Pet store signage unleashed on Second Avenue

EVG reader Christina passes along photos of the new signage that has arrived at 31-33 Second Ave., aka The Luxe East, Ben Shaoul's new retail-residential complex here between East Second Street and East First Street...

As you can see the storefront will be an Unleashed (by Petco) outlet...



What is Unleashed?

As pet stores go, we’re anything but ordinary. Unleashed by Petco hit the pet scene in 2009, with our first store in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. Our concept is simple – provide the same knowledge and know-how offered by Petco in a unique, smaller package.

Anyway, perhaps the storefront will help residents determine whether they are looking at the front or the back of the building.

BoweryBoogie first reported that a Petco-branded store was set for the retail space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ben Shaoul planning a 3-story addition at 31-33 Second Ave.

Bracing for 3 new floors at 31-33 Second Ave.

Checking in on the work in progress at 31-33 2nd Ave., where Ben Shaoul is adding 3 new floors

Ben Shaoul's bland new 2nd Avenue building is called The East Luxe

The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space announces 3rd annual film fest for Aug. 1-8

Via the EVG inbox...

Building on the popular appeal of its two previous summer outdoor film festivals, The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), an East Village history museum with a mission to archive the social activism of the neighborhood, will partner with local activist and grassroots organizations to present its Third Annual Film Fest — I ❤NRCHY: Advocacy & Anarchy Shaping a City.

This series of shorts, documentaries and features will focus on New York City and each night feature a different theme, current and historical, to explore movements on such issues as Reviewing Renewal (hosted by 596 Acres); Sustainability (hosted by 350NYC); Bio-Terror, Manufactured Fear, and State Repression (hosted by ABC No Rio); Work & Rebellion (hosted by the Tenement Museum); Community and the Arts as Resistance (hosted by Interference Archive); Bicycle Activism (hosted by Times Up!) and more to be announced.

The festival will run Aug. 1-8 with screening times at 8 p.m. in various outdoor garden locations in the East Village. A limited supply of all-inclusive passes for $20 will be on sale here or by visiting MoRUS, 155 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets during hours of operation. Admission to each individual screening will otherwise require a suggested donation of $5.

Bikes, By George! space is for rent

As we noted earlier last week, a rent hike is forcing George Philbert to close his bike shop at 193 E. Fourth St. at the end of the month.

Several readers have noted that the for rent sign has arrived in the storefront just east of Avenue A.

The listing at Bond, which appears to show a different business in the space, notes that a restaurant is OK for the space. The asking rent is $3,750 for 340 square feet.

After working in bike shops for 10 years, George finally opened his own place in 1980 on East 12th Street. A rent hike saw him move to his current location at 193 E. Fourth St. just east of Avenue A in 2008.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike will force Bikes, By George! to close on East 4th Street

Last day for Excel Art and Framing Store ahead of move up the block

Today is the last day in business for the 21-year-old Excel Art and Framing Store, which lost its lease at 38 Third Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. However, as we've been noting, Excel was able to secure a new storefront a short distance away on Third Avenue between East 11th Street and East 12th Street…



According to various tipsters, the Duane Reade on the southwest corner of 10th Street is planning on expanding into the adjacent storefronts, taking up the space housing Excel and East Village Cheese in the process. (East Village Cheese is moving to East Seventh Street later this summer.)

The new Excel storefront should be open in mid-July, per the signs at the new space. Visit their website for updates.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumors: Duane Reade expansion will take over adjacent storefronts, including East Village Cheese (74 comments)

East Village Cheese makes move to 7th Street official

Excel Art and Framing Store relocating nearby on 3rd Avenue

[Updated] Veggie burgers confirmed for former Dirt Candy space on East 9th Street

An EVG reader has noted a steady stream of people coming in and out of the former Dirt Candy space on East Ninth Street this week. Paper still covers the windows on the storefront between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As we first reported on April 28, a menu for a jokey place called Chickens arrived in the window (Chicken Dip with Chicken Chips!)...


