Naked Pizza now on vacation 'until after' Dec. 4

A few weeks ago we noted that Naked Pizza on East 14th Street near Third Avenue had been closed of late. Per the NP website, they were on vacation until after Nov. 20.

The gluten-free pizzeria remains closed. The latest update from their website — after Dec. 4.

Do you think they'll ever return from vacation? Do you care if they ever return...?

Owning the Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's is now $61k closer to reality

The Pudgie's-Nathan's-Arthur Treacher's action-packed combo that opened this past summer on First Avenue has been on the block... and now, it will cost even less to own the business. The price was reduced by 24.4 percent ($61k) last week ... the asking price is now $189,000.

Per the listing at Trulia:

New Franchise restaurant ...together all in one resturant for Sale. Resturant features in low competition area. Very high traffic location. 10 year lease, low low rent. High Income. Includes all fixtures, inventory and lease. Owner is relocating. Very Motivated to sell.

Now who's motivated to buy?

That laser in the Jersey sky

EVG reader Brian Teasley sends this photo along... taken tonight around 9:15 on Broadway and Eighth Street looking west... is that a laser?

"It originates from the top of a building across from (approximately) the Chelsea Piers and the light is static in the sky. The beam is pointed south and diminishes in that direction. In the photo is appears blue-ish, but it looks like it is a very high-powered green laser. It has been on for at least 30 minutes or so ... and has not been observed on any other night."

Anyone have an idea what this is...?

Updated:

Oh, a reader just said that it's a tribute to victims of Hurricane Sandy... read more here.

One of those nights...

An empty Tompkins Square Park ... photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[A hint that your car's trunk needs toning up...? Via EVG reader Mike]

Why the 4 and 5 trains have sucked of late (The Post)

Short-term AirBNB listings on the rise in Stuy Town (Escape Stuy Town)

Sweet Things bakery on Avenue C gets a new temporary kitchen (DNAinfo)

Revisionist rental history on Ludlow Street (BoweryBoogie)

Arto Lindsay performing at the New Museum Friday (The Lo-Down)

Remembering the noise rock of Harry Crews (Flaming Pablum)

Wildlife extravaganza in Tompkins Square Park (The Gog Log)

A map of the oldest NYC cocktail bars (Eater)

A West 18th Street now and then (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

The great Sunny's in Red Hook needs help (Grub Street)

And Gothamist posted a whole bunch of videos from the Ritz (Webster Hall) from the 1980s and 1990s... like this U2 clip from 1980 ...

[Updated] Longtime favorite Natori closing for good Friday on St. Mark's Place

[Photo via The Village Voice]

Sad news via the EVG tipline... a reader passes along word that Natori, the hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant at 58 St. Mark's Place, will close on Friday night. The tipster understands that the owner has to return to Japan for family reasons. A Natori employee confirmed the closing as well.

Hirokazu Takaya opened Natori here in the late 1980s ... among other reasons, the place was well-known for its generous early-bird specials. Last year, The Voice named it as a "Best of" in the Japanese — Sushi category.

Updated:
Back on Nov. 26, a worker confirmed that Natori was closing. However, Natori remains open for now ... we'll see if we can get an update on what's happening here. Anyway, good news for now...

Retail space that included Soho Billiards is up for grabs on East Houston Street

Late last month, EVG regular Spike noted that 22-year-old Soho Billiards on East Houston and Mulberry had closed... workers cleared out the space two weeks ago, as BoweryBoogie reported.

And the for lease signs promptly went up...

The listing (PDF) is now online at CBRE... and it turns out that more than just the former Soho Billiards home is available – the whole block between Mulberry and Mott on the north side of East Houston is up for grabs...

Which just might signal the end for the dry cleaners and Subway that share the building... This is prime real estate, as the listing points out, adjacent to the recently unveiled Bleecker Street Subway Transfer and retail neighbors like Adidas, Rag N Bone, REI, Hollister, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel and John Varvatos. Terms of lease aren't disclosed.

Blackbird is now Dream Baby on Avenue B

Blackbird is the new bar that opened in the former Lakeside Lounge space in August ...

Well — say goodbye to the Blackbird. But just the name!

Maria Devitt, one of the bar's partners, explained that [a restaurant group in Chicago] is giving us a hard time about [the name] and we don't have the money to fight with them."

So. They need a new name. Per Devitt: "We are now named Dream Baby in honor of two of my favorite songs — the Roy Orbison classic and also 'Dream Baby Dream' by Suicide. Nothing else has changed except the pretty new lights in the back bar."

