Coyote Ugly is back open

As you may know, the DOH shuttered Coyote Ugly last week ... and according to saloon founder Liliana Lovell, they're back open today:

Hot damn the NY bar is back open!! 153 1st ave NYC ( between 9th and 10th) I am sure tonight will be crazy at the bar. So happy

And here's more on the background from Lil:

Last Tuesday the NY bar scored a 90 on the surprise inspection. 2 days later on Thursday we were reinspected and scored a 16 and they did not reopen us. Over the weekend we put in a new basement floor repainted the whole bar, revamped the sods systems. Jacqui is at the health department now trying to reschedule another inspection. I have been making calls to find out what score we need to reopen. We cut 74 points in less then 48 hours. Ok positive energy. No worries. I actually downloaded a tibetan positivity chant. I lit candles and sang the chant.
Also officially have pneumonia. I went to the doctor yesterday. I swear that all the dental problems started some bad mojo.

Image via.

Mars Bar and Lit Lounge serve as backdrop for Madonna's clothing line

WWD notes that Kelly Osbourne, the new face for Madonna's tween line Material Girl, shot the campaign last month at Mars Bar and Lit Lounge. Osbourne hung out there with Lourdes Leon, who runs Material Girl with her mom. Need a subscription apparently to access the WWD piece... was told it is well worth the time reading...

Via Jezebel. Image via WWD.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

Good question: Will Any SPURA Residents Be Able to Afford Future SPURA? (Curbed)

LES Heritage Film Series explores the old Bowery (The Lo-Down)

Chinatown Fair on the ropes (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

This is the end: Swarovski-Encrusted Ugg Boots Feature New York City Skyline (Runnin' Scared)

When Freeman Alley was a breadline (Ephemeral New York)

NYPD Stop and Frisks Reach Record High in 2010 (Gothamist)

Shots of the new TATS CRU mural on Second Street and Avenue A (The Late Adopter)

Why the owner of Via Della Pace on East Seventh Street is bummed about the Carmelo Anthony deal (The Times)

And from EV Grieve readers Samo ... spotted on Stanton and Norfolk ...

BoweryBoogie has more on what this is about...

Really big 5 Napkin Burger still coming to 14th and 3rd; realtor disses Robin Raj

Back in October, Patrick Hedlund at DNAinfo reported that a 5 Napkin Burger was opening on the southwest corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue — the former home of Robin Raj, duh. We kind of wondered what happened with that. The site has been rather quiet of late.

The Observer has a follow-up today. Per the Observer:

The restaurant includes 3,570 square feet of ground-floor space, as well as a full basement. "This prime corner has laid fallow for the past five years. 5 Napkin Burger will undertake a full reconstruction of the building and turn it into a wonderful gem," said Winick Realty Group's Tatiana Jung-Voevodina, who repped the tenant.

Fallow!? Robin Raj moved out just two years ago!

Anyway! 5 Napkins is expected to open in April.

'Nobody knows you until you’re dead'

More details continue to emerge about Grace Farrell, the 35-year-old homeless woman who a friend found dead under the scaffolding at St. Brigid's early Sunday morning.

Bob Arihood first reported that a woman died of a drug overdose in Tompkins Square Park last Thursday. Her name was Danielle. According to the Times today, there's a connection between Danielle and Grace. English, a mutual friend of the women, told the Times that Grace helped give Danielle CPR while an ambulance was arriving.

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that results from Grace's autopsy had not been released.

As the Times noted, "if her death turns out to be from the cold, then she would be the first person to freeze to death on the city streets this winter, according to the office of the city’s chief medical examiner."

That's officially. Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless told the Times that, given how brutal this winter has been, "it’s hard to know exactly how many people might have died from hypothermia, or cold-related causes."

Meanwhile, as English said to the Times: "Nobody knows you until you’re dead. That's the God's honest truth."

The roof at 35 Cooper Square is probably rotting now; and will work start up again today?

We've been following the drama at 35 Cooper Square, of course... There are currently Stop Work Orders on the building... And the workers have left... and no one decided to throw a tarp over the 186-year-old-roof to protect it from the winter elements...

In fact, several people have called the DOB to complain about this... Three people filed complaints about the holes in the roof/lack of a tarp this past Friday.

Not that any of this may matter: A tipster claims that demolition work will resume today; that the issue involving the original Stop Work Order has been resolved.