[Photo from April]

... later we heard that this will be a quick-serve restaurant serving vegetarian sandwiches. Eater confirmed yesterday that Del Posto pastry chef Brooks Headley is opening Superiority Burger, specializing in veggie burgers and other vegetarian fare.

Headley's creations have been attracting lines wherever he has sold them, including Christmas Day from the Dirt Candy location.

The space is expected to open to the public very soon. As soon as today maybe.

Dirt Candy closed here at the end of last August to move to a larger space on Allen Street.

Updated 6-25

The space is now open as of tonight.

Previously on EV Grieve:
What the cluck? Chickens in the works for former vegetarian hotspot Dirt Candy on East 9th Street

Rumor: Vegetarian sandwich shop in the works for former Dirt Candy space

Large limb down on Avenue B

[Photo via EVG reader JL]

Several EVG readers noted that a tree branch from Tompkins Square Park came crashing down onto the sidewalk on Avenue B at East Ninth Street this afternoon...

Crews arrived on the scene to survey the damage and remove the fallen limb...


[Photo by EVG reader Lola Sáenz]


[LS]

We're not sure at this moment if workers will need to remove the whole tree or just the branch.

[Updated] Cupid is missing

Last seen last night on East Third Street near Second Avenue...

H/T EVG reader Creature

Updated 6/28

A reader says that Cupid was found safe...

Updated 6/29

Here's a flyer with a new thank you note...


[Photo via Marjorie Ingall]

Report: Northeast corner of St. Mark's Place and 3rd Ave. fetching $50 million for development site

[EVG photo from early 2014]

A prime corner of the East Village is in contract for roughly $50 million.

According to The Real Deal, real-estate investor Arthur Shapolsky intends to buy three properties at the corner of Third Avenue and St. Marks Place: 23 Third Ave., 27 Third Ave. and 3 St. Mark's Place. Basically everything from McDonald's to the corner.

The sellers are members of the Gabay family, whose patriarch opened a discount fashion outlet at the corner property in 1990. Both parties confirmed the agreement, though Shapolsky declined to comment on his plans for the site, which could accommodate a 41,500-square-foot commercial building or a residential one of roughly half the size.

The Real Deal cites the proximity of this corner to Edward Minskoff's 51 Astor Place aka The IBM Watson Building aka the Death Star directly across Third Avenue.

The eastern corners of St Mark's Place and Third Avenue promise to look a whole lot different.

Late last year, the Pappas family, owners of the St. Marks Hotel, filed plans to build a 10-story mixed-use building on the hotel's lot at 2 St. Mark’s Place and Third Avenue.


[2 St. Mark's Place rendering via NY Yimby]

Report: Unidentified homeless man stops sexual assault on 7th Street, chases down assailant

A 32-year-old homeless man reportedly grabbed a 26-year-old woman around midnight Sunday outside 24 E. Seventh St. between Cooper Square and Second Avenue. According to the Post:

At that point the good-Samaritan vagrant, who is believed to sleep in nearby Cooper Square, came by and scared off the ­attacker, sources said. He then ran after the man, pursuing him for several blocks down Second Avenue to East Third Street, where police made the ­arrest.

The Post reports that the suspect, Casey Holloway, who is also homeless, was charged with sexual abuse and forcible touching. He has nearly two dozen prior ­arrests.

The identity of the man who broke up the attack was unknown.

Image via Streeteasy

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: Glenora Blackshire
Occupation: Filmmaker
Location: Houston Street and 1st Ave
Time: 4:45 on Monday, June 22

I’ve been in the neighborhood for 21 years. I came from Chicago to go to graduate school. I spent two weeks on a couch in the kitchen on the Upper East Side and hated it. Came downtown and saw a neighborhood that was exactly like the one I left in Chicago.

