On the horizon

A view downtown from the East Village ... via Bobby Williams...

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[St. Mark's Place via Bobby Williams]

Nuyorican Poets Cafe will hold a benefit tomorrow to raise money to replace its heating system (The Lo-Down ... NY1)

SantaCon's citywide reign of terror and stupidity (DNAinfo)

Relive the Hell of SantaCon — in video! (Slum Goddess)

Wisdom from "While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York" (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Just how loud is The DL on Delancey? (BoweryBoogie)

Union Square parking garage will be converted into condos (Curbed)

Another MTA fare hike (Gothamist)

City wants seasonal indoor trapeze program at the Hamilton Fish Park Recreation Center (DNAinfo)

Holiday lights at One World Trade (The Gog Log)

...and the Mighty Quinn opened this morning at Second Avenue and East Sixth Street...

We are proud to announce that we'll be opening the doors of our East Village restaurant tomorrow @ 11am.Come join us! yfrog.com/oc1rgwpbj

— Mighty Quinn's BBQ (@MightyQuinnsBBQ) December 18, 2012

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.

By James Maher

Name: Ben Treuhaft (and Zsofi)
Occupation: Piano Tuner
Location: 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave.
Time: 12:15 on Saturday, Dec. 17

I’ve lived in the neighborhood since 1998. I’m from Oakland. I’m a piano tuner and I had my piano shop in Berkeley for about 25 years. And then I got sick to death of the Bay Area. I was 50 years old and 50 years was enough, so I rented a Ryder truck and drove my whole piano shop out this way.

When I arrived I didn’t have any customers, although I was the big fish in Berkeley. My background was with the Steinway Concert Department and I had no trouble getting a gigantic clientele over there. I worked with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music even though I didn’t wear shoes until I was 35 years old. I was barefoot. I was a hippie, you know. Everybody put their shoes back on but I didn’t. I just went around with no shoes on because I figured it was so much more comfortable. It became almost a religion with me. I would go to the Conservatory of Music and I would pat around with no shoes. Then, I figured when I was 35 years old that I could make a little bit more money if I put shoes on. So I sold out and wore shoes after that.

I also started an idea called Send a Piana to Havana. I named it after Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army. It was an enema for Clinton’s blocked up Cuba policy. It was great for awhile. We got famous. We were all over the news. We were famous in Cuba too and everybody loved us.

Then everybody got bored with us. We started a piano tuning school there that was accredited. I was getting these big huge piano tuners to come in and do these annual brigades in Cuba. And it turns out that the Cuban authorities were pissed off rather than enjoying it because they stopped helping us. We now think that they think that we were corrupt, which is really weird. We’re finding this out now. We don’t know the end of the story yet. We still get thanked all around the world in concert.

Let me tell you the best thing about moving out here. When I got here, even though I didn’t have any customers, the few I had were jaw-droppingly better than the ones I had in Berkeley. The people are much more interesting here than my cohorts in the Bay Area. It took me four years before I got any clientele, and then it blossomed from there. I have a little piano shop on the Lower East Side, on Essex and Rivington. It’s a little rat hole. I’m going to keep it even though we’re moving to Edinburgh [this week], to Scotland. We’re having a garage sale now of our furniture and seven pianos.

My wife is a scientist and she got a job at The University of Edinburgh. We’re moving there for a few years at least. She moved to the neighborhood the year before I did. She was from Hungary. I'm Hungarian also, and in 1999, I was in Moishe’s around the corner and my wife-to-be was working there ... I said, “Hey listen, I like you Olga ... come and work in my piano shop.” And she said okay and we worked together until she said, “You know, my dream is to be a biologist.” I told her to pursue that and six years later she’s written nature articles, she’s like a big Ph.D., and she’s got post-doc offers in Japan and Scotland. She’s amazing.

Paul’s "Da Burger Joint" — that is one of my favorite places in the world. Also, I like McSorley's but it’s only good in the afternoon. And one last favorite thing, Colin Huggins — the Crazy Piano Guy. He plays under the arch in Washington Square Park and he’s one of my absolute favorite customers. You tune the piano outside with everybody around and it’s so nice and when I’m done he lets me sit under the piano and lie there for awhile and listen to the music. He’s a very good pianist. Under the piano, under a grand piano, is the best place to listen to music. That’s my other favorite place in New York, under his piano.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

Iris Bakery Cafe replacing Rockit Scientist Records on St. Mark's Place

The sign is up here now ... and as you can see, they are hiring... Not sure what kind of bakery this will be ... we heard in the fall that it will be a bubble tea shop... Or perhaps it will be one that sells bread. Or it will be more like Eastside Bakery.net a few storefronts away. Or a bakery that will become a bar after they receive a liquor license just to pair with their croissants.

