Hello Kitty not allowed in dog run

Tompkins Square Park today.

By Bobby Williams.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[This morning in Tompkins Square Park]

Uptick in muggings in East River Park (DNAinfo)

Neighbors angry over short-term stay hotels in StuyTown (Curbed)

Tyra Banks will have an office in the new Lower Eastside Girls Club HQ on Avenue D (The New York Times)

Extras seek role in CBGB biopic (Savannah Morning News)

The City Council's public hearing on NYU's massive proposed Village expansion is Friday, June 29 at 9:30 am (Off the Grid)

The music of Odetta Hartman, daughter of the Two Boots founders (DNAinfo)

The future of the Folsom Street East festival now that new neighbors are uptight (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Another look at Gin Palace on Avenue A (Grub Street)

Farewell Sue Simmons (Gothamist)

... and BoweryBoogie has the scoop on the next nightlife venture for the former Provident Loan Society building on Houston and Essex...

[EVG file photo]

As he writes, "the new concept is pretty much everything you might imagine – crowds, $15 cocktails, and bottle service – brought to the Lower East Side by a nightlife player."

'Totally Clueless' in the East Village today

A crew will be filming "Totally Clueless" today on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. (And elsewhere? Didn't investigate all that closely) ... It's a new MTV series... that The Wrap described this way:

"Totally Clueless" will follow "Punk'd" into MTV's hidden-camera programming — with the difference being that, in the new offering, people will win cash for figuring out that they are on television. "Our team of improv actors puts people into escalating rounds of uncomfortable situations," the network said of the show. "The sooner they figure out they are on a game show the more money they win."

MTV should come back and film this weekend. They'd never have to hand out any money.

How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

[EVG photos taken on April 8]

Nice Guy Eddie's made their closure public this week on Facebook. The 16-year-old bar's last day is Sunday.

As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

An EV Grieve reader who was at the April meeting noted that Rubell was noncommittal about keeping the Kiss mural on the restaurant's south wall along East First Street. (There was something to do with the size of the new windows for the space or something.) It seems rather unlikely that the mural would remain... As Greg at Eater put it, "That sweet, sweet Kiss mural will probably be the first thing to go."

While I like Kiss (well, mostly) and Chico's work, I don't have strong feelings about the mural ... or the bar... was never a place that I went to very often, if at all in the last 10-plus years. Still, I know people who do like it. (The bar and the mural.) Ditto for the burger on the Avenue A side.

If the mural does go... the entry points into the neighborhood have dramatically changed ... 14th Street and Avenue A is, for now, an empty lot ...

[EVG reader Tom]

Astor Place will be a (the?) Death Star...

And Avenue A and Houston with a new restaurant on the northwest corner and the Union Market on the northeast corner...

'Established food operators' wanted for former Polonia space on First Avenue

Just noting the for rent signs are up at Polonia, the homey Polish restaurant that closed last December here along First Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street.

Not many details on the listing (such as monthly rent):

Neighbors:
Empellon Cocina, Subway, McDonald's, Caracas Arepa Bar, Luke's Lobster Bar, Porchetta NYC, Pylos, Ricky's and Cafe Mogador

Comments:
-- Prime East Village Location
-- Currently vacant
-- Direct deal
-- Seeking established food operators

Looked at who the broker, New Street Realty, has leased to recently... the recent transactions include The Growler Station on West Eighth Street ... a 16 Handles ... the Subway next door to Polonia ... five Hale and Hearty Soup locations... one 7-Eleven ... a Just Salad ... a few bank branches...

Anyone want to go with a Hale & Hearty as the next tenant here then?

Workers just as bored with 7-Eleven as we are

Workers at the incoming 7-Eleven on IHOP Way left the lights on for us...



...and no paper on the windows? Where's the challenge in that?



Anyway, no one was around to ask when the space might be opening here on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A quick East Village 7-Eleven inventory

7-Eleven to complete suburbification of East 14th Street

7-Eleven's feeble attempt at an anti-blogger shield on the Bowery

You can now rent Bret Easton Ellis' apartment in the American Felt Building

Yesterday afternoon, Foster Kamer at The Observer noted that L.A.-based writer Bret Easton Ellis was renting out his American Felt Building apartment on East 13th Street. (Ellis announced the rental via Twitter.)



Here's the listing via Warburg:

This is your opportunity to rent at the famed American Felt Building, one of the best-known and most coveted addresses in the Union Square vicinity. The area where this apartment is located actually includes eight different neighborhoods, as this former factory building is ideally situated at the crossroads of Gramercy, Union Square, and the East & West Village. . . . The food shopping alone makes the area a destination: the original Greenmarket, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods are all only minutes away. The apartment features maple floors, double sinks, 14' ceilings, oversized windows, and a washer/dryer. Building amenities include a common garden off the lobby and a roof deck. Topping it off is a private, exclusive, 400 square foot terrace. This is an open loft. There is no separate bedroom - but lots of open space where you can live the life you love.

