The big dig begins for 6-story, 2-unit condo on East 9th Street

[Jeff Day ©2013]

In Early February, we spotted a few workers in the soon-to-be-former parking lot at 327 E. Ninth St. pushing some dirt around here between First Avenue and Second Avenue ...

Late least week, the work really began on the six-story, two-unit residential building.


[Jeff Day ©2013]

Also, EVG regular William Klayer notes that the dig has turned up some underground brick from the previous structure here...





Anyway, it looks like this now ... and as a reminder of what will eventually materialize ...

[Via Curbed]

And how was your St. Patrick's Day weekend?

[Bobby Williams]

As you may have noticed, it was St. Patrick's Day/Weekend this past, uh, weekend. Most people we talked with talked didn't think the weekend got out of hand as perhaps anticipated. At least by SantaCon standards.

It wasn't incident free, as this photo by the post office on East 11th Street and Fourth Avenue shows...


[Photo by @gradydunning]

And we have no idea what happened here on St. Mark's Place. Likely had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day. But there is a guy with a green shirt standing there!


[Photo by @Knickerbock4Lif]

And a few photos via Scoboco's Flickr account, where you can find more East Village shots here.





Some readers have already left their observations here. Please leave any additional St. Patrick's Day thoughts in the comments below.

Reader report: 8th Street Winecellar looking to open a 4th Street location

Last evening, members of the East 4th Street A & B Block Association and other concerned residents met to discuss several new bars-cafes-restaurants in the works for this part of the East Village.

Reps from some of the bars were apparently on-hand to discuss their ventures. One tidbit. We didn't know who was angling for the space at 211 E. Fourth St. vacated late last year by JujoMukti Tea Lounge. A tipster tells us that the folks behind the 8th Street Winecellar are hoping to take that space. They are expected to be on the April CB3/SLA committee agenda.

Here's a description of the place via New York:

Located below street level on a busy Greenwich Village block, this warm, unpretentious wine bar keeps oenophiles lingering with a helpful staff and shareable small plates of charcuterie and pigs in blankets. Owners Jonny Cohen and Michael Lagnese are veteran Union Square Café barkeeps—the T-shirt-clad duo are often caught behind the wood-accented bar, dropping an informed suggestion from their lengthy selection of affordable wines (no bottle over $100).

No word if they will change their name here to 4th Street Winecellar.

[Image via the 8th Street Winecellar website]

This East Village residence has its own screening room

There are new listings for 310 E. Ninth St. near Second Avenue, where the Google Street View car immortalized these people enjoying some Mud Coffee on the front stoop...

Per the Corcoran listing:

Brand New Exclusive ... 3500SF (approx) Exquisite Residence featuring 3 Floors of Living with 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Bathrooms, Parlor Level with Master Suite, Garden Level with Private Backyard/Patio ...

The Formal Parlor Room with Wood-Burning Fireplace and 11’ Ceilings defines elegance and is the perfect way to welcome guests into your home. The Spacious Master Suite has an Elevated Bedroom, Dressing Area, extra-large Soaking Tub and Separate Shower Enclosure. Descend the Staircase to the Garden Level with its 20' Ceilings, Wall of Windows exposing the Tranquil Backyard/Patio and allowing Bright, Southern Light to dramatically illuminate the residence. Chefs will revel in the restaurant-worthy Kitchen with Granite Countertops, Stainless Steel Appliances, Wolf Stove and Hood, SubZero Fridge, Miele Dishwasher, Exposed Wood-Beam Ceilings and great cabinetry.

Another Wood-Burning Fireplace, Wall of Exposed Brick and Recessed Lighting provide a cozy feel to the enormous Living Room. The Recreation/Screening Room Level is outfitted with a Projector and Movie Screen.

Sadly, no photos of the screening room.

Oh. Price: $17,500.

Some unknown LLC bought the building in May 2010 for $3.2 million. Anyway, if this rental is too much, then there's another unit at 310 for just $12,500.

1 of Sharon's laundromats has closed on East 13th Street

The laundromat near Third Avenue — right across the street from The Jeffersons — closed last week... (Didn't spot the listing online just yet...)

However, the owner does still have a second location down the block toward Second Avenue...



Perhaps laundromats are on the endangered list? One on East 10th Street is closing; one on East Second Street is likely becoming a bar.

This is what 400 pounds of high-gluten flour looks like on an East Village sidewalk

Spotted sitting outside Joey Pepperoni on First Avenue ...