Suicide? Dream Baby Dream? Don't mind if we do...



Previously.

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) opens Dec. 8

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) will open its doors to the public on Saturday, December 8 at 3pm following a year’s effort by community members and the museum’s all-volunteer staff. This museum and archive of urban activism is itself the latest instance of the collaborative spirit of New York City’s East Village.

Originally slated to open in mid-November, MoRUS was forced to push back its grand opening date due to flood damage following Hurricane Sandy. In the days following the storm, MoRUS created a cell phone charging station for the community using a bike generator lent to the museum by environmental group Time’s Up! Volunteers are now in the process of restoring the damaged basement. MoRUS is on track to open on December 8.

Saturday’s afternoon events include a chain-cutting ceremony, museum and community garden tours, slideshows, and presentations by community organizers. The grand opening party starts at 8 pm and will feature food, drinks, and music, including an appearance by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, East Village’s own radical marching band.

Co-founded in 2011 by Bill Di Paola, director and founder of environmental organization Time’s Up!, and Time’s Up! volunteer Laurie Mittelmann, MoRUS is located in the building also known as C-Squat, a former squat that is part of the very history the museum aims to preserve. C-Squat is now in the process of becoming a low-income housing cooperative, and its residents are among those who helped build the
museum.

MoRUS will share the story of the East Village’s radical evolution through three main programs: walking tours of the neighborhood’s community gardens, squats, and sites of social change; photograph, video and article exhibits; and events featuring local artists, activists, and skill share workshops.

Previously.

[Flyer by Eric Drooker via the MoRUS Facebook page]

What's going on with the Yogurt Station?

Back in March, a reader wondered what was going on at the Yogurt Station on St. Mark's Place ... the place had been closed, and the widows had paper over them. Turns out that they were just remodeling.

Anyway. Trashbags now adorn the windows. For how long, I don't know. Do you? Closed for the FroYo season? More remodeling? Yesterday, we spotted someone sleeping on the couch left out front...

[Bobby Williams]

Tonight under the sidewalk bridge on 14th and A

In front of the former Stuyvesant Grocery on the southeast corner. Photo by Crazy Eddie.

The road to hell is paved

Avenue B near East 12th Street this afternoon. Headline and photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Ave C.

A Black Friday improv gag on First Avenue

On Friday (Black Friday!), the folks at Improv Everywhere, a NYC-based "prank collective," had some 100 people camp out in front of the 99-cent store on First Avenue next to the Rite Aid.

The group even had someone pretend to be an NBC News reporter interviewing people waiting in line...

The store's proprietor arrived at 9 and figured the mob was for Rite Aid... then someone in line told him that it was for the 99-cent store...

When the store opened, the shopping began...

The participants did come in a few at a time and buy stuff... You can read the entire recap at the Improv Everywhere website.

Eventually the Improv leader told the store owner about the gag. "He was really excited about the whole thing and definitely appreciated the business, even if it didn’t make total sense to him why it had happened."

The Improv members also donated some of the purchases to an unnamed local charity.



[All photos via the Improv Everywhere website]

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Saturday afternoon outside McSorley's via Bobby Williams]

An East Village pizza tour with Josh Ozersky (YouTube ... via Eater)

More about C-Squat's work post-Sandy (The Villager)

Anthropologie progress report on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Major fire at Sarge's Delicatessen on Third Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Norfolk Street penthouse sets post-recession price record on the Lower East Side (The Lo-Down)

Nom Wah Tea Parlor's expansion (Grub Street)

And Dave on 7th notes the arrival late last week of three new trees along a treeless stretch of East Seventh Street leading to Avenue B...

Why is 41 Cooper Square dented?

For some reason, I was standing around Cooper Union's 41 Cooper Square the other day. I was on the east side of the building that faces Shevchenko Place/Hall Place when I looked up and... well. Is that a dent?

There are perforated panels and there are dents. Can't say for sure how long that it has been this way. I couldn't find a good photo of this... here's a dent-free image via Google dated August 2011...

Anyway. Any ideas what may have caused this?

Updated 8:14

In an email, an EVG regular figures the building is being used for stealth intergalactic missions, and a piece of space junk dinged the building on a return trip. Seems plausible.

Where's the uproar over the construction noise at 185 Avenue B?

A few weeks ago, we pointed out the awful noise coming from the construction site at 185-193 Avenue B... where workers are putting in the foundation for the new apartment complex at East 12th Street.

