Saturday, May 7, 2011

Second Avenue, 9:48 a.m., May 7


Noted


Just noticed that Diablo Royale Este put up a Cinco de Mayo banner on the property that belongs to the coming-soon Tompkins Square Bagel next door ...

A new paver around Temperance Fountain

This morning, a worker was on the scene at Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park...


...adding a paver from the Make Your Mark in the Park program ...


Read more about the program here.

For your red eyes only


First Avenue near Third Street.

A flea market on Fourth Street today

[Bobby Williams]

Friday, May 6, 2011

Today in photos of rabbits on leashes in Tompkins Square Park


[By Bobby Williams]

More photos from today's Union Square bus fire





Courtesy of East Village-based photographer Stacie Joy.

Previously.

And it sounds like an empty house



The Stranglers with "Duchess" from 1979.

[Updated] School bus fire on Union Square






At 14th Street and 4th Avenue. No injuries reported.

After the fire: East Village Farm returning Monday

Five months after a devastating fire ...


[Special Monkey]

East Village Farm at Second Avenue and East Fourth Street is reopening Monday, as EV Grieve reader @mattheworley reports. EV Grieve correspondent Bobby Williams took this photo yesterday...


Meanwhile, nearly one year after the fire, there's no sign of life at the Stuyvesant Grocery (and the rest of the building) at 14th Street and Avenue A...


[Sergey]

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Major early-morning fire on Second Avenue and Fourth Street

Breaking: Tompkins Square Park ping-pong table defaced, a little bit

On March 19, the city installed a new permanent ping-pong table in Tompkins Square Park. And we've been wondering how long before someone tagged or defaced or befouled it.

Well! We now note the arrival of a sticker in the last, oh, well, since we walked by it yesterday.


What is the sticker promoting? Like the sports fan who runs out onto the field, the network that won't show the person and the announcer who gets all huffy about the fact that someone is on the field (help me out of this sentence!), we will not disclose that information.

To be continued, likely.

August Cardona buying Bowery Wine Company, expanding next door

There's the following item on this month's CB3/SLA meeting agenda under the Alterations/Transfers/Upgrades category:

• To Be Determined (Epicurean Management), 11 E 1st St (trans/op) (Bowery Wine)

Well, 11 E. First Street is the space to the east of the Bowery Wine Company.


According to documents on the CB3 website (warning! PDF!), August Cardona, owner of Dell'Anima, L'Artusi and Anfora, is the name of the applicant.


The plans call for buying the Bowery Wine Company and expanding into the empty space next door in the Avalon Bowery Place.


In total, there'll be 50 tables seating 160 people with plans for outdoor dining and a sidewalk cafe. The proposed hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.

Not familiar with Dell'Anima? Here's a summary via New York magazine:

This is what happens when a former Babbo sommelier and an ex–Del Posto kitchen whiz get together and open an unassuming little trattoria: mobs of salivating foodies and goggle-eyed scenesters clamoring to get in.

Salivating foodies? Goggle-eyed scenesters? Sounds about right for the Bowery 2.0.

The CB3/SLA meeting is May 16 at 6:30 pm — JASA/Green Residence, 200 East 5th Street at the Bowery.

Soon, you'll be able to go No. 1 or No. 2 at First and First — for 25 cents


The Villager has the poop on an item on this month's CB3 agenda. As Lesley Sussman reports, the Department of Transportation plans to install an Automatic Public Toilet (A.P.T.) at the southeast corner of First Avenue and First Street on the small concrete island that separates Houston and First Streets.

Per The Villager:

The first A.P.T. was installed three years ago in Madison Square Park and is one of 20 D.O.T. plans for the city. There are currently three A.P.T.’s in operation.

The toilet is self-cleaning and would cost 25 cents to use. Operating hours would be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — not much solace for clubgoers after a night of beer swigging.

Image via.

The pleasures of eating in Extra Place


Previously.

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

In Extra Place, no hoop for you!

Oh, crap. So much for my little hoops obsession in Extra Place...

Before!


And right after that!


And now!

[Bobby Williams]

The hoop is gone.

So who was the killjoy?

Fat Sal's is open now on Avenue A


Here's at the former APizzA spot on Avenue A, the fifth NYC location of Fat Sal's opened yesterday.

Also, for the record... we once noted a reader's concern about the pizzeria's new ventilation blower that was really going to "suck (or blow) big time" (heh) ... However, the reader has noted that Fat Sal's has been a very good neighbor since moving in, and they even spent extra money on a less-noisy ventilation system...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Fat Sal's coming to Avenue A

The Bowery now safe for celebrity smooching


Photogs spotted actress Diane Kruger and her boyfriend Pacey Witter Johusa Jackson necking and stuff on the Bowery before lunch at Gemma the other day. And now you can get on with your day.

[Photo via OK!]

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Seventh Street, 8:54 p.m., May 5


Photo by Dave on 7th.

