $19 million … As BoweryBoogie noted, Lolli-Ghetti has a 2009 patent on a "vertical integrated parking system" that connects each condo with a private parking space on the same floor.

Same-floor parking? Puts that bike storage room in the basement to shame.

Meanwhile, until No. 347 comes down, the party continues on the corner…



Previously on EV Grieve:
Whatever happened to that really ugly hotel planned for the Bowery?

Permits filed to demolish former Salvation Army residence on the Bowery

The Salvation Army's former East Village Residence will be demolished on the Bowery

Claim: 347 Bowery will be home to a 13-story mixed-use residential development

So long to the 'Girls' mural of East 12th Street

The mural showcasing the season premiere of "Girls" went up in the middle of last month on East 12th Street and Avenue A... outside Table 12 … And it was sorta lamely tagged a little later …

And now… a moment of silence … as EVG reader paddy523 notes… the mural is gone…



But the mural lives on happily whatever after… on our Vine account…