And the assualt continues... per a resident adjacent to the space:

That construction at Ave B and 12th has become the bane of the neighborhood. The vibrations and shaking from it are endangering the old buildings nearby. The noise is unbearable. Why isn't there an uproar in protest from the local residents and merchants? Has the EV become a neighborhood of sheep?

Also per the resident..

I'm surprised the local owners aren't up in arms. The vibrations could wreck their buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Inside the Charles

Former landmark countercultural theater now for rent on Avenue B

7-story building in the works to replace former countercultural theater/church on Avenue B

Stogo has closed

[Last night]

The New York Times had more on Stogo's closure... the vegan ice cream store closed for good last night after some four years in business.

Stogo, which is on Second Avenue, couldn’t pay October’s rent when it came due, but the month brought higher-than-expected sales. “We were starting to say, ‘O.K., we can probably pay this and that,’” [co-owner Junie] Ishimori said. “Then Sandy hit.”

Stogo lost power for days. Its ice cream spoiled, and even when power returned, it couldn’t reopen until it had replenished its stock. Ms. Ishimori estimated the store lost $6,000 in inventory and $6,000 in sales. “That’s a make-it-or-break-it number,” she said.

Stogo is now two months behind on rent. A spokeswoman for Beach Lane Management, which owns the building, declined to comment.

Ms. Ishimori had planned fund-raisers to finance a move to a cheaper location. But after the storm, she said, “it just felt frivolous asking people for money when people were homeless.”

DNAinfo's Serena Solomon first reported on the closure this past Wednesday. Our post to that link prompted 28 comments, among them:

Adam K. said...
@Price is no object: A prospective-tenant strike on pricey commercial rents wouldn't force down rent prices; it would create a lot of empty storefronts, which aren't good for anybody.

Not all new neighborhood businesses are started by suckers for suckers. And not all (though surely some) businesses that close are forced out by their landlords in bids to trade them for deeper-pocketed tenants. Most businesses, sadly, will peter out on their own eventually.

I have a 2+ year old retail business in the neighborhood, and yes, my business would be stronger if my rent were lower. All the more reason that I should feel bummed that some of my neighbors might be boycotting it for no better reason than the fact that another (completely different) business used to have the same address.

Want to hang on to dwindling retail diversity in the neighborhood? Sick of chain stores, strip mall eateries, and banks? Me too. So along with your favorite neighborhood standbys, try dropping in every now and then on some small new businesses that are trying to make it in a tougher environment than ever.

Previously.

2 East Village buildings part of $73 million deal

Catching up on this news release (PDF) via Massey Knakal from last week ... "11 prime multifamily walkup apartment buildings located on the Upper East Side and the East and West Village, with an additional 40-unit property located in downtown Brooklyn, was sold in an all-cash transaction valued at $73,000,000."

The two units here are 438-440 E. 13th St. ...

... and 104 E. Seventh St. at Avenue C (a building that workers have been cleaning up in recent months...)

The Real Deal had more details on the transaction... Stone Street Properties, headed by Jeffrey Kaye and Robert Morgenstern, reportedly bought the properties from "longtime Manhattan landlord Robert Koppelman."

Per The Real Deal: "Stone Street manages its properties in-house, aiming to add value by reconfiguring and renovating apartments." Massey Knakal's news release noted that "roughly 72 percent of the units are rent regulated with average monthly rents considerably below market."

Have any tips about the situation here in these two East Village buildings? Please send them our way via the EV Grieve email

East Village Thai back open today

East Village Thai — named one of the best Thai places in NYC by the Daily News in September — closed in late September because of a gas problem...

[Sept. 30]

Now, nearly two months of gas drama later ... East Village Thai here at 32 E. Seventh St. between Second Avenue and Cooper Square is reopening today, per the sign on the gate.

Check out their menu here.

Week in Grieview

[Today in Tompkins Square Park... photo by Bobby Williams]

A new bike for Jacqueline (Tuesday)

A 'fearless' break-in attempt (Saturday)

A note about the 'college frat behavior' in an Avenue C apartment building (Tuesday, 55 comments)

Meet Cosmo Yannis (Wednesday)

East 11th Street lot will be home to the Mark Spink Apartments (Monday)

First Christmas tree for Kita the Wonder Dog of East 10th Street (Friday)

Incoming 7-Eleven on Avenue A not so popular (Friday)

Remembering the turkey of El Jardín del Paraíso (Thursday)

Rolf's annual holiday wonderland (Wednesday)

The bells of St. Brigid's (Monday ... Friday)