I moved to 1st and 1st. I don’t know, the neighborhood still felt like it had a lot of life to it. You could live here and hope to do things with your life. Rent was still cheap. It was right before the landlords went crazy. I was there for four years, then I moved across the street, and then I moved to 5th and B.

I’m a filmmaker. I came here to get an MFA in directing. I got that from the Actor’s Studio program at the New School. I was in the first class that graduated there. It was theatre direction but my background was journalism and I had a couple of kids that knocked the directing out for awhile.

When I finally came back to it I put together my journalism background and I had a bit of a filmmaking background. I started making little documentaries. I ended up making movies for liquor companies. Oddly enough, my first break in being a filmmaker and being able to make money at it was because I had been a bartender, as opposed to my background at all. I worked as a cocktail waitress at CBGB when I got out of graduate school. I worked at the Bowery Ballroom. I ended up being the editor for Richard Kern.

I was a bartender at the Bowery Ballroom and from that Diageo picked me up. They had me start making movies about Smirnoff and Guinness and stuff like that. Now I shoot a television show that’s on CBS called Toni On! New York; I’m the camera girl. We eat and drink our way across New York.

The thing that still makes it amazing here is that I walk out the door and I know tons of people in the street. It’s almost like living in a small town and yet you’re in the middle of the big city. Sometimes I look at other neighborhoods… like the West Village. I like the West Village, only because perhaps it imparts more of the feeling of being a successful artist, whereas I think the East Village somehow clings to the idea of the outsider, rebel artists, which you know, is a fun idea, but after while you gotta make some money, especially in this town. You know, maybe I wish for that sometimes.

I think it becomes less and less of a community as these giant ugly glass buildings get put in and as the stores turn into another Duane Reade or something like that. But I think that somehow there has been a group that has managed to just hang on and this is what I love about living here.

The ones of us who are still around, we’ve all known each other for so long now. I’ve seen people’s children grow up, people have seen my kids grow up, they give me reports on what my kids are doing. That’s wonderful, just to know that maybe somebody’s watching out.

But then there’s also this thing that I think all of us who are here or have been here for awhile — there’s something we all understand about this place and why it’s so special. And maybe it’s even hard to put your finger on it, but we just know what it is and that’s why we love it so much.

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

The retail space at 20 Avenue A is on the market

[Image via LoopNet]

A tipster passed along a retail listing for 20 Avenue A, a space that currently houses Chase.

From the looks of the listing at LoopNet, the bank branch will be vacating the corner space at East Second Street in early 2016.

There isn't a whole lot of information about the property:

Current Tenant: Chase Bank
Possession: January 2016
Approximate Size: Ground 4,400sf corner ( will divide) Lower Level: 4,400sf
Frontage: 133' (56' along Avenue A and 77' along East 2nd Street)
Neighbors: Union Market, Boulton & Watt, NY Sports Club, Double Down Salon, Mercury Lounge, Two Boots Pizza,
Comments: Space can be divided; all uses accepted
Asking Rent: upon request

The 62-unit apartment building here exchanged hands last summer for $26.2 million. Longtime residents at No. 20 have noted that "the nonstop renovation has plagued the building." And there was also that Rogue Halal Cart business.

Ciao for Now closing West Village location

[Image of East 12th Street location via Facebook]

Amy Miceli, who has operated Ciao for Now in the East Village the past 14 years with her husband Kevin and three kids, passed along news that they are closing their West Village branch tomorrow.

The cafe at 523 E. 12th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B will continue on, she said.

"It is brutal running a business in the city," she said. "I love it and hate it every day."

Here's part of the closure notice for the space on West 10th Street between Sixth Avenue and Greenwich Avenue:

We would like to say thank you to all of the wonderful customers we have had over the past seven years. We have enjoyed serving you.

Kevin and I would like to let everyone know that we are NOT closing due to a huge rent increase from a greedy landlord. We are closing so that we can focus our energy on our family and our main location at 523 East 12th Street. In fact we have had a very reasonable landlord that has treated us with respect and patience throughout our seven years and many challenges.

