An outpost of Coddiwomple is now open at 213 First Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street. (They debuted this past weekend with a sandwich giveaway).
This is the third location (following the Upper East Side and Hell's Kitchen) for the brand with the tagline: "Travel By Sandwich™️ Internationally inspired sandwiches made with local ingredients."
Sandwiches include the Roman Holiday (prosciutto, mozzarella, pesto, fresh tomatoes, arugula and balsamic vinaigrette on ciabatta) and the Savannah Smash
(chicken salad — pulled breast with secret mayo dressing — and avocados on warm baguette). Find their menu here.
The EV location will have a dine-in option, per the Coddiwomple Instagram account.
Late last night, the rando Santa Claus looked all aglow in an upright position under the holiday tree in Tompkins Square Park, as these photos by EVG reader Jake Bowling show...
As we've been noting this week (here and here), someone brought this Santa figure to the tree in the park sometime Sunday night or Monday morning.
At one point, Santa was standing proudly... other times, he was flat on his back, per hijinks.
And through some detective work (our fee: $200 per day plus expenses) and some reader comments, we learned how Santa came to town to the park. (Early reports that Santa was nabbed from a lobby turned out to be incorrect.)
This Santa had been holding forth outside East Village Social on St. Mark's Place this past holiday season.
On Sunday night, someone from the bar transported SC to his new resting place... here's a video via Instagram showing Santa on the move (to the gentle strains of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord."
An update on the decorative Santa figure that found its way underneath the holiday tree in Tompkins Square Park early yesterday — or overnight Sunday. (First post here.)
As EVG decorative Santa correspondent Steven noted, there was a moment of joy yesterday afternoon when good samaritans propped up the Santa for a more traditional and dignified Santa stance...
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end on a happy note.
No, at some point, TBD, Santa ended up flat on his back once again... as seen this morning...
At first glimpse, there were some SantaCon flashbacks. Then, concern for a possibly injured or inebriated individual dressed as Santa on this frigid Jan. 10.
However, it is a life-size Santa figure.
As we understand it, a resident left this in his lobby yesterday for the super to stow for the season. Someone ended up dragging Santa here instead. Update! This was the Santa out front at East Village Social on St. Mark's Place. They made a special delivery.God Bless us, everyone!
After five-plus years as the manager of the Tompkins Square Library branch, Corinne Neary is moving on this holiday season.
Neary is heading to the Jefferson Market branch on Sixth Avenue when it reopens later this winter. (She worked there as a trainee and senior librarian before coming to Tompkins Square in November 2016.)
Patrons of this branch on 10th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B have said that they appreciated Neary's attention to the neighborhood's history ... especially its writers and artists — past and present — with events such as the East Village Arts Festival and various walking tours. Her programing was also top-notch... and she has excellent taste in classic films (a Myrna Loy triple feature!).
We talked with her during the EVG podcasting days for a session in early 2019. Find that conversation here.
A 15-year NYPL veteran, Will Hall, takes over for Neary at Tompkins Square.
The Russian & Turkish Baths have reopened their doors at 268 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
Established in 1892, the popular bathhouse has been closed since the pandemic's start in March 2020.
They reopened yesterday.
Partners and brothers (from left) Dmitry and Jack Shapiro gave me a tour of the newly remodeled and renovated space...
Here are the hours during this holiday weekend:
• Christmas Day: 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.
• Sunday/Boxing Day: 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. (9 a.m. until 2 p.m. men only; 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. coed).
All patrons must be vaccinated and present proof of vaccination. Capacity, for now, is limited to 40.
Here's more info from the Russian & Turkish Baths website:
We will not be honoring prepaid admission passes or memberships at this time. We will reassess this policy in the New Year. Admission will be $50 per person.
Vaccination cards will be checked for all patrons. If you are not feeling well or are not vaccinated, you will not be allowed in the Baths.
