Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo by Derek Berg from outside an NYFW show — Wiederhoeft — at LaMama on Fourth Street) ... 

• The former P.S. 64/Charas is now headed to a bankruptcy sale (Wednesday)

• Here's the first look at the new building slated for 50-64 Third Ave. (Friday) 

• The owner of Max restaurant is returning to Avenue B with a new pizzeria (Thursday)

• Report: Early morning stabbing on Avenue A at St. Mark's Place (Tuesday)

• Welcoming Beastie Boys Square to the Lower East Side (Monday) 

• At Fucking Awesome with Chloë Sevigny (Wednesday) 

• Kyp Malone's 'Dream Articulations' at Snow Gallery (Saturday)

• Openings: Cantina Cubana on Avenue B (Friday) ... Motel No Tell on Avenue A (Thursday) ... EVC Caffé on 5th Street (Wednesday) 

• Friday night with Crackhead Barney and Friends at Grace Exhibition Space on Avenue C (Thursday)

• Dim Sum Go Go's East Village outpost set for a soft opening (Thursday) 

• Report of a fire at 91 E. 3rd St. (Wednesday)

• Doja Cat's "Scarlet" alter ego spotted in Tompkins (Tuesday)

• Double rainbows on 9/11 (Monday) 

• Signage time for Seasoned Vegan (Monday) 

• The case of the missing East Village Mini Market signage (Thursday) 

• A look inside the incoming Popeyes on 14th Street (Monday) 

• Mr. Kim arrives on St. Mark's Place (Monday) 

• About Schmuck on 1st Avenue (Monday) 

• 5 weeks (or so) until the Wegmans at Astor Place opens (Tuesday) 

... speaking of Wegmans, reps were handing out freebies in Tompkins Square Park yesterday ahead of the grand opening on Oct. 18 (photo by Stacie Joy)...

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Kyp Malone's 'Dream Articulations' at Snow Gallery

Photos and text by Daniel Efram 

"Dream Articulations," multimedia artist Kyp Malone's first solo show, opened Thursday evening at Snow Gallery, 129 Eldridge St. between Delancey and Broome on the Lower East Side. 

Though Malone is known by many for his musical contributions to Rain Machine and previously, in large measure to TV on the Radio, he has been painting seriously since a young age.

"Dream Articulations" is a colorful and absurdist take on "a detailed imaginary world thought to originate in childhood." Malone grew up being deeply informed by the Jehovah's Witness; however, as he grew older, his track led away from the church's teachings, leading him to describe his art as "redecorating the architecture from cult indoctrinations." 

This impressive showing includes 13 watercolor pieces on paper. One of the highlights of the show is this highly detailed hand-painted jacket...

The show is up through Oct. 15. The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

Welcoming Beastie Boys Square to the Lower East Side

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

You can now officially call the corner of Ludlow and Rivington Beastie Boys Square on the Lower East Side.

On Saturday afternoon, the city unveiled the new street blade during a ceremony that included remarks from founding members Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz. 

The two NYC natives seem humbled by the honor, and expressed their gratitude to the city for making them who they are today. (You can watch the ceremony via the Beastie Boys' YouTube account.)

"We could not have ever been what we have become without growing up in New York City and hearing all this incredible music, being around all this incredible art, being just around all these incredible people that's only in New York City," Mike D said.

"Thank you for teaching us what to look at, what to listen to, what to wear, how to love, how to live," Ad-Rock said before delivering the afternoon's best line. "It makes me really happy to know that some kid on the way to school 50 years from now is gonna look up and say, 'What the fuck is a Beastie Boy? Why do they get a square?'" 

The ceremony included a tribute to Adam "MCA" Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012. Said Mike D: "He was our brother on this amazing journey that we all got to go through." 

This corner played a starring role on the cover of the group's iconic 1989 album Paul's Boutique. LeRoy McCarthy had been behind this effort and kept with it even after Community Board 3 voted 24 to 1 to reject the Beastie Boys Square application in January 2014. CB3 also reportedly barred McCarthy from reapplying for the street naming for five years. 