The Vanessa's Effect: The recession is over!

Since the fall of 2008, Vanessa's, the dumpling house on East 14th Street near Third Avenue, has advertised a recession special.



We figured when that sign came down, it would be Party Time again!

Well, light those cigars, fellas! No more "recession special!" (WOO!)

One Vanessa's insider told me that the dumpling patrons have a risk tolerance that is lower or unchanged compared to one year ago — even with the recent equity market rally. "That doesn’t mean all patrons are cashing in stocks, and hunkering down with bonds," the insider explained.

Indeed.

Meanwhile — Buns All Day for everyone!

March Madness! Takers for the former Kurve, Tonda and Aces and Eights spaces; music returning to old Mo Pitkin's?

Here we go with the docket for the SLA & DCA Licensing Committee, Monday, March 14 at 6:30 pm — JASA/Green Residence - 200 East 5th Street at Bowery



And here are some items of interest from the agenda (the whole shebang is here):

• Review of 2010 goals and accomplishments/committee goals for 2011

• Resolution to SLA regarding undue burden on Community Boards of waivers for 30-renewal notices, and undue burden to businesses of penalty of closing businesses if renewal is late.

Applications within Resolution Areas

• Table 12 (188 Ave A Take Out Food Corp), 188 Ave A (wb)

Oh boy ... this didn't go so well last time... in September...

• Coyi Café, 42 Ave B (wb)

• 34 Avenue A, corp to be formed, (Aces & Eights) (op)

CB3 said No to Jevan Damadian, the owner of the former Aces and Eights space, during the November meeting. He was looking to open a tapas bar ... with no beer pong. The rumors have a former associate of Phil Hartman's at the Two Boots empire opening a music venue here. A return to its previous Mo Pitkin's roots?

Sidewalk Café Applications

• Café Cortadito (Café Cortadito LLC), 210 E 3rd St

The Cuban eatery near Avenue B is looking for some sidewalk tables...

• A&D Wine Corp, (Wine Bar), 65 2nd Ave (alt/increase number of tables and chairs from 6 tables and 12 chairs to 10 tables and 22 chairs)

• 157 Brick Oven LLC (Plum Pizzeria), 157 2nd Ave

Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades

• 4AB LLC (Tonda), 235 E 4th St (tran/op)

A-ha! All this explains the crazy non-hours of operation of late.

• Le Cave LLC, 64 E 1st St (alt/op/correction of original application)

Hey now! During January's meeting, one of the owners of LaVie, the hookah-flavored club at 64 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, called Susan Stetzer a "racist." How can they top that?

• Woody's (Prince 28 LLC), 31 2nd Ave (alt/op/adding second bar upstairs and other work)

• Sa Aming Nayon LLC, (Wai Café) 201 1st Ave (wb)

Something amiss with the Wai? Cafe?

• 133 Essex Restaurant LLC, (Mason Dixon) 133 Essex St (op)

Maybe they're just moving their mechanical bull?

New Liquor License Applications

• Lucky's Famous Burgers (Lucky Burger Houston LLC), 147 E Houston St (b)

BoweryBoogie has been covering the return of Lucky Burger to the East Village.

• Corp to be formed, (Kurve) 87 2nd Ave (op)

Corpse to be formed? We're curious to see what happens with the old Kurve/Rhong-Tiam space.

• Aegis Atlantic LLC (Peet’s Coffee/Preserve 24), 175 E. Houston St.(op)

Interesting... A Peet's Coffee & Tea shop is slated to take over this space on Houston at Allen ... this space that includes the Foam & Futon Center has been on the market ... And maybe Peet's will change the name from coffee and tea to beer and whiskey... ?

Spotted at 35 Cooper Square

Not sure if this was leftover from last night's vigil ... [Photo by RyanAvenueA]

'Keep 35 alive'

A few more photos from this evening's vigil at 35 Cooper Square... courtesy of Lisa R. Estimates put some 60 people in attendance, including Pete Hamill ... There were chants of "Keep 35 alive!" And some twits with yoga mats drifted by as if the group wasn't even there ...

Previously.

At the vigil for 35 Cooper Square

Photos by EV Grieve contributor Bobby Williams. More later...