Yogurt Station serves again on St. Mark's Place

Apparently the Yogurt Station on St. Mark's Place, which has had trash bags adorning its windows since November, was just Closed for the FroYo season. They are back open.

UFO sighting this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

Turned out to be peaceful. Photos by Bobby Williams.

Today's hawk in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Week in Grieview

[East Ninth Street near Broadway looking east toward 51 Astor Place]

Here is the 'East Village3' (Monday)

The excavation outside the former Cabrini Center (Monday)

Out and About with Mistress Evil (Wednesday)

The Lucky Cheng's sign comes down (Monday)

Photos from the Coney Island USA Spring Gala (Sunday)

Zaragoza turns 13 (Thursday)

The Bleecker Bob's sale is under way (Friday)

Papaya King for St. Mark's Place (Thursday)

Steamed at Con Ed (Monday)

Laundry-bistro still in the works (Friday)

Flea Market Cafe reopened (Monday)

A good sign for the Native Bean (Tuesday)

Jennifer's Way Bakery to star in reality-TV pilot (Wednesday)

Trees for 51 Astor Place (Wednesday)

[Video] Really liking this board (Thursday)

A Subway seized on East 14th Street (Tuesday)

A gluten-free Italian cafe for East Fifth Street (Wednesday)

Where is Biker Bill? (Tuesday)

A Ramones movie? (Wednesday)

... and Richard Hell at East Village Radio (Wednesday)


[Richard Hell photo for EV Grieve by James Maher]

Reminders tonight: Meeting to discuss incoming East Village bars

As noted back on Monday, there's an East Village community meeting tonight ... of particular interest to residents of the southern stretch of Avenue B and the side streets. (Read that post here.)

The meeting, sponsored by the East 4th Street A & B Block Association, will be held from 6:30-7:30 in the community room at 535 E. Fifth St.

Of particular interest is 14 Avenue B, where folks behind Urge hope to open a new bar.

Casey Rubber Stamps hosts their 7th annual St. Patrick's Night Party tonight

Casey Rubber Stamps on East 11th Street is one of the most unique shops around... and one of my favorite places here.

Tonight, owner John Casey, who moved here from Ireland at age 16, throws his annual St. Patrick's Night Party... No woo, just some local fun...


[Courtesy of EVG reader Chris]

Here's a little more on the shop via WNYC...

The walls of his narrow shop — which doubles as his workshop — on 11th Street in Manhattan are lined with myriad stamps ranging from whales to peas-in-a-pod, spider webs, shells, guns, teeth, the Manhattan skyline and even that most fearsome creature: the bed bug. About half his business comes from selling pre-made stamps that range from $3 to $15. The other half is custom designs that customers request or bring in.

Rubber stamping is a simple technology that dates back about 150 years — and to judge from the operation at this tiny store, it really hasn't changed that much.

East Village residents already giving up on spring

East 10th Street and Third Avenue this morning... wind chill is in the 20s at the moment.

Also! To show the trend. From last Sunday on Second Avenue and East Fourth Street...

At 9:12 a.m., there were 7 people waiting for McSorley's to open

The other two people were across the street having a cigarette. Anyway, I expected more people by now.

The bar opens today at noon.

A more traditional St. Patrick's Day celebration at St. Brigid's this morning

During the 10 a.m. mass today ... Avenue B and East Eighth Street...

Photo by Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Editon

[East Second Street]

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery seeks donor for ramp for disability access (DNAinfo)

Citysearch names Tompkins Square Bagels as Best Bagel in NYC (Citysearch)

Recalling the squatter evictions at 545 and 541 E. 13th St. (The Villager)

Con Ed overcharges this East Village resident (Gothamist)

East Houston Street construction update (DNAinfo)

First look inside Duane Park on the Bowery (Eater)

Figuring out where Mick Jones of the Clash was standing on Third Avenue (Flaming Pablum)

At Bugs on East 12th Street: "It is the kind of place you are relieved still exists in the East Village: tiny, a little kooky, with its own weather." (The New York Times)

St. Patrick's Day history on the LES (The Lo-Down)

George Tabb's new guitar straps (Guitar International)

Rules at the new Delancey Plaza (BoweryBoogie)

Check out "Rhapsodic City: Music of New York" coming to the New York Public Library (Stupefaction)

Remembering the Rawhide (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Nothing Wimpy about Crash's Popeye mural

Crash has finished his work on the Houston/Bowery Mural Wall ...



And perhaps my favorite mural here in some time. You?

Find more photos from yesterday afternoon at Animal NY.

P.S.
Sorry about that headline. It's really bad.

Please explain

Spotted this morning on East 10th Street near Fourth Avenue.

Morning tweets

Flea market today -- St Brigid's at 7th and B. twitter.com/evgrieve/statu…

— evgrieve (@evgrieve) March 16, 2013

What times does McSorley's open on St. Patrick's Day?

Noon. Because someone asked.

And today they opened at 8 a.m. No line. At 8:45 anyway.



And not all that boisterous inside...



...and the McSorley's bus idles outside to take people to the St. Patrick's Day today...



And no — the driver doesn't take requests to drive people out to the middle of nowhere and leave them.

[And yes on that headline.]

Green days

For this weekend. New Order with "Everything's Gone Green" live from The Ukranian National Home on Second Avenue ... Nov. 19, 1981.

At long last, Hyatt Union Square branded

Five years later here on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street... we'll check back with the latest opening date....

Previously on EV Grieve:
Through the years with the sunlight-blocking Hyatt Union Square, opening Nov. 15

The Bleecker Bob's closing sale is under way

Via Bleecker Bob's Facebook page:

thursday 3/14/13
well folks, very sorry but.....
Bleecker Bob's
C-L-O-S-I-N-G S-A-L-E
starts today!!!!!

No word on an actual closing date... or whether they will actually have a counter inside the new tenant's place — Forever Yogurt.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[UPDATED] Let's help Bleecker Bob's find space in the East Village

Bleecker Bob's is for rent

Everything's gone green

Everyone is getting in on the act — even Nicoletta. Second Avenue and East 10th Street... Photo by EVG contributor William Klayer.

And the whole ad...

Report: NYC is now sterilizing rats

Every so often, at the right time, there seem to be more rats than humans around here. And, apparently, there's little to stop their fucking spawning.

Per this article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "rats are remarkably fertile, sometimes birthing 12 pups per litter and as many as seven litters in a year."

The article goes on to cover how city officials are planning on curbing the rat population in the subways.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority has kick-started a pilot program to sterilize female rats. To do this, it is teaming up with Flagstaff (Ariz.)-based SenesTech, a company that invented ContraPest, a product that, when consumed orally by rats, accelerates egg loss and can cause infertility in days.

But!

The article is quick to note that the end goal isn't to completely get rid of the rats. That may actually make things worse.

Said SenesTech CEO Loretta Mayer: "The overall goal is to diminish rat populations — but not wipe them out entirely because that would simply cause an influx of new rats."

What do you think of the idea? Could anything possibly go wrong?

[Image via]

Zoltar apparently no longer sees all

This morning on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place... What happened to his halting "I see you ..."?

An update on the laundromat closing on East 10th Street

Earlier in the week, a reader said that today marked the last day for the laundromat at 204 E. 10th St. near Second Avenue... (closing due to a large rent increase)...

This is not the case. Here is updated information from another reader:

"They have stopped accepting dry cleaning and hand pressed shirts. They will stop accepting laundry for service on Friday 3/22. They will not close until the following week. During those last days customers will be able to pick up as the Laundromat is cleared."

If you don't like 3 days of St. Patrick's Day pub crawls, then move to...

As you may have heard, St. Patrick's Day is Sunday. (Or, apparently, St. Paddy's Day.) Which, of course, can only mean three days of pub crawls at participating East Village bars, as the sign in the window there above at Village Pourhouse shows...

How bad will it be? What will do you do?

Anyway, suit up, bitches. Enjoy the weekend.


[Photo from Kmart via Crazy Eddie]

Favorite East Village places: The Odessa

At 119 Avenue A.

And don't forget the Odessa Cafe next door for some drinks.

Photo by EVG contributor Michael Sean Edwards.

Laundry-bistro concept not washed up

During Monday night's CB3/SLA committee meeting, members did not approve of the venture for 44 E. First St. — The Wash House, the laundromat-bistro concept that we reported on here. (Per an EVG informant at the meeting, committee members were apparently turned off, in part, by the fact that the applicants didn't have a clear idea of how much of the business would be derived from alcohol sales.)

We reached out to the proprietors via email to see what the next steps were. They had already signed a lease for the space here between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

"We're considering taking the concept to another space and subleasing the current space to an all-night arcade or skateboard shop/cafe."

Previously on EV Grieve:
A 'laundry bistro' in the works for East First Street