Ciao moved into this beautiful spot in June of 2008. We managed to survive a Con Edison explosion that closed us down for three months in 2009, Hurricane Sandy that closed us down for a week, but destroyed our entire inventory at our main location in 2011. Those were some really tough times that took a lot of our resources and patience.

It has been the water main repair of 2014/2015 that has really put a strain on our business and ultimately caused us to say no more. We wish this was not the case. We love our west location and will miss it very much.

Fledge frenzy; plus hawks immortalized in yarn

[Photo Monday by Bobby Williams]

All three of Christo and Dora's offspring have fledged this past week... leaving the nest on the Ageloff Towers on Avenue A and East Third Street and seeing what this neighborhood has to offer, like large church clocks...


[BW]

Check out Gog in NYC and TwoHawksNYC for some comprehensive coverage.

In the meantime on Avenue A below, local businesses are getting into the red-tailed hawk spirit... with Exit9 and Downtown Yarns showing their hawk pride...









Thanks to Goggla for the yarn photos!

Ray optimistically plans to return to his store next week

As we mentioned last week, Ray Alvarez, the 82-year-old proprietor of Ray's Candy Store at 113 Avenue A, had heart valve replacement surgery.

He hopes to return home to recuperate later this week. By all accounts, friends who have visited Ray say that he is doing quite well all things considered.

DNAinfo's Lisha Arino spoke with Ray for a story today.

“Everything is okay. I feel good,” he said on the phone Monday, before adding optimistically, “I’m going to be in my store next week.”

Noted

From WWD:

Often a sleeper collection in Milan, Marc Jacobs pulled off another hit for spring — a mash-up of military uniforms and Japanese boudoir silks for the brand’s touchstone archetype, the East Village hipster.

Reaction via Jezebel:

Hasn’t the East Village been denigrated enough, without Marc Jacobs attempting to make its denizens look like a mutant child of strung-out Jim Morrison and Weekend at Bernie’s?

More about the 2nd branch of Tompkins Square Bagels opening in the East Village

[EVG file photo]

As we first reported, Christopher Pugliese, the owner of the 4-year-old Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A, signed a lease for a second East Village location — at 184 Second Ave. between East 11th Street and East 12th Street.

We talked with Pugliese to get a few more details on what to expect at store No. 2.

On a realistic timeline for opening

"The realistic timeline is five months. I'd like to open on the same date that we opened Tompkins Square Bagels in 2011 — Dec. 15."

On the similarities between the two shops

"We are going to replicate the Tompkins Square Bagels space on Avenue A. Same style. The whole assembly line. Everything will be made on the premises. Oven. Kettle. We're going to extend the space into the backyard to make the place bigger."

On a possible name such as Tompkins Square Bagels 2

"All my buddies and people who I get advice from are telling me, 'It has to be Tompkins Square Bagels. It's a brand!' They keep saying 'brand, brand, brand' I don't care so much. [Laughs] I might call it Second Avenue Bagels. I might call it Stella Bagels [for his daughter]. I don't know."

On staying in the East Village

"I feel like I'll be able to plant roots and stay here. I have a daughter who's 5-months-old now. When she is 15, and asks, 'Dad, what do you do for a living?', I want to be able to take her to the store. I'm not going anywhere. I want to be like the guys from Veniero's, Russo's and Bella Tiles. I pass that block on the way to work, and I see those guys like in their 70s. I want that. I want to keep going and work and be part of the neighborhood.

"I get offers. I was offered to go open in the Edge building in Williamsburg … in Grand Central terminal. I said no. I'm not looking to have an empire of stores, like five, six, seven, eight locations. I wanted to be here. I don't want to go there to work. I like it in the East Village — it's where I live. And it's where I'm going to stay."