Vigil for 35 Cooper Square @5:30

Grace Farrell, 35

The Daily News has more on Grace, the homeless woman found dead on Avenue B Sunday morning:

She came from Ireland half a life ago, a blue-eyed 17-year-old determined to make a splash in New York's art scene with her colorful portraits and vivid landscapes.

On Sunday morning — years after her life started to go bad in a haze of alcohol and a lousy marriage — Grace Farrell, 35, was found dead on the sidewalk in front of St. Brigid's Church on Avenue B in the East Village.

Her body was ice-cold from sleeping one too many nights on the street.

She spent her last night alive on a bed of cardboard in a church alcove. Thin blankets barely sheltered her from the brutal winter weather.

Read the whole article here.

Previously.

New Cooper Square Hotel art installation baffles

A reader passed along an item of interest... During the weekend, "workers installed this rather odd 'art' installation on the Cooper Square Hotel's outdoor patio, otherwise unused during the cold weather months."

So, what is it?

The reader has a few (classic) guesses:

"A bicycle frame hung in effigy, perhaps a driver's road rage fantasy revenge for the perceived insult of bicycle lane proliferation. The desk chair swing set is more mysterious still: dreams of lost childhood, while trapped in corporate cubicles? Finally the roped-off area suggests either a crime scene or the intentionally exclusive velvet ropes (without the velvet, since times are hard) of the nightlife scene, a barrier which non-model females and non-celebrity males can only pass by offering a credit card; it's hard to say which interpretation is more depressing."

Watch Billy Leroy throw someone into a coffin and nail it shut

Billy Leroy tells us about an independent film project that he's working on called "Don Peyote." Michael Canzoniero directs. While it started out as a small film, the production received funding... and it's turning into some much larger... it stars Dan Fogler and Anne Hathaway.

Anyway, here's a scene that features Billy (and the fellow in the German helmet is Clayton Patterson; the young woman is Billy's daughter Celina Leroy).

Here's the set-up for this scene shot outside Billy's Antiques on East Houston:

"We jump on Dan. I beat him up and throw him into a coffin and nail it shut... It's all part of a nightmare scene he has after ingesting hallucinogenic drugs. Wish I could do this to some of the yuppies that wander into Billy's."

The movie is still in production. Here's a snippet of it.

[Photos by Isak Tiner]

About the Hot Chicks Room

We noted a few days back that the Upright Citizens Brigade had unveiled some signage at their new home on Avenue A at Third Street ... Including!

While it's a nod to this skit (thanks Erin!) ... a few commenters are not amused ... Like!

Anonymous said...
Are you people not looking at this unfunny, SNL obsessing, new-jack cornball, out-of-place, cargo-short and frisbee throwing, annoying piece of shit sign? I will spit on all these mothrfuckers as they wither in their adidas and converse and cold-weather sandals, as their nasally laughter and unfunny jokes penetrate my soul.

Enjoy your signs, they will soon be sent back to the college campus graveyard where they belong.

What's left of Stuyvesant Grocery and Pete's-a-Place — and come back soon

On Sunday, we posted some photos sent along by EV Grieve reader Tom from the fire-damaged stretch of stores on 14th Street and Avenue A ... The high winds knocked over the plywood... offering a peak at what's left inside... here are a few more shots we took on Sunday...

... and yesterday...

And yesterday afternoon .... workers were putting the plywood back...

[Bottom photos via Bobby Williams]

And per Tom in the comments:

Last summer I had heard from the manager of Petes-A-Place that they weren't planning to reopen until October. I wondered why it would take that long. But I guess it's understandable if they're going to do zero work during the winter.

A Mars Bar moment

On Saturday, we posted a photo of the new mural outside the Mars Bar...

Goggla shot some video of Jane Knox working on her mural Friday evening...

In case you were away for the long weekend

RIP grace (Sunday)

It snowed (Monday)

A Hamptons Market Place is opening on First Avenue (Monday)

Coyote Ugly is still not open — and here's why (Sunday)

EV Grieve favorite Donohue's Steak House is back open (Saturday)

Tonda randomly open this past weekend (Monday)

We spoke with Minnie McSorley (Saturday)

Someone tagged 35 Cooper Square (Saturday)

Yummy House closed on Third Avenue (Monday)

People ate outside on the Bowery because it was warmish (Friday)

And Lady Gaga walked around without pants on, though this isn't really news (Monday)