McCarthy — sporting a "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" t-shirt on a fire escape above the ceremony — received props from the crowd...

Despite the swampy weather, people packed the corner for the event, which also commemorated 50 years of hip-hop. 

Here are a few scenes from the crowd...

... and the moment it became official...

   

You can read this post for more about the new mural here by Brooklyn-based artist Danielle Mastrion

A look inside the incoming Popeyes on 14th Street

With the Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers outpost set to open Wednesday on Astor Place ... a few people have asked about another fried-chicken chain. 

The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen at 442 E. 14th St., just west of Avenue A, is looking nearly ready for deep-frying action. Workers removed the plastic graffiti barrier on the storefront... which provides a look inside... (H/T Edmund John Dunn!)

Still no word on an opening date here.

This incoming Popeyes combined two storefronts — the Lower East Side Coffee Shop, which closed here after 13 years in February 2021 ... and New Herbal World, which left in September 2019. 

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a photo on Second Avenue by Derek Berg) ... 

• A memorial for Dennis Edge in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday) 

• Hold it now, hit it: Beastie Boys Square is finally becoming a reality on the Lower East Side (Thursday) 

• Report of a stabbing Friday night in Tompkins Square Park (Saturday) 

• Vintage video shop 8 Bit and Up is closing in the East Village (Wednesday) 

• Flashback to 2011, when the Big Gay Ice Cream shop opened on 7th Street; and today's current legal battle (Monday) 

• Indian hit masters Unapologetic Foods opening Filipino restaurant Naks on 1st Avenue (Tuesday)

• About Tunji Dada's 'Phon(e)y Selections' (Friday) 

• Reader report: This tree could use some help on 4th Street (Thursday) 

• Openings: Cafe La Fe on 1st Street (Wednesday) ... Joey Bats on Avenue B (Thursday)

• Reports of smashed car windows on East Village side streets (Monday) 

• Concerns about some basic playground amenities in Tompkins Square Park (Wednesday)

• Total 'Recall' — new exhibit explores unsettled memories (Friday)

• Storefront shuffle on Avenue A (Wednesday) ... Whim Golf has closed on Avenue A (Tuesday) 

• ICYMI: Petopia is temporarily closed on Avenue A (Tuesday) 

• Raising Cane's is on the clock for opening day (Thursday) 

• Hello to Hello, Yam! on 9th Street (Tuesday) 

• The J Crew on the Bowery is back open (Tuesday)

... and Saifee's on First Avenue at Seventh Street is ready for fall even if we're not feeling it just yet (photo by Stacie Joy)...

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Total 'Recall' — new exhibit explores unsettled memories

East Village-based artist Jessica Frances Grégoire Lancaster is one-half of a new show (along with Pajtim Osmanaj) titled "Recall" that opens tomorrow (Saturday!) on the Lower East Side. 

Here's more via the gallery, Trotter & Sholer: 

"Recall" presents an exploration of unsettled memory through paintings based on photographs. Memories are notoriously unreliable, yet they are the very fabric of the narrative self. In this exhibition, both artists are exploring events captured in photographs. 

These photographs are used as source material, spliced and reconfigured to construct moments of time both fragmented and imagined. Using oil paint, these artists play with the idea of remembering and the act of making memories. 

"Recall" will be on view at 168 Suffolk St. between Houston and Stanton through Oct. 21. The opening reception tomorrow is from 4-8 p.m. 

Trotter & Sholer is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12 to 6 p.m.

Hold it now, hit it: Beastie Boys Square is finally becoming a reality on the Lower East Side

On Saturday afternoon, the corner of Rivington and Ludlow will officially be co-named Beastie Boys Square. 

This ends a nearly 10-year effort for this co-naming designation. City Council signed off on it last summer with the strong support of District 1 City Councilmember Christopher Marte.

