Celebrating the life and work of longtime East Village artist Anton van Dalen

Anton van Dalen with his pigeons from the documentary "Anton: Circling Home." 

 Photo by Anthony Lindsey. 

Longtime East Village-based artist Anton van Dalen died in his home on June 25. He was 86.

P·P·O·W, the gallery that represented him over the years, is hosting a celebration of his life and work this Saturday afternoon from 2-4 at the SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St., between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.

Organizers encourage folks to RSVP, which you can do via this link. 

As P·P·O·W stated: 

Immigrant, humanist, artist, activist, educator, and lifelong pigeon keeper, Anton van Dalen dedicated his life to documenting the Lower East Side's evolution from dilapidation to gentrification in paintings, drawings and sculptures that, as the critic and poet John Yau states, "arose out of a meticulous draftsmanship in service of an idiosyncratic imagination merged with civic-mindedness."

Lights, camera, nostalgia: Orchard Street goes back to the 1950s for Timothée Chalamet film

While Avenue A is getting a late 1990s look for Darren Aronofsky's "Caught Stealing," parts of the Lower East Side are returning to the '50s. 

Longtime EVG reader Matt Geo LES shared these photos from Orchard Street between Rivington and Delancey...

The storefronts are the backdrop for Josh Safdie's film "Marty Supreme," which stars Timothée Chalamet as American table tennis champion Marty Reisman. 

The eclectic cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler the Creator, Abel Ferrara and Penn Jillette. 

And the plot, per Deadline: 

While details of the film are being kept under wraps, it will be based loosely on Reisman's life. Known for his unconventional style, he won two U.S. Men's Singles Championships in 1958 and 1960 and more than 20 international and national titles.

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with someone having a cow on 14th Street by Derek Berg)...

• Dimmed lights on 1st Avenue: Only 1 Indian restaurant remains at Instagram-friendly address (Monday) 

• I need More: Here are J. Kathleen White's 2024 dioramas on 9th Street and Avenue C (Tuesday) 

• San Loco is closing its Lower East Side location (Thursday) 

• Buy a t-shirt to help power Flower Power on 9th Street (Wednesday) 

• "SCUMB Flowers" at Dashwood Projects (Friday) 

• At the 18th annual Anarchist Bookfair (Sunday) 

• Happy No. 130 to Veniero's Pasticceria! (Monday) 

• On Avenue A, Benny's Burritos returns for the movies (Tuesday) ... Kim's Video is the latest of the departed Avenue A businesses to return for a set piece (Thursday) 

• A moment on Avenue A in 1995 (Wednesday) 

• Façade exploration work continues at the former P.S. 64 (Monday)

• PUNK Magazine is back with a new issue and a battle of the bands in Tompkins Square Park (Thursday) ... PUNK in the rain (Saturday) 

• LÀ LÁ Bakeshop bringing Vietnamese desserts to 2nd Avenue (Thursday) 

• Holy Cow announces itself on 14th and B (Monday) 

• Checking in at No Fork on Avenue A (Thursday) 

• Signage alerts: St. Mark's Burgers & Dogs, Kamisama, Alphabet City Gourmet Deli (Monday) 

• Blazing the trail: A map to all the high points of legal cannabis dispensaries (Tuesday) 

• Closings: Pizza Pazzo on 1st Street (Monday) 

This past Tuesday evening, the Francis Kite Club celebrated Sunaura Taylor's new book "Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert." Below is Sunaura (on the right) with her sister and fellow author Astra Taylor (photo by Daniel Efram)...

Francis Kite Club, 40 Avenue C between Third Street and Fourth Street, hosts many interesting events, workshops and programs. Check out their calendar here.

San Loco is closing its Lower East Side location

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

After 22 years at 111 Stanton St., San Loco is closing its location here between Ludlow and Essex. 

The lease is up, and according to owners Jill and Kimo Hing, they are at an impasse with the landlord.

"It's time to move on," says Jill. 

Kimo adds, "The pandemic changed the business, the neighborhood has changed, and our customers have changed. The cost of business has increased, with inflation and product costs rising." 

Monday is the last day for business on Stanton Street. 

San Loco's outpost on Avenue C will remain in service. 

"We're trying to look at the positive; we'll be here at Avenue C, and we're now able to expand our menu," Jill says. "Kimo and I will be back in the kitchen." 