Dmitry and Jack's father, David, a longtime owner here, passed away in the spring of 2020. Boris Tuberman remains an owner ... and will still have the Boris weeks.
We last checked in with the undisputed king of East Village Christmas, Frank “Frankie Christmas” Bianco, at this time last year.
This year Bianco, a Brooklyn native who has lived here since 1980, welcomed us back to his winter wonderland apartment on Avenue D with an update on the lighting schedule...
“This year, I shattered my previous record and was able to put up a total of 11,875 lights, about 1,500 more than last year. To finish by Dec. 1, I usually start decorating as soon as the Labor Day weekend finishes. For the last couple of months, it took me about 200 hours to complete each room in my apartment. I usually spend an hour or two each night of the week decorating and get the bulk of it done on the weekends, where I may spend up to eight hours decorating.”
What else is new?
“It’s a tradition to get at least a half dozen Christmas tattoos every year since moving down to the LES. I have 11 new snowflake tattoos and the Grinch’s hand holding an ornament. Similar to my Christmas tattoos, I always make sure to add a few new decorations to my apartment as well. I purchased a Christmas Tree from Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the largest Christmas store in the world located in Frankenmuth, Mich., and my favorite new addition, a Swarovski 2021 snowflake ornament.”
...and now take a tour...
What can we look forward to next year?
“In 2022, I’m somehow putting up more lights than I did this year! It’ll be tough, but I’m confident I’ll be able to [string more than] 12,000 lights. I’ll also be returning to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland to find new additions to my collection, and most important spread the Christmas Spirit!”
Read our Q&A with Frankie from last year at this link.
Here's your annual reminder that EVG is another year older.
The very first post arrived on this site on this date in 2007. It was about Sophie's, which is why I posted the top pic.
I explained the origins of this news site in our gala 13th-anniversary post right here.
So let's use the rest of the allotted time in this post to thank you for reading the site, leaving comments, sharing tips, commiserating about the loss of a business and celebrating the best neighborhood around. As I've said before, this site doesn't work without you.
A big thanks to all the frequent contributors, especially Derek Berg and Steven, for their ongoing photo and tip submissions. And a special shout-out to Stacie Joy for her tireless work in documenting the businesses and residents of the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, a happy and healthy holiday season to you!
In recent days, several published reports have suggested that SantaCon, held on Dec. 11 in bars and venues in parts of Midtown and in the East Village, played a role in the current surge of positive COVID-19 cases in Manhattan. (It's also a topic brought up in the EVG comments.)
City Councilmember Mark Levine, chair of the Health Committee and Manhattan Borough president-elect, helped bolster this case when he tweeted Saturday about the high numbers in the city: "And yes SantaCon may partly be to blame."
Manhattan unfortunately now has highest covid rate in NYC.
This is partly because we test more. But this should serve as a warning about how much omicron is out there. Be especially cautious about indoor gatherings where masks come off. (And yes SantaCon may partly be to blame.) pic.twitter.com/DoSOidFhkq
In a story published Sunday, The Daily Mailnoted, "The SantaCon surge: Covid cases in Manhattan QUADRUPLE in the six days since notorious costumed bar crawl." The article builds its case on the Levine tweet and other social media posts where people said they tested positive after attending the annual bar crawl that was postponed in 2020.
Here's more from The Cut at New York magazine from Thursday:
Last year, SantaCon was thankfully canceled due to the pandemic. This year, there's still a pandemic — not to mention a highly contagious variant spreading — but like many other holiday gatherings that now seem ill-advised, it happened anyway despite fears it had all the makings of a super-spreader event. And now, surprise: #santacon TikTok is flooded with people who attended and have since tested positive for COVID-19.
The Cut assembled a collection of the SantaCon-COVID clips on TikTok.
Meanwhile, Business Insider also pointed the finger at SantaCon for this current uptick in a piece titled "The SantaCon surge has hit NYC" from Saturday.