-----

The previous tenant here, Open Pantry, the 45-year-old coffee shop/grocery, closed for good at the end of January. Dean Pappas and his family who ran Open Pantry also own the building. ("We negotiated the final details of the lease in his car.") Pugliese says Dean Pappas will have a role in the new bagel shop.

Tompkins Square Bagels opened on Avenue A near East 10th Street in December 2011.

Previously on EV Grieve:
After 40-plus years, Open Pantry looks to be closing on 2nd Avenue

Rumor: Tompkins Square Bagels possibly opening a 2nd East Village location on 2nd Avenue

A 2nd Tompkins Square Bagels confirmed for former Open Pantry space on 2nd Avenue

Tompkins Square Bagels makes it official on 2nd Avenue

How about some more condos for University Place

A few weeks back we noted that major changes were coming to the corner of East 13th Street and University Place following the closure of the longtime businesses here.

New York Yimby reported yesterday on what's to come:

Now plans have been filed to construct a seven-story apartment building on the site at 34 East 13th Street, and Adjmi Architects is designing. There will be six apartments spread across 15,550 square feet of residential space, for a very spacious average unit of 2,591 square feet. They’ll definitely be condos, with just one apartment per floor. Six stories of apartments will be stacked on top of 3,200 square feet of ground floor retail

Amenities listed on the Schedule A include a “private/public” roof deck (maybe there will be both!) and a gym in the cellar.

Developer Ranger Properties paid $22 million for the properties.

This new development will have new neighbors in the 23-floor residential building planned for the former Bowlmor Lanes space next door.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Building that houses Bowlmor Lanes will convert to condos, like everywhere else around here

76-year-old Bowlmor Lanes closes for good today

Bowlmor says goodbye

Major changes coming to University Place and East 13th Street

Moonstruck Eatery makes an appearance at 167 Avenue A

[Photo from May]

About six weeks ago we heard a rumor that Moonstruck Diner would be opening another location in the neighborhood, this time at 167 Avenue A between East 10th Street and East 11th Street.

The previous tenant, Ethos Meze East Village, is owned by the same folks who run the Moonstruck Diner chainlet in the city.

While we were never able to nail down that rumor, a new sign has appeared above the space — for Moonstruck Eatery.





Previously on EV Grieve:
Rumor: Moonstruck Diner opening location on Avenue A

New projects in the works for the Tink's and B.A.D Burger spaces

CB3 should be releasing the agenda for July's SLA committee meeting some time soon... ahead of that, we have an idea of at least two applicants taking over now-closed spaces in the neighborhood...

Notices are now up at 171 Avenue A, where B.A.D. Burger closed early this year between East 10th Street and East 11th Street...


[Photo via @aleighdear]

There are plans for a Vietnamese restaurant, and it looks as if the applicant is seeking a full liquor license with use of the backyard garden.



B.A.D. Burger was never able to secure a beer-wine license for the space. After CB3 denied his beer-wine request in 2012, B.A.D. Burger owner Keith Masco reportedly called the board "fascist."

--

Meanwhile, there are also notices posted at the recently closed Tink's on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...





More about the applicants as soon as the questionnaires are posted at the CB3 website. Meanwhile, a note for the U.S. Postal Service...

Jurassic Park at La Plaza

[Photo via Bill LoSasso]

A new addition at La Plaza Cultural on Avenue C and East Ninth Street... the yarn dino the work of #LondonKaye...

Citi Bike Pride

Happy Pride NYC! @Citibank and @citibike #ridewithpride

A photo posted by @citibike on Jun 22, 2015 at 7:10am PDT

The LGBT Pride Month bikes debuted this morning at Union Square... and the bikes will remain in the system for two weeks, according to the Citi Bike Instagram account.

Report: Workers claim that 2 Bros. doesn't pay minimum wage, offer overtime

Employees of the 2. Bros. Pizza chainlet have filed a class-action suit, claiming that they worked 60- to 70-hour weeks for less than minimum wage and without overtime.