LeRoy McCarthy has been behind this effort and kept with it even after Community Board 3 voted 24 to 1 to reject the Beastie Boys Square application in January 2014. CB3 also reportedly barred McCarthy from reapplying for the street naming for five years.

The former clothing store on the SW corner was the backdrop for the band's seminal sophomore release from 1989, "Paul's Boutique." 

The afternoon will feature appearances by Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz. (Adam "MCA" Yauch died in 2012.) There's also word of some pop-up shops...

As part of the unveiling, the 2-hour celebration features a special guest DJ set, A-1 Records & #BeastieBoys pop-up shops, live screen printing and more.

— Beastie Boys (@beastieboys) September 6, 2023

Brooklyn-based artist Danielle Mastrion created the original BB mural in 2014...

She started a new mural late yesterday... here's a work in progress...

Openings: Cafe La Fe on 1st Street

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Cafe La Fe recently debuted at 70 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

Owner Yarissa Suarez was born and raised on the Lower East Side (Orchard Street) and lives on Norfolk Street. 

On the menu, the empanadas, with various fillings, are the main draw here... along with an assortment of coffee drinks (via La Colombe) and juices. 

In this family-owned business, Yarissa will receive part-time assistance from her son Yaslir, who would like to be billed as "entertainer, cleaner and sous chef."

Cafe La Fe is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, with a 9 a.m. start on Saturday and Sunday.

The storefront was previously home to Pinky's Space.

Here's how you can contribute to the East Village Community Cookbook

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

During the pandemic, three East Village residents became friends while spending time with their pups at the Tompkins Square Park Dog Run. 

The men (from left above), Will Kroeze, pastor at Trinity Lower East Side, Dan Hyatt, a middle school teacher, and Will Horowitz, a chef and author who co-founded Ducks Eatery and Harry & Ida's Meat and Supply Co., bonded over a mutual interest in the intersection of food, spirituality, and community. 

They have put the conversations into action, creating an old-school cookbook that will benefit Trinity Lower East Side Services and Food for the Homeless (SAFH) and community fridge on Ninth Street and Avenue B.

This past week they started casting a wide net requesting recipes and are interested in everything from favorite family dishes that your grandparents created to unique ways to prepare favorite meals.

To date, they've already secured commitments from C&B Café, Katz's, Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Russ & Daughters, SMØR, Superiority Burger, Veselka and Zaragoza's ... as well as Hearth Chef Marco Canora, Susan Sarandon, and the owner of SOS Chefs on Avenue B. 

"Nothing can build a community like food. Whether it’s showing love by preparing our favorite recipes, sharing a meal with friends and strangers alike, or serving our neighbors in need, food has an unparalleled ability to bring people together,"  Pastor Will said. "Our hope is that our cookbook will weave together the many food stories of our neighborhood in a way that’s never been done before to create a symbol of what makes the Lower East Side such a very special place: our rich diversity."

The self-published book will be available in time for the end-of-year holiday season...

They're accepting submissions until Sept. 15 via email. You can also follow @eastvillage_cookbook on Instagram.

The LES Shake Shack opens on Friday

Updated 2 p.m. This outpost will not be serving breakfast.  (Grand Central Terminal is the only Shake Shack in Manhattan currently serving breakfast.) The hours on the LES are 11 a.m. to midnight.

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Shake Shack's first Lower East Side outpost is set to open this Friday at 131 Rivington St.

There's now an opening sign here on the SE corner at Norfolk. (Thanks to EVG reader Rhys L. for the photos!)

News of this arrival dates to July 2022. (Signage arrived in November.) 

There was some doubt that the Shack would ever open here... in late June, the landlord's reps affixed a legal notice on the gate seeking $194,974.79 "for rent for the Subject Premises."

The SS website lists the Rivington Street hours as 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.  ... which is either a mistake or means this outpost will be serving breakfast, usually only found at the brand's airport locations.