Rockit Scientist owner John Kioussis decided not to renew his lease here, as Jeremiah Moss first reported.

2 retail spaces available at the former Cabrini Center on Avenue B and East Fifth Street

Here are two photos from this week showing the progress of the former Cabrini Center's conversion to an 80-unit residential building on Avenue B and East Fifth Street...

[Bobby Williams]

[Dave on 7th]

Meanwhile, here's more information about the two retail spaces that will be available in the former nursing home...

There are two spaces of comparable size available (listing is here — PDF) ...

There isn't any mention of rent. A few details per the listing:

Comments:
• New retail space being redeveloped at the base of an 80-unit residential building.
• Rising income levels.
• Growing residential population.
• All quality uses considered.

A lot of things rising and growing around here ...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Cabrini Center patients out by the end of today; closes for good June 30

Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare

What John Legend got for his home off the Bowery

Well, we might as well bring this story to some closure... brokers listed John Legend's condo at 52E4 — the 15 stories of condo on the Bowery and East Fourth Street — back in September 2011. The price for the Grammy winner's two-bedroom home started at $2.95 million — but two markdowns (5 percent total!) brought it to $2.795 million.

According to public records filed on Dec. 11, the final selling price was $2.675 million. (The buyer is apparently a CFO with a global innovation firm. Unless it's a different person with the same name as the buyer...)

Per the records, Legend paid $1.9 million for the place in November 2009. But! Per Curbed, he hired Winka Dubbeldam of Archi-Tectonics to make some adjustments to the place, fancy additions that apparently added some value. Legend has since moved his Grammys to Broome Street, where there isn't a 7-Eleven on the ground level.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Because you wanted to see John Legend's half-naked model girlfriend in her Bowery home

[Image via Streeteasy]

Here is the new awning at Doc Holliday's on Avenue A

Last Tuesday, workers removed the well-worn awning outside the saloon here at East Ninth Street...

And one week later... the new-look awning went up ...

[Top photos by Bobby Williams]

...and the old one via Google... pretty similar, though the word "restaurant" no longer appears... didn't recall that they even served food...

Hetal Convenience Store has apparently closed on First Avenue

The Hetal Convenience Store on First Avenue just south of East Seventh Street has been closed of late. Earlier this week, EV resident Bill the libertarian anarchist noticed the gate slightly open. He looked inside and saw that workers had cleared out the storefront. (Another reader said that she spotted workers standing in a now-empty space last night.)

The store, which, among other things, featured an array of Polish-language magazines, has been around since at least the early 1980s. Has anyone heard why the store may have closed?

DNAinfo included owner Gary Patel in an August 2010 feature about the city's new bike lanes:

Other merchants that rely on taxi traffic said that despite the negative impact on business, the city is safer overall with the new bike lanes.

"I don't have any problems. The city is better," said Patel, owner of the Hetal Convenience Store on First Avenue near East Seventh Street, noting he's fine with the fact that he has lost about 10 cabdriver patrons a day due to the new lanes.

Going southbound

A look to the south on Avenue A from East 13th Street tonight ... photo by Bobby Williams.

[Updated] A Newtown memorial on East Ninth Street

EVG regular William Klayer spotted this teddy bear memorial on East Ninth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... there isn't a note or card noting who this might be for ...

Updated 12/19
We did receive confirmation that this memorial is to honor those who died in Newtown. The resident has a daughter near the same age as the school-age victims.

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

After months of rumors about the future of East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B, we finally have some answers.

Of the three rumors previously presented, turns out that we'll be looking at the doomsday scenario for most of the block:

All the space starting at the ABC Animal Hospital west to Avenue A will be developed into some type of housing-retail complex.

According to public records, in late November, eight parcels consisting of 222 Avenue A and 504 - 530 E. 14th St. were leased for a 99-year period by the respective owner to East Village 14 LLC.

(East Village 14 LLC is a Delaware Company that registered with the New York State Department of State in October 2012.)

Public records put the cost of this parcel at $35 million.