Per their report:
[S]ince last weekend — which saw the return of SantaCon, NYC's biggest event of debauchery and drunken revelry — many a New Yorker's phones have blown up with texts from friends saying they'd been exposed to Covid. Positivity rates have doubled in the past three days, with cases in the city up more than 40 percent in one day, recording the highest one-day total since January 14.
Later, the piece backs off a bit from the headline:
To be sure, SantaCon isn't entirely to blame for the Omicron wave. Companies have been holding in-person holiday parties and NYC nightlife has been back to normal for quite some time. Health restrictions, like mask mandates and social distancing, have been increasingly disregarded.
In a post published yesterday at Bushwick Daily, three residents who tested positive and work at bars-restaurants in the East Village or Lower Manhattan blamed SantaCon for spreading COVID.
East Village bartender Iseult James told the site that "the event might have been a super spreader and is largely to blame for the uptick in positive tests. So now, instead of spending Christmas with her husband's parents in Fort Greene, the couple must stay at home."
As multiple news outlets have already reported, average daily case counts in New York City more than doubled over the week ending Dec. 17, according to the latest data available on the city's health department website. NYC is reporting a seven-day average of more than 7,200 cases per day, up from about 3,200 the week prior, a 127-percent increase.
According to the NYC Health site, neighborhoods including the East Village and Murray Hill, where SantaConners mingled on Dec. 11, have among the highest positivity rates in the five boroughs for the week ending Dec. 17. The citywide positivity rate is at 7.68 percent.
Here are the two zip codes that include parts of the East Village... 10009 had a positivity rate of 9.79 percent while 10003 had a rate of 11.81 percent (click on the image for more detail) ...
The zip code encompassing Kips Bay/Murray Hill is at 11.14 percent ...
Of course, SantaCon participants or bar employees who have tested positive don't necessarily live in these zip codes. (Also, these zip codes also have high rates of fully vaccinated adults, above the city's 71 percent.)
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio addressed the rise in COVID cases during a press conference yesterday.
"It's going to be a very challenging few weeks. But the good news is based on what our healthcare leadership understands, at this moment, we are talking about a matter of weeks," de Blasio said, as CNBC reported.
The mayor went on to say that New Yorkers infected with omicron are experiencing mild symptoms so far, though many unanswered questions remain about the variant.
"We're going to see a really fast upsurge in cases; we're going to see a lot of New Yorkers affected by omicron," de Blasio said. "So far, thank God based on everything we've seen, the cases are milder than what we've experienced previously."
Gov. Hochul reemphasized yesterday that there would not be any new shutdowns.
"It's not March of 2020. It's not even December of 2020. Just to keep things in perspective, it is milder than delta," Hochul said of omicron, per NBC 4. "We are avoiding a government shutdown because we now have the tools available to all of us — vaccinations, booster shots, masks — particularly for the variant we're dealing with."
You can find information on vaccines and boosters via the city at this link. Find a city-affiliated testing site here.
For starters, given the weather on Saturday, organizers, including Jeremiah Moss and EVG contributor Stacie Joy, had to move the event to the rain date of yesterday.
From 2-4 p.m., volunteers served 600-plus free hot meals in the Park... providing some good food and vibes in the process...
The following businesses and residents donated to the event:
Scooter LaForge, Stacie Joy, C&B Cafe, S'MAC, Food for Life, Marjorie Ingall and Jonathan Steuer, Chris Flash, Mary O's, San Loco, Rossy's Bakery, Molly Crabapple, EVLovesNYC, Gavin Downie, Jon Thornton, Tiffeani James, Jeremiah Moss and Rebecca Levi, Derrick the Abolitionist, Leslie Feinberg, Hank Chmielinski and Holli Porreca, Rosie Kahn and Dan Grimes.
Stacie and Jeremiah also thank all the community members who donated their time yesterday volunteering for the Community Feast. And to all a happy and healthy holiday season...