The last tenant here, Schiller’s Liquor Bar, closed after 14 years in 2017.

EVG Etc.: Checking in with the red-tailed hawks of Tompkins Square Park; revisiting 'Frances Ha'

Some headlines from other sources in recent days...

• Remembering veteran character actor Mark Margolis who had roots in the East Village (Variety ... The Hollywood Reporter ... previously on EVG) 

• A tribute to Brice Marden, the decades-spanning abstract artist who ran Rivington Arms on the LES (Artnet News) 

• Ex-con who allegedly made menacing threats to women along Second Avenue and Fifth Street back on the corridor after a short jail stint (The Post) 

• NYPD investigating an assault on 13th Street and Broadway from June as a hate crime (Gothamist) 

• Cat Marnell makes a statement about the Marc Jacobs ads with Kim Kardashian, as seen in the photo above on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place (The Sun)

• This 12th Street co-op for sale has a plant wall (6sgft) 

• Red-tailed hawk highlights from Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

• Remember the John Spacely "Gringo" mural on St. Mark's Place (Flaming Pablum) 

• Some love for P&T Knitwear on Orchard (USA Today) 

• There are several upcoming screenings of the 2013 comedy "Francis Ha," co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig — and directed by Noah Baumbach... with scenes filmed in the East Village and Lower East Side (Metrograph and part of a series titled The Color of Black and White)

 

The Whiskey Ward set to close next month on Essex Street

On the Lower East Side, the Whiskey Ward will close in the middle of September — three months shy of its 24th anniversary, according to co-owner Sandee Wright.

As for a reason for the closure, Sandee said simply in an Instagram message that "it's time."

The no-frills neighborhood bar with a pool table, free peanuts, and an extensive menu of whiskeys has been a solid, low-key hangout through the years at 121 Essex between Rivington and Delancey. They will be missed.  

EVG Etc.: Club Cumming honors slain dancer O'Shae Sibley; Anthology Film Archives presents a John Wilson-curated series

Photo from 1st Avenue at 6th Street 

• On Sixth Street, Club Cumming honors O'Shae Sibley, who was murdered while dancing at a gas station in Midwood, Brooklyn (CBS New York ... update on the case here) 

• The body of John Castic, a Goldman Sachs analyst, was found in Newtown Creek three days after being reported missing following a concert at Brooklyn Mirage. Castic, who lived on the Lower East Side, was 27. (PIX11 ... Daily Mail) 

• Local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera on her just-passed legislation that creates a "Current Conditions" report for cyclists (Streetsblog)

• An interview with LES post-punk/no-wave vets Bush Tetras (The Guardian ... previously on EVG) 

• To celebrate the return of HBO's "How to With John Wilson," the filmmaker is guest-curating a special two-part series at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue (Official site) 

• Or go "Back to School" with Kirsten Dunst films at Metrograph on Ludlow (Official site) ... or spot the East Village locations in "The Godfather Part II" Tuesday evening (Tickets) 

• Public Access, the gallery that started on St. Mark's Place before relocating to Henry Street, has closed (Instagram... previously on EVG) 

• Claud, the 1-year old restaurant and wine bar at 90 E. 10th St., will not be pivoting to a bakery after all amid liquor license confusion (Eater... Instagram) 

• The International Puppet Fringe Festival coming to the LES next week (Time Out) 

•  A feature on local resident Hila Perry — aka, Hila the Earth — who's hoping to inspire climate action through music (CBS New York) 

• EV's Tompkins Square Bagels isopening an outpost on the Upper East Side (Patch)

... and we mentioned this in last week's links roundup ... the corner of Rivington and Essex was to be co-named "Morris 'Moishe’ Cohen Way" to honor the founder of NYC's oldest candy shop, Economy Candy (and very much still open!)

Report: The historic 137 2nd Ave. — the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic — has a new owner

One of the neighborhood's most unique properties has a new (mystery) owner. 

The landmarked three-story building at 137 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street just changed hands for $18.95 million, the Post first reported. 

The unknown buyer was listed as 137 Second Avenue Holdings, LLC. No word on what the new tenant has planned for the space, which hit the market back in March. 

According to the listing, possible uses included "a future townhouse or residential redevelopment."

The neo-Italian Renaissance brick building is the former German Dispensary, which opened in 1884. (In 1905 it became the Stuyvesant Polyclinic.) 

Here's more about the building from a 2008 New York Times feature:

Like the branch library next door, the Second Avenue building of the German Dispensary was the gift of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, who ran the German newspaper New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung. That journal had great influence in Little Germany, on the Lower East Side around First and Second Avenues below 14th Street. The 1886 edition of Appleton's Dictionary of New York described an area in which "lager-beer shops are numerous, and nearly all the signs are of German names."

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1976. Learn more about No. 137's history and architecture at Off the Grid here.

In 2019, the space became the headquarters of the female-focused co-working club The Wing. Per reports at the time, "the HQ is intended to riff off the building's original details, such as existing terracotta tile floors, decorative pillars, moldings and skylights."

According to Curbed, who first reported on this availability in March, "The Wing's furniture is still in the building and can be included in the sale."

Apparently, the new owner didn't want that furniture. On July 20, EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted workers trashing some pretty nice-looking office fixtures... not to mention some books...

Derek alerted the folks at Village Works around the corner on St. Mark's Place, who were able to salvage some of the books...

Week in Grieview

Posts from this past week included... (with a random LES street scene)

• First look inside the Astor Place Wegmans, set to open on Oct. 18 at 9 a.m. (Thursday) 

• City issues RFP for the renovation and operation of the snack bar at First Park (Tuesday) 

• Asbestos abatement ahead of demolition at the NW corner of 1st Avenue and 2nd Street (Tuesday) 

• The great New Double Dragon signage shines brightly again, now on the Lower East Side (Wednesday) 

• Happy 40th anniversary to The Sock Man! (Friday)

• A tribute to Sinéad O'Connor on Great Jones (Thursday)

• Kuppi Coffee in soft-opening mode on St. Mark's Place (Wednesday) 

• Sami & Susu bring you the Pita Shop by day on Orchard Street (Wednesday) 

• Summer scheduling: Lucy's returns after Aug. 10 (Monday) 

• The arrival (Tuesday)

• RIP to the 'RIP ST MARKS' tag (Monday) 

• Proto's Pizza is closed for remodeling, and now under new management (Thursday) 

• Check out a new track/video from local band Rebounder (Friday) 

• A return to 'Alphabet City' at Metrograph (Tuesday) 

• Pizza signage update on 9th Street (Monday) 

... and thanks to Roman for stopping for a pose on 5th and A! (Photo by Stacie Joy)...

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The great New Double Dragon signage shines brightly again, now on the Lower East Side

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

New Double Dragon was forced to close earlier this month with the pending demolition of its longtime home at 37 First Ave. between Second Street and Third Street.

However, that great NDD signage lives on.

NDD owner Shawn Lin is friends with Kenney Shi, the proprietor of Soley Tea at 111 Eldridge St. between Broome and Grand. (Both men are Fujianese.)

The two had been discussing preserving the sign for months — once Shawn learned this winter that he might need to shut down his quick-serve Chinese restaurant this year.

Once Shawn finally closed, Kenney hired a sign company to carefully remove and transport it to his shop on the Lower East Side this past July 11...

Kenney saved all the (nonworking) lightbulbs and bought new wiring for the sign with the hopes of having it illuminate his small shop. 

Kenney has also saved and restored other Chinese and Chinatown-area signage, which he displays in his boba tea shop and art gallery...

Soley Tea is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 8 p.m. if you want to pay a visit.

Postscript

After my first visit this past week, Kenney got the signage to light up... even adding a dimmer switch ...