CORRECTION: Amended an earlier version of this aerial view. The deal does not include 520 E. 14th St., the 6-story apartment building that includes a Dunkin Donuts and the Royal Custom Tailors in the retail space.

And here are the parcels of land included in the deal:

[Click image to enlarge]

So we're looking at everything from where Stuyvesant Grocery and Pete's-a-Place were before the fire on May 12, 2010 at Avenue A east to, and including, the Animal Hospital. The lone exception: 520 E. 14th St. Presumably new development will happen on either side of this building.

And because people have asked before: The Blarney Cove is included in this land grab.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

Those ongoing rumors about the future of East 14th Street between Avenue A and B

Petland is moving away from East 14th Street, fueling more new development rumors

[A special thanks to the EVG reader who helped dig into the records]

[Updated] Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen is closing on Dec. 31

UGH. As we were putting together a reminder about the crowdsourcing campaign to help EVG favorite Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen at 130 St. Mark's Place (there are just two days left for the Lucky Ant campaign.... and they are well short of their $10,000 goal) ... we heard the awful but not surprising news that the bakery is closing after Dec. 31.

Owner Peter Silvestri, who ran the bakery with his mother starting in 1978, told East Village resident (and EVG reader) Bill the libertarian anarchist that they would have to close for good at the end of the year. The bakery has been at this location since 1991.

It hasn't been easy here in recent years for Whole Earth Bakery, as they faced eviction several times. You can read the back story in this article from The Villager from 2007, when the community rallied around Whole Earth.

The shop faced eviction again last fall... They were reportedly occupying the space under a sublet agreement. While Whole Earth Bakery was up to date on rent payments, the holder of the lease was allegedly delinquent.

In any event, another shop that has been an important part of the community for more than 20 years will soon be gone... look for a soulless high-end dessert shop or bar here soon enough.

Updated 12:45

A friend of Whole Earth just posted this message on the Bakery's Facebook page:

So much love and good wishes have been coming to Peter and Whole Earth Bakery & Kitchen and he feels so blessed to have had this community support. We are sorry to report that the online campaign never really took off and there is now a change of direction. Unfortunately the store is not going to make it. Whole Earth Bakery is closing at the end of December 2012 after 34 years.

We didn't think the changes were going to be so sudden but we must work with what is. "Play the ball where it lies" as Peter likes to say. The energies now are in doing everything that has to be done to ready for auction next week.

The Lucky Ant campaign was intended to raise enough capital to go forward. Monies are now needed to move, store whatever doesn't sell and reinvent Peter so he can continue doing what he loves in a different way.

Peter is actively doing what needs to be done to get through this time. There will be a mourning period but there are good aspects as well as negative aspects to everything and we are trusting the process.

There is even more of a need for funds now so stop in the store and order your treats for the Holidays... just not to save Whole Earth but to support Peter. Food production will continue up until Sunday December 23rd, pickup of orders until the 24th. The thought is to do special orders of pies and cakes from a commercial kitchen down the road. Would you like something for Christmas or wish to contribute something donated to Occupy Sandy?

Bargain Express closing on East 14th Street

The realignment of the future East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B is shaping up ... In November, Petland announced that it was moving to First Avenue... and now, workers at Bargain Express right next door are telling costumers that they have lost their lease and will likely close after the holiday season... (One reader said that they will close next week.)

A manager told one EVG reader that "a developer" will be tearing down the building...

The latest rumor, via g whiz in our last post on this topic:

Rumor is the animal hospital, Petland and Bargain Bazaar is going to be one big unit and the corner of 14th and A over to the Blarney Cove (including/excluding unsure) will be another big unit

Updated: We have learned more information about this block here.

And have you heard the taped message at the Bargain Express? There's a continuous loop announcing the various sales as you enter the front doors ... "Once again ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that this is our biggest sale ever... we are selling to the bare walls..."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Conspiracies: What next for 14th Street and Avenue A?

Those ongoing rumors about the future of East 14th Street between Avenue A and B

Petland is moving away from East 14th Street, fueling more new development rumors

[Updated] Here's Boulton & Watt at the former Nice Guy Eddie's space

After a 16-year run on the prime corner space at Avenue A and East Houston, Nice Guy Eddie's closed for this past June 16.

Darin Rubell, co-owner of GalleryBar and Ella, is one of the partners opening a new restaurant here. As we first reported in August, the space will be a gastropub called Boulton & Watt, named for the U.K.-based business partners who made many critical improvements to the steam engine in the late 1700s.