Per the Daily News, who first reported on the lawsuit:

"They built their dollar pizza empire on the backs of my clients and other workers by grossly underpaying them," said their lawyer, Adam Slater. "It’s just unfair."

Gabriel Bailon, who worked as a piemaker and cashier at the chain’s flagship pizzeria on St. Marks Place and saw 2 Bros. become a citywide staple, said he and other employees were talked into staying with phony promises about raises, but their bosses never came up with the dough.

An attorney representing the owners of 2 Bros., Eli and Oren Halali, as well as their father, Joshua, said they would prevail in court.

"2 Bros. pays its employees in compliance with city, state and federal law and categorically denies the claims made by the plaintiffs," the attorney told the Daily News.

Slater said that the suit represents 12 employees, with more coming forward, and that damages could exceed $10 million.

Pushcart Coffee opening an East Village outpost

The Pushcart Coffee banners have arrived on Third Avenue at East 12th Street in NYU's Third North dorm retail properties … taking over the space last held by Just Sweet ...



This is Pushcart's third NYC location, which will go by Stuyvesant Alley. As the Pushcart website explains:

This shop sits next to a now-forgotten street called Stuyvesant Alley. The Alley was the scene of all the good, bad and ugly of old New York. It was a notorious hang out for ne'er-do-wells like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who lived down the street, it was the scene of a beautiful painting by Armin Landeck and it was a convenient place to store a peddler's pushcart off nearby bustling Third Ave. The Alley disappeared in the mid-20th century and today is replaced by a dormitory of New York University.

As for an opening date, a Pushcart Facebook posts states "very, very soon."

They'll be joining another new neighbor next door ... the 21-year-old Excel Art and Framing Store is moving here, after losing its lease at 38 Third Ave. between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street...



Back to coffee — there's plenty of it right around here with the Wayside on East 12th Street just west of Third Avenue ... City of Saints Coffee Roasters on East 10th Street between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue ... Third Rail Coffee on East 10th Street near Second Avenue ... Think Coffee on Fourth Avenue between East 12th Street and East 13th Street… Everyman Espresso on East 13th Street west of Third Avenue…

Not much progress on the all-new Tompkins Square basketball courts

[Photo from May 30]

Workers began tearing up the Tompkins Square Basketball Courts on May 29.

As we previously noted:

...the New York City Parks Department teamed up with YouTube for the renovations, which include an entire resurfacing of the courts with new cement and paint, and installing new basketball hoops. Parks officials said that work will be completed by the time the city schools let out for the summer on June 26. YouTube is funding the renovations, which are estimated at $300,000.

It doesn't appear that the city will hit that kids-outta-school deadline. The courts look essentially the same now as they did on May 29...





At this rate, the courts will be ready by time the students return to school.

The gym equipment is still accessible, though...



Anyway, your new YouTube courts will look like this, via a rendering from YouTube…

Icon Realty adds the for rent signs at the former Cafe Pick Me Up

The for rent signs have arrived at 145 Avenue A, former home of Cafe Pick-Me Up, who was rent hiked out of its 20-year home here at East Ninth Street. (The cafe is now doing business from its sister restaurant Gnocco at 337 E. 10th St. just west of Avenue B.)

As for No. 145, the asking rent is $15,000, according to the listing, which also notes the space is perfect for "restaurant, bar, clothing store, salon, and all general retail uses."

An EVG reader sent along this photo showing what's left of the interior last week...



The owners still have five years left on the lease in the adjacent space at 147 Avenue A. Co-owner Gian Luca Giovanetti told DNAinfo that they were unsure what will become of this storefront.



Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike forcing Cafe Pick Me Up into its smaller space next door on Avenue A (59 comments)

[Updated] Cafe Pick Me Up expected to close for good after May 31

Café Pick Me Up closes Sunday night ahead of a move to share the Gnocco space on East 10th Street

More about the new Café Pick Me Up-Gnocco combo on East 10th Street