[How loud can you play the Huey Lewis and The News here?]

Price: $5,000 a month. And you can see it during an Open House Friday evening 6-7 and Sunday afternoon 2:30-3:30. And you never know who you'll bump into.

What's taking over the TenEleven space on Avenue C

On June 5, we reported that TenEleven would be closing at 171 Avenue C at the end of this month.

A reader left us this comment on the post:

"The new bar there will be called Evelyn Drinkery, I believe. The guys are cool and have some cool ideas."

There is a landing page for the bar with an email address ... they also created a Facebook and Twitter account ...

Via Facebook, one of the Evelyn Drinkery proprietors declined to share any information about the new bar at this time. (For instance, we were curious about the new bar name, and if it had anything to do with one of TenEleven's owners, Evelyn McCue.)

However, he did say "I can assure you and your readers that we are all well acquainted with the neighborhood and only plan on beautifying The spot."

According to Facebook, they plan to open in August.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: TenEleven closing at the end of June

[Image via the Evelyn Drinkery website]

Nice Guy Eddie's closing Sunday

An EVG Facebook friend shared this news with us...



As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

Is Ian Schrager going to build a hotel on the Bowery?

Hmm. According to Lois Weiss in the Post today, hotelier Ian Schrager is in contract for a new hotel.

Is the Bowery a possibility? Per the Post:

While he didn’t say where ... Schrager said he likes the Bowery, and that the bar and restaurant action there "bodes well" for hotels and residential.

Meanwhile, thoughtless construction equipment ruins a perfectly good pizza on Avenue A

A reader notes the following this morning in front of (a surprisingly clean-looking) 100 Avenue A...



One of the pieces of equipment the workers are using on the (gas?) main repair on Sixth and A made a special delivery...



Not sure which came first — the pizza or the wheel.

Is it time to leave the East Village?

A reader left this comment on the Starbucks post from yesterday... and I've been thinking about it...

It's a whole new demographic around here at this point. I know because I've talked to some of my neighbors who are recent college grads from places like Wake Forest or Villanova or Bucknell, etc. I've heard it from the horse's mouth — there is a whole culture here of these type of transplants. They really do hang out together at places like "13th step" and they really are clueless about this neighborhood and what it once was. It's a tidal wave, it's an epochal shift. The EV as you knew it is officially over. I hate to be a defeatist but IMO it is time to wave the white flag. I myself am planning to move out within a couple of years and it is the thought of that helps get me through my New York days.

I've heard variations of this sentiment many times — more so in the last few months than in any recent years ... I know people who have left — chased by the luxurification — to find lower rents in the upper reaches of Manhattan or the outer sections of Queens or Brooklyn... and I know people who continue to talk about moving, disgusted by the luxurification ... some people I know who discuss leaving cite as a reason the continued influx of more and more bars (and bargoers), one concept seemingly dumber than the previous one. Some people tell me that they don't fit in any more. Too old. Too weird. Too broke. Time to go.

Understandable.

Are you thinking about moving too? Are you ready to raise the white flag?

In closing, here's some perspective from a New York Times article (excerpted via Ephemeral New York here) titled "The affluent set invades the East Village."

The article is from November 1964.

Bowery Electric's new-look entrance; plus a new live room

We've been watching workers put in a new entrance over at The Bowery Electric...

Before...

[Bobby Williams]

We also recently watched a worker clean up the Bowery Electric's neon sign...

Anyway, here's the entrance now (well, as of Sunday anyway) ...



Aside from a new entryway... the Bowery Electric folks said that they are debuting a new live room tonight (it's at the back of the main bar) ... with a spoken word performance by Brother Mike Cohen...

165 Avenue B back on the market

There's a new broker for 165 Avenue B, the building just north of East 10th Street.... (we looked at it here in February 2011 ...)



Here's the Corcoran listing:

Great live/work 'loft' building for sale on a prime block in the East Village; just steps from Tompkins Square Park. Approximately 5,700 square feet, this six unit apartment building has tremendous upside since the spaces can be used for residential, commercial and retail. Four of the units can be delivered vacant and the remaining two within one year. The building has a commercial overlay which allows the ground floor to be used as retail or commercial space. The five story building is 23'8" wide with two and three bedroom floor through apartments on the top four floors and two commercial units on the ground floor, one with a separate entrance. The lot is 93' deep with a large garden, there is a two story extension on the rear ... 1,865 sq ft of air rights remain. Zoned R7-2 with a C1-5 overlay.

Not sure what the future will hold here... but I did like the last retail tenant, as I've written... Waldorf Hysteria ...



[Waldorf image via]

Your 'Saints of the Lower East Side'

Oops... we're really late with this one...



We received the news release last week... and here it is...

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) presents "Saints of the Lower East Side" by artist Tom Sanford, the latest in a series of exhibitions produced through FABnyc's public art program, ArtUp. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge at the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center. ...

