Photos by Steven
You can find the new Sushi Fan Instagram account here. (Not much info there yet.)
The business takes over for the craft beer bar Proletariat, which moved to a larger space at 21 E. Seventh St. last June.
Due to gross negligence by the owner of the building we are based out of, we have had to close our doors temporarily in order for emergency construction to take place. We were told this would be a two-day job, but mismanagement, weather, and a lack of the correct permits have prolonged the process to at least a five-day job.We are a small, anti-capitalist bookstore with razor-thin profit margins, and having to close for this length of time will have a huge financial impact on us as worker-owners and our business. If you would like to support us during this time, please consider making a purchase online or becoming a member ...
INCREDIBLE NEWS! The NYC Landmarks Commission has voted to allow @middlechurch to remove the burnt remains of our facade, so we can rebuild on our historic site.
— Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis (@RevJacquiLewis) January 11, 2023
Truly, God is good. Out of this fire, fierce love is rising.
Make a gift to help us rise: https://t.co/Vkt9D5e9V0
After baking one too many cakes for my friends, I decided to do a few pop-ups around the city in 2020 to sell my mini cakes. Soon after, I created my website so that people could order their cakes. I did not expect that people would be so interested in trying my cakes and knowing more about my story and that I’d be baking full-time!
My mother owns a small bed and breakfast where people from all over the world come and dine at our table, and there is always a big cake for dessert and a nice bouquet of freshly picked flowers at the center. Baking cakes for me isn't only about working with unique products but also to reproduce those small moments and souvenirs and bring a glimpse of the south of France to people's desserts.
Alicia Torres and her eight children moved to New York City in 1959. In 1975, they moved to the heart of the Lower East Side (Loisaida), 219 E. Seventh St., a tenement building, after being displaced from one dilapidated apartment to another.Alicia had grown up on the island of Vieques; her family had been displaced from their land by the United States Navy in the 1930s and had suffered through the Great Depression, which made Puerto Rico the poorest country in the world at that time.
When the building (219 E. Seventh) was sold in 1976 to a real estate speculator who tried to collect rent while providing no services, Alicia decided she was tired of being pushed around. With the guidance of a community housing organization, Adopt a Building, the Torres family organized a tenant association and led a rent strike.They collected the rents and started to make repairs and purchase heating oil. The landlord brought eviction proceedings in the Housing Court, but did not prevail as he failed to make the repairs that were ordered by the judge. Conditions were harsh, however, and most of the tenants gradually moved out, leaving the Torres family members occupying eight of the twenty-four apartments.In 1975, the building next door (223 E. Seventh St.) had a devastating fire. The City demolished the building in 1976 and the resulting rubble lot attracted neighborhood drug dealers. Some neighbors at this end of Seventh Street met with Alicia Torres and her family and together they started to clear the lot of the bricks and debris and planted sunflowers. It was backbreaking work, but soon the lot started to look more like a garden than a rubble lot.In 1979, the East Seventh St Block Association was granted a lease by the City's Operation Green Thumb and a fence was erected to protect the garden. Green Thumb delivered truckloads of fertile topsoil from upstate and soon after that, it wasn't long before the garden members, many of them 219 residents, were growing vegetables, flowers, and shrubs. Trees and rose bushes were planted and the garden became a magical space for East Seventh Street residents, especially children.On weekends, the garden would be full of people working, talking, cooking, and kids playing. It was an island of beauty and harmony amidst a gritty urban landscape.