The family-run business will keep the same delivery range, down to Grand Street (FDR to Third Avenue and up to Stuy Town). They hope their customers will show up to support the business before it closes and to say goodbye. They mention having final bills to pay and wanting to see their longtime customers. And for those who want to help: "If you know of a place in the neighborhood with affordable and reasonable rent, let us know!"

San Loco has a longtime presence in the East Village, starting in 1986 on Second Avenue before later moving across the street to 124 Second Ave. between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place. That outpost closed in June 2017 due to a rent increase that was unsustainable. The Avenue A San Loco closed in 2014 after 15 years in business.

A double feature tonight in Tompkins Square Park

The mini summer film series ends in Tompkins Square Park this evening with a double feature — "Encanto" and "Everything Everywhere All at Once." (The previous screening of "Encanto" was rained out.) 

"Encanto" will begin at 5 p.m. in the center of the Park, followed by poetry from Nuyorican Poets Cafe and pizza from Two Boots. "Everything," which won seven Oscars last year, starts at sunset. 

Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, the Loisaida Center, the Lower East Side Film Festival, Rooftop Films and Two Boots Pizza sponsored this summer series.

Holy Cow announces itself on 14th and B

Photos by Stacie Joy 

The Holy Cow signage rolled up on Thursday on the SE corner of Avenue B and 14th Street. (H/T Maegan Hayward!) 

As we previously reported, the burger joint that started on the Lower East Side in 2018 is taking over this space. (A few readers were hoping for a diner-type spot here, but...)

The expanding chainlet, with over a dozen locations around the five boroughs and on Long Island, offers several vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. The menu can be found here. 

The business takes over the corner space from M & J Asian Cuisine, which quietly closed earlier in the summer after 10 years. Fans can find (and order from) the New M&J on West 29th Street.

The Anarchist Switchboard retrospective exhibit opens today at MoRUS

Today (Saturday) is the opening of the Anarchist Switchboard Retrospective exhibit zine release event at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) on Avenue C. 

The opening coincides with the annual Anarchist Bookfair, which will take place at La Plaza Cultural on Ninth Street and Avenue C from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Info via the EVG inbox...

The Anarchist Switchboard was a political organizing space on the Lower East Side from late 1983 to 1989. It was located at 324 E. Ninth St. and was started by activists associated with The Libertarian Book Club, Alchemical Theatre, Freespace and The Living Theatre. 

After the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Police Riots, it was taken over by a new generation of activists. Due to several incendiary factors, the Switchboard was contentiously shut down in the summer of 1989. Some regulars decided to immediately open a new space, which they turned into an Anarchist Bookstore.

The exhibition of Switchboard-related flyers and documents specifically chronicles the years 1983 to 1987. It opens during the Anarchist Bookfair today (Sept. 21). There will be a presentation/talk/moderated group discussion featuring several people who organized at the Switchboard throughout the years. Event seats at 5 p.m.; discussion at 5:30 p.m.

 The exhibit stays up through Oct. 5. 

Additional exhibit hours: 

• Sept. 21: noon – 7 p.m.

• Sept. 22: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. 

• Sept. 28: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. 

• Sept. 29: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. 

• Oct. 5: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. 

Sales and proceeds will benefit the War Resisters League/A.J. Muste Institute.

MoRUS is at 155 Avenue C between Ninth Street and 10th Street.  

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with a debate-night scene from Kelly's on Avenue A via Stacie Joy) ...

• 2 men indicted for fatal Tompkins Square Park shooting (Friday) 

• D.A. Bragg announces sentencing of assistant in brutal 2020 Lower East Side murder of tech CEO (Thursday) 

• The 24-floor building rising on 14th and C appears to be one-third of the way home (Monday)

• 50-64 3rd Ave. wrapped for demolition (Monday) 

• A stunning photo of the Tribute in Light (Wednesday) 

• Inside a historic Stuyvesant Street home for sale (Thursday)

• Upright Citizens Brigade NYC reopens this week with new 14th Street venue (Monday) 

• Showing some summer love for Show Brain (Friday) 

• Why yes, the new building at 280 E. Houston St. does look quite enormous (Tuesday) 

• Serving up Pulp art at Abraço (Saturday) 

• This stretch of 2nd Avenue is now sidewalk-bridge free (Tuesday) 

• Coming attractions: The Feast of San Gennaro (Tuesday)

• Construction watch: 156 Rivington St., home of ABC No Rio (Thursday) 