This exhibition is Tom Sanford's first outdoor public art project. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, "These seven individuals [Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg], along with hundreds more, make the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist."

A reception for the artist will be held on June 26th, 2012 at 6pm at FAB Café. ..

.



The art will be up until Sept. 5 or so... Sanford and Graham Preston installed "The Saints" on June 4... Here's one of the photos via Sanford's website...

Mission in the rain

First Avenue and St. Mark's Place this afternoon.

Photo by Bobby Williams

Someone finally bought this home after four years on the market

That beautiful home (a single-family Anglo-Italianate townhouse!) over at 123 E. 10th St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue has been on the market for more than four years...

But!

Crain's reports today that an unnamed buyer finally, um, bought the five-story, 4,200-square-foot home close to its asking price of $6.25 million.

Its neighbor at 125 is also on the market. A buyer could have, er, bought both and combined them for $12.5 million ... or not. Jason Haber, co-founder of Rubicon Property, the broker since February 2011, believes the purchaser will purchase 125 in the end as well.

The two began life on the market at $19.5 million.

And a brief history of the address via Streeteasy...



Previously.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition

[Bobby Williams]

Celebrities, models and celebrity models flock to the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street for some Stella McCartney party (W)

All about The New York Pizza Project (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Paulaner Brewery says hello on the Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

A crane or maybe a boom on East Fourth Street (Occupy East Fourth Street)

The Beagle changes up the menu on Avenue A (Grub Street)

"The Etiquette of Death" at LaMaMa (The Lo-Down)

Roald Dahl's "House of Curiosities" at the RATS Company (DNAinfo)

Grey Era Vintage proprietor Sierra Fromberg passed along word of The Summer Collective on Thursday evening...



...and a photo of a photo shoot this morning on East 10th Street between Avenue C and D via Matt LES_Miserable...

The Bean's First Avenue location opens Thursday

The Bean's Ike Escava tells us that the location at 147 First Ave. (at East Ninth Street) will open on Thursday ... Meanwhile, EVG regular jdx wandered into the location yesterday for a look...











Previously on EV Grieve:
A bigger Bean coming now to 147 First Ave.

Rumors: Ground floor at 147 First Avenue will include the Bean AND a bar

The Bean is now apparently opening on every corner in the East Village

Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave., former home to Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant

[March 30]

Back on April 26, a worker at the newly unveiled 219 First Ave. told EV Grieve reader Greg Masters that a Starbucks was opening in the retail space here...

Of course! But you never know with such intel from construction workers.

Anyway, in the last few days, paper went up on the windows here at East 13th Street ...



A newly issued work permit points to the incoming tenant...



Well, a Starbuck singular.

And while we let that sink in... might as well bring up again that the ground floor here once housed the Mee Noodle Shop, a favorite spot for Allen Ginsburg.

As the Times noted in its obituary on Ginsberg from April 1997:

Ah Lan Chong, a waitress at Mee's Noodle Shop and Grill on First Avenue, which was Mr. Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant, remembered Mr. Ginsberg in simpler, less heavily freighted terms.

Sure, she knew he was someone important, someone artistic. She could tell that from overheard conversations and from the way other diners would sometimes point at him when he entered. But to Ms. Chong, he was mainly the unfussy man with a dependable hankering for steamed flounder in ginger sauce. "When he came in," she said, "we knew what he wanted."

And so it goes...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Today in rumors of another Starbucks opening in the East Village

219 First Avenue ready for a chain store, probably

All is well in air-conditioning land along East Seventh Street

Here's a slightly belated follow-up post on the situation at 140-150 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and Avenue B... As we reported last May 10 ... to address leaks, the landlords were going to seal up the wall sleeves for air conditioners ... and were asking residents to purchase window units (which the landlord will kick in $200 for...)

Several residents were quite unhappy with this situation. (Read our post here for all the background.)

Meanwhile! A resident provides an update: "All is fine in air conditioning land, but the scaffolding will be up for a while longer while they repoint and replace the AC sleeves."

Here's the latest missive from the landlords...


[Click image to enlarge]

Another six months for the scaffolding? Down in time for the holiday season!

Previously on EV Grieve:
Why there could be a long, hot summer at 140-150 E. Seventh St.

Your chance to make this East 13th Street building a little taller

406 E. 13th St. near First Avenue is back on the market ... the current asking price for the building with two residences and a retail space is $4.3 million.

A few of the highlights via RES Sales and Marketing Corp:

• New roof engineered for future build out
• All walls sound deadened and constructed with heavy gauge steel studs
• Approximately 1,350 sf of air rights (amount is estimated and subject to NYC dept of buildings and city planning approval)

We'll skip over the stuff about Brazilian walnut "jotoba" hardwood floors and show show you some pictures via Streeteasy...







...and the A Building is likely just a little out of reach to have dueling roof parties...