New wave!

An ad from Wednesday's Post.



The new wave of markerting...?

And previously.

Landmark yes, condos no

The Villager this week reports that: The Community Board 3 Landmarks Committee decided last week to continue efforts to have the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the East Village designated as a city landmark and to help locate funding for the financially troubled church.

The church, built in 1891, is located at 59 E.Second St. And those plans to add eight residential stories to its current 60-foot height have been squashed.

Save the date/Reminder

For more information, head over to Kirby's at Colonnade Row. And you can thank him for helping put this together.

For further reading:
The Vanishing City (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

The future of Union Square?

Esquared notes that Union Square could become a retail ghost town. Indeed. I see a return to the days when roller-skate-wearing gangs decked out in menacing rugby shirts and denim overalls -- fresh from looting an Old Navy, perhaps? -- wreak havoc in and around Union Square. Just like the old days.



Yeah, laugh now.

Credible-enough sources: The Holland Bar is reopening (soon, probably, too)

Walked by the now-closed Holland Bar on Ninth Avenue yesterday. Where did we leave off? Quick back-story: Jeremiah reported in November (on Election Day!) that the Holland was closing, possibly for good. Then came some follow-up news from Brooks at Lost City that the place was just getting a facelift...I happened by the place myself Nov. 14 and found the place suspiciously gutted.

So! Yesterday!



There is some activity going on inside...Not much to see. Some sawhorses. A few ladders. Power tools. A space heater. No furniture. No bar. Nothing. But!



The sign is still on the wall. And! The fellow at East West Grocery right next door emphatically told me the Hollard was reopening -- "in two weeks." Really? "Yes, it is reopening." After that, I stood out front and waited for the lone construction worker inside to emerge from behind the half-closed gate. The conversation went something like this:

Is the bar reopening?

"Yes."

Do you know when it will reopen?

"No."

Maybe in two weeks?

[Nervous laughter] "I don't know."

Looks like you still have a lot of work to do.

[Nervous laughter]

In any event, seems like a good sign that the, uh, Bar sign is still outside...and the neon Holland is still inside. Shall we all go back in two weeks?

Here's a little taste of the old Holland and Ernie the bartender from the Times, circa August 1987:

[I]nside the Holland Bar, they find small legends hanging like the smoke in the stale blue air.

Ronnie loved his unattainable Laura so much that he played "Tell Laura I Love Her" time after time after time -- $15 worth a night -- until, by resounding vote of the paying customers, the tune was banned from the jukebox forever.

Big Pete, 6 foot 6 inches and 400 pounds, downed 72 White Castles, on Aug. 24, 1983, according to a faded sign on the wall.

Larry the meatman used to set up shop and sell steaks at the bar until he forgot to tip Ernie once too often.

Ernie once talked a drag queen into dressing up as a clown and dancing on the street. It's not clear whether it was to attract business or drive it away.

Assembled on the bar stools the other day were a loquacious blond hooker; a cadre of postal workers from the post office across the street, a radio executive in a conservative suit; a Panamanian immigrant nursing his 15th cerveza, and Mario celebrating his release from jail with crisp white wine.

There was also a 53-year-old man who shoplifts to order -- just tell him what you need and get a 50 percent discount, "Bras, panties, whatever you want."

A few stools down, a tourist from Honolulu was back for his third day. "I just sort of stumbled in," he said.

[Holland Bar sign photo via Shanna Ravindra, New York magazine]

Oh, España en Llamas, I didn't get to say goodbye

On my way back from the Holland, I turned left on 36th Street off Ninth Avenue. I guess I didn't realize this place had closed. Hadn't been inside España en Llamas in a few years. I usually stuck with the Holland or the Bellevue in these parts. Too bad. I liked this place. Last time I was there, a drunken fellow tried to pick a fight with me for no reason. A few beers later, he had his arm around me. Friends, for no reason.

New York Press did a proper piece on the place back in May 2006. (No byline on it -- Joshua Bernstein's work? Updated: Yes, Josh wrote this...had confirmation.) This is about as accurate as you can be in describing the place:

At the western end, there's a signless storefront with a door falling off its hinge. It's beyond nondescript, a spot that could house a numbers hall or an ersatz squat. The storefront's smudged window, though, contains the key clue: a neon Budweiser sign nearly as old as neon.

“That's the type of bar where you can disappear,” a stranger said one day, motioning to the sign.

At the time, my roommate was ambling behind said gentleman. Words piqued ears, and I was later relayed the story.

“No one will ever find you,” he said. “It's like falling off the face of the earth.”

And:

In the darkened rear room, which is stocked with mountains of Budweiser cases, construction workers gather 'round a video-poker machine. A middle-aged couple sits beside them, tongue-kissing. Are they adulterers? Who knows. Who will find out?

Hmm. Damn. Hate to see places like this go. Oh, it did seem as if something was happening inside, like some construction, though I didn't spot any permits. Never struck me as the place that would close for renovations, though.

There's likely a perfectly good reason why someone threw away a straw bale

Avenue B at Third Street.

Instant Bowery

From the Times. Check out Concrete Jumble: Instant Bowery, which is the third episode in Gary Leib's series of animations about the history of New York City.

Behind the scenes: The Panic in Needle Park

The Panic in Needle Park gets a run at the Film Forum starting Jan. 30. This week's Time Out talks with a few members of the cast and crew about the making of the 1971 smack classic. (No Al Pacino, though. Busy making 89 Minutes?)

Here's the trailer for the film:

The Chocolate Bar heads back to the West Village...which means the House of Cards & Curiosities is closing

The Observer follows up on my post that The Chocolate Bar shut down its East Seventh Street location rather suddenly last week. They spoke with owner Alison Nelson.

“More of our customers came to the Bendel’s location for Christmas than went to the East Village,” she said. “And I think a lot of it is because it’s freezing cold outside and nobody wants to walk however many blocks from the trains or take two buses where it’s easier to hop off the F at Sixth Avenue and — boom! — you’re right inside Henri Bendel.” [EV Grieve editor's note: Oh, the temptation to make a comment about this...]
Yet, her bittersweet saga also took a rather tasty twist.
“When we last saw each other in April, I was freaking out because I couldn’t find rent in the West Village for anything that was affordable,” said Ms. Nelson, who reluctantly shuttered her original Chocolate Bar location at 48 Eighth Avenue last spring after finding larger, less expensive digs across town. “And the weirdest thing happened. …”
Cue international economic crisis!
Eight months after abandoning her beloved but overpriced West Village, Ms. Nelson is now returning to the very same street—“never mind the same neighborhood!” she said. “Literally, diagonally across the street from where it all started and personally where I feel Chocolate Bar belongs … The West Village, for me, is home.”
Ms. Nelson has signed a new lease at 23 Eighth Avenue, taking over the current House of Cards & Curiosities, whose longtime operator is planning to retire.

Oh, so I guess this mans that nice little mom-and-pop shop House of Cards & Curiosities is closing.



[Image via Yelp]

Power to the renter?

From today's Wall Street Journal:

As the housing downturn deepens, rental rates are falling in many major U.S. cities, including New York and Los Angeles, and tenants are finding they have greater leeway to renegotiate their leases.

Fear of losing a good tenant is often enough to make landlords reconsider their rent. Jenna Carpenter, a 28-year-old living in a $2,000-per-month one-bedroom apartment on New York's Lower East Side, didn't plan to renegotiate her contract. But once she told her landlord she didn't plan to renew her lease in March, he offered to lower her rent. They are now negotiating a cut of between $300 and $400 a month.

Looking at the first retailer coming to Extra Place, that "charming little East Village Street"

Back in October, The Feed blog breathlessly announced that Bespoke Chocolates would be opening its first retail outlet in November...right in Extra Place, the infamous alleyway behind the former CBGB space where you can now buy $250 vintage Cheap Trick T-shirts. Anyway! So Bespoke would be the first shop in Extra Place, which is maybe now owned by the city or nearby condos Avalon Bowery Place...So, to torture ourselves, we took a look the other day to see what was what with this space. As far as we knew, nothing had opened yet...



Yes, something is happening behind that Bespoke wrapping, officially at 6 Extra Place. Which the Bespoke Web site describes as a "charming little East Village street."



According to the Bespoke Web site, they'll be opening after the New Year. Which narrows it down to 365 days.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Extra Place gets its first tenant...And it's dessert (shocker!)

Giving Extra Place the warm, comfortable feel of suburbia

Looking at Extra Place


PS: Here's what Extra Place looked like in 1978 (via Forgotten New York)

Crying all the way to the bank?

Speaking of Avalon Bowery Place, a passerby added a little detail to their condoganda...

That confusing new sign at the Mars Bar

A tipster submitted a shot of the newsish hand-painted sign at Mars Bar to Curbed last evening...Noticed it myself on the way to Extra Place and snapped a few photos...Wasn't sure what to make of it, either...



These days, I can't help but get a bad feeling...Still, I think it's open to interpretation...as in, after you've been to the Mars Bar, what else compares? Or something.



For further reading:
Mars Bar (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Old bars meet luxe condos (Village Voice)

Pandering to hipsters: This ad must have been a hoot back during the initial pitch

Spotted on Third Avenue near 11th Street. I mean, if you're in this target demographic, are you supposed to find this cute? "Oh, ha ha, they totally get me. When I have to move, I'm totally calling these guys!" Meanwhile, why would this appeal to anyone else in the rest of the population?



And why is it so Brooklyn specific? What if you want to move from, say, the Lower East Side to Chelsea?




Two uses of ironic! T-shirts and facial hair!



Resolve daddy issues? And ensure speedy blogging in your new co-op/loft/art space? Um, OK. Man, they nailed us!

Check out BoweryBoogie's take on this annoying campaign.

New promo shots for Madonna

According to The Superficial: "It's like she walked on set and asked to look like Marilyn Manson, but less appealing to the eye. That said, this can't be selling CDs. Unless they come with razor blades, in which case, I'll take two."

Speaking of the former East Village resident...in case you missed this over the weekend... back in 1979, when Madonna was a struggling artist or dancer or something in NYC, she posed nude for $25. Now that photographer, Lee Friedlander, has the shot up for grabs at Christie's. It's expected to fetch $10,000 to $15,000, unless A-rod gets in on the bidding. (Christie's; maybe NSFW depending on where you work)

What's new on East Ninth Street?

Near Avenue A.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles...a new president takes office

The Los Angeles Times accidentally called our new president Barack H. Hussein in a post on the full text of Obama's inaugural speech...

And readers were nice about it, really.

You might want to fix the final word of this piece ... he is President Obama, not President Hussein.

Posted by: Mike | January 20, 2009 at 09:52 AM

Barack H. Hussein - a typo or a fruedian slip?

Posted by: flatop | January 20, 2009 at 09:53 AM

I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but why does it say that the speech was authored by "Barack H. Hussein"? I'm relatively sure the word "Obama" should be in there somewhere.

Posted by: shadowskillet14 | January 20, 2009 at 10:02 AM

Thanks to those astute readers who pointed out an error in Barack Obama's name as it's written at the end of his inaugural address. We've since corrected the error.

New and now

Avenue A near East Seventh Street.

Wait till 2012!

Reliving the ugh.