Today in photos of Frisbee-catching dogs in Tompkins Square Park




Photos by Frisbee-catching Dog correspondent Bobby Williams.

Not Too Big To Jail



Pee Phone hijinks on Avenue A at Seventh Street. But is the phone working again?

[Photos by Dave on 7th]

Live like a Stuyvesant, and own a piece of East Village history

A historic home is now on the market at 25 Stuyvesant Street.


How historic? Per the listing at Brown Harris Stevens:

Petrus Stuyvesant laid out the street plan for the development of his property in 1787, naming several nearby streets after his children, Judith, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Cornelia. His son, Peter, would famously go on to found the New York Historical Society while his grandson, Hamilton Fish, born at 21 Stuyvesant Street, would later become Governor of New York and then Secretary of State for eight years.



Designed by renowned New York architect James Renwick, Jr., who went on to design St. Patrick's Cathedral and Grace Church among many other buildings, the Anglo-Italianate row of 23-35 Stuyvesant Street was completed in 1861 as part of the larger "triangle" formed by the point where East 10th Street meets Stuyvesant.

But what about the house? Well, in part:

Retaining its elegant and thoughtful single-family floor plan, 25 Stuyvesant Street is approximately 3380 square feet inside, built 16' x 39' on a 59 foot deep lot with six levels, including the garden level, plus the basement for mechanicals and storage. There is a grand stoop entry as well as a second entrance below the stoop leading to the garden level.

The parlour floor has ceilings which measure 10' 10" with beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows, and an original medallion decorating the ceiling. There is an original marble surround on the wood-burning fireplace. With a full bath at the top of the stairs, the main living room in front connects to a library via an arched entryway also with original pocket doors.


This is so "Upstairs Downstairs" sounding, sort of. And there's isn't any kicker, such as, "Good investment property to tear down and build an NYU dorm." And it's yours for $4.5 million.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition


Second incarnation of Atlantic Book Shop closing (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Remembering Barnacle Bill Scott (Neither More Nor Less)

Prediction: More high-rises for the East Village in the next 10 years (The Local East Village)

2 Cooper Square residents helped kill the B Bar Beige party (Eater)

The R train is gross (Runnin' Scared)

Warning about Walmart on the LES (DNAinfo)

Tommy Hilfiger buys Madison Avenue's landmark clocktower (Curbed)

RIP 35 Cooper Square (Patell and Waterman’s History of New York)

What's replacing The Eldridge on Eldridge (BoweryBoogie)

Sounds like a headline from here!: Pair of Old East Village Buildings To Be Torn Down for Condos (Curbed Chicago)

And Dave on 7th notes the finished ad outside Alcatraz Sushi Lounge on Avenue A and St. Mark's...

A reader reminder about fire-escape windows

An email from a reader...

We were burglarized Friday night at our home on East Second Street and Avenue A by someone crawling through our fire escape window. They unlocked our security fire gate and came in. The worst part was, we were home. They emptied my purses, rummaged through things. Got off with cash, a camera and jewelry. Left our front door open as they escaped. Luckily we slept through it, but it was creepy.

And was her window open?

Our window was open a smidgen — like 2 inches. The gate was closed and locked. They must have had a very slim arm to reach inside and open it. Not to mention being really agile to climb in in complete silence. There were three of us there sleeping and nobody heard a thing.

Stranger than Merchandise

A new ad campaign from Uniqlo spotted on the 6 Train ...




Now featuring "Down by Law" T-shirts.

City's new First and Second Avenue bike and bus lanes are a success, city says



I'm just catching up to this story that Streestblog posted last Friday. The piece was based on a presentation by the Department of Transportation on the First and Second Avenue redesign.

Here are a few highlights via Streetsblog, where you can find more details as well as a dandy slideshow:

The new Select Bus Service is 15 percent faster than the old limited was. It goes 11 percent faster while moving, thanks to dedicated lanes enforced with cameras, and spends 36 percent less time at stops thanks to off-board fare payment.

• Where the bike lane and pedestrian refuge islands were installed, the street is much safer. Injuries declined by 8.3 percent compared to an average of the three previous years.

Riders are flocking to the new protected lanes. On First Avenue, there were more riders counted in December, January, and February with the lanes than in June without them. From June 2010 to April 2011, the count rose by 153 percent. On Second, where the base of riders was higher to start, the number of cyclists rose by 55 percent from June to April.

Noted

I asked the Superdive owners what became of the Superdive sign that workers removed on Tuesday.

The response:

"It will be moved to a new location soon to be revealed...
long live SUPERDIVE."

Driving to the hole in Extra Place

Since discovering the basketball hoop in Extra Place a few weeks ago...


...we've wondered who has been playing here. The gang from John Varvatos taking on Extra Place newcomers Daniel Boulud?

Maybe! Though on this day, here's who we saw playing... Kids!