And yesterday, workers removed the rest of Chico's KISS-themed plywood to revel the exterior... a tipster told us to expect an opening date soon...

Updated 1:20

Here's another shot via Matt_LES...

[Updated] Check out 'Portal 0' in the East Village

EVG regular jdx passes along the following... Yesterday, he ran into Nicolina ... the artist was finishing "Portal 0" next to the Bean on Second Avenue and East Third Street ...

[via jdx]

...it's the first of 13 portals by Nicolina and Brazilian artist Perola Bonfanti. The portals are interactive, and by scanning the QR code on each one, "you will begin the journey to uncover their mystery," as Nicolina put it.

Dave on 7th spotted this one going up on Seventh Street and Avenue C on Sunday...

[Bottom two photos via Bobby Williams]

Updated:

Thanks to BT in the comments... here's the website for the portals.

Sonni's Boom Box leaves East Fourth Street

Now that the water main project on East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery is complete, the construction crates have been retired...

Yesterday, workers hauled away Sonni's Boom Box and the other work commissioned through FABnyc's ArtUp program this past summer... Keith Schweitzer, director of public art for FABnyc, shot the following video yesterday...

WITHOUT a corncob pipe and a button nose

A holiday scene on East Seventh Street across from Tompkins Square Park... via Bobby Williams.

Here is David Schwimmer's East Village home

After nearly 18 months of demolition and construction at 331 E. Sixth St., the scaffolding is finally coming down at the home David Schwimmer has reportedly been building between First Avenue and Second Avenue...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Is David Schwimmer the 'Friends' star who now owns the demolished 331 E. Sixth St. townhouse?

Outrage over total demolition of historic East Sixth Street townhouse

Mid-morning outside the Con Ed plant on East 14th Street

Report: Number of chain stores up in NYC; Dunkin Donuts leads the way

From the EV Grieve inbox... cut-n-paste journalism! Woot!

The Center for an Urban Future today published its fifth annual study ranking the national retailers with the most store locations in New York City. The study shows that retail chains in New York overall fared better this year than last, paced by strong growth in the Bronx and continued expansion from top retailers Dunkin Donuts and Subway.

The report finds that the number of chain stores in the city is up by 2.4 percent over last year, compared to a 1.8 percent gain in stores between 2010 and 2011. Although a handful of prominent retailers like Filene’s Basement and Betsey Johnson closed their stores in New York over the past year, fewer national retailers overall contracted — only 23.5 percent of retailers on our list reduced their retail footprint in the city, compared to 31 percent last year. This marks the fifth straight year there has been a net increase in the number of national chain stores in the five boroughs.

For the fifth consecutive year, Dunkin Donuts tops our list as the largest national retailer, and with a total of 484 stores it is on the precipice of becoming the first national retailer with 500 stores in the city. But even though Dunkin Donuts had a net gain of 18 stores over the past year, its lead over second ranked retailer Subway has continued to shrink. Subway added 24 stores this year, bringing its total to 454. In 2010, Dunkin Donuts had 77 more stores than Subway, but this year the donut retailer only had 30 more stores.

Starbucks regained its position as the third largest retailer in New York City, overtaking MetroPCS, which had moved up to the third spot last year. Starbucks, which registered a net gain of nine stores, has the most stores in Manhattan by far — with 200 of its 272 New York City locations in the borough.

Of the 10 largest national retailers in the city, T-Mobile added the most stores over the past year (13 – going from 161 to 174 stores overall) while GNC had the largest percentage growth (9.2 percent, going from 131 to 143 stores). Other retailers with notable increases over the past year include: Potbelly Sandwich Shop (jumping from 4 to 12 stores), Panera Bread (8 to 13) and 7-Eleven (83 to 98).

New to this year’s report is an analysis of the chains that have grown the fastest in New York City since 2008, the first year we published our ranking of the city’s national retailers. Coming in at the top of the list is Panera Bread, which grew by 225 percent since 2008, followed by J Crew (117 percent increase), Pret a Manger (113 percent), T-Mobile (112 percent) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (100 percent).

Digging into the report a bit... the 10003 zip code (which includes Union Square and parts of Fifth Avenue) is second in the city with 179 national retailers...

The 10009 zip has 23 chains while 10002 has 36.

You can find the full report here.

We'll continue to look at all this... not sure if the report took into account the two Subways that recently closed in the East Village.