• Soft openings: Sake Bar Asoko on the Lower East Side (Friday) 

• From Jamaican patties to macarons at 440 E. 9th St. (Tuesday) 

• Holy Cow! A burger joint for 14th and B (Tuesday)

• Café Social 68 temporarily closes for renovations on Avenue A, reopening in 2 weeks (Monday) 

• Signage, signage — everywhere signage! (Friday)

EVG Etc.: Testing the Good Cause Eviction law; exploring the East Village through a new exhibition at the Swiss Institute

Crossing 1st Avenue at 10th Street 

• A longtime East Village resident will be putting to test New York's recently enacted Good Cause Eviction law (CityLimits) 

• "Energies," the new exhibition at the Swiss Institute, invites visitors to explore other parts of the East Village related to the exhibition's themes of "ecological affordances and effects, social formations, and political arrangements attached to energy past and present" (World-Architects) 

• The rich history of 143-145 Avenue D (Village Preservation) 

• LES kava bar sues city to reopen (The Post) 

• The mayor's staffing decisions come back to haunt him (Politico) 

• The challenges facing the interim police commissioner (Gothamist) 

• The Lower East Side Film Festival debuts a new horror series in October (IndieWire) 

• 21-year-old man in critical condition after being struck by cab on Clinton and Delancey (1010 WINS ... PIX 11) 

• Eljuri Concerts for Democracy Fundraiser takes place on Sept. 26 at Drom on Avenue A (Official site) 

• "Batman" Day in theaters on Sept. 21 (Village East by Angelika) 

• How to get your apartment security deposit back (The City) 

• America's stores are winning the war on shoplifting (CNN)

Emigration

From the Poetry Window at East Village Books... featuring the work of Johnny H., an East Village poet...

The water runs off the Lower East Side 

Changing color over the age 

The elm gave up contributing 

How many years has that been 

How many years ago 

Was the blood of my birth 

The wrens when did they fly away 

At the price of a song

The city breathes dispensation 

Into the fruit of the land 

Have you flown there yet 

Did your wanting change 

Did you see the subway train 

From a seat in the tree 

You may not know 

You will not be ready for it 

A most inappropriate time 

You will alter 

The tint of the sea

Soft openings: Sake Bar Asoko on the Lower East Side

Shintaro Cho and Yuri Itakura, former managers of 31-year-old East Village standby Sake Bar Decibel on Ninth Street, have opened their own place on the Lower East Side. 

Sake Bar Asoko is now in soft-open mode at 127 E. Broadway between Essex and Pike. 

Here's more about the establishment: 

Sake Bar Asoko blends Cho and Yuri’s unique perception of sake with their adolescent experiences growing up in Heisei-era Japan and their passions for fashion, music, and analog cultures. Sake Bar Asoko aims to educate and reintroduce patrons to the world of sake and initiate newfound relationships with Japanese shochu and traditional otsumami plates with a twist. 

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Image via @sakebarasoko

Construction watch: 156 Rivington St., home of ABC No Rio

Foundation work continues at 156 Rivington St., where the new ABC No Rio building is being built at the site of its previous home between Suffolk and Clinton on the Lower East Side. 

On July 16, several city and local elected officials, along with a handful of activists and other members of the collectively run arts organization, took part in a ceremonial ground-breaking ceremony on the lot. 

The environmentally friendly new structure, designed by architect Paul Castrucci, will include a computer lab, print shop, dark room and a zine library, among other amenities. (Find more details here.) The City is contributing $21 million to the project through the Department of Cultural Affairs. 

According to an August feature at ArchPaper, "ABC No Rio's board hopes to complete construction across two phases, and construction is slated for completion in 2027." (Hyperallergic has a new article on the ABC No Rio here.)

Before the July groundbreaking, we had heard very little about the project since the summer of 2020, when DOB signage arrived on the plywood, showing an anticipated completion date of spring 2022. ABC No Rio first unveiled plans for a new home in March 2008. 

Its four-story building, said to be in disrepair, was demolished starting in March 2017, putting ABC No Rio's programming into "exile" at other arts organizations around the city.

Director Steve Englander shared a Facebook post in December 2019 addressing the latest setback at the site: "After excavating additional test pits to confirm existing conditions at one of the adjacent properties, we determined a redesign of our foundation and support of excavation plans was required." (Demolition of the Streit's Matzo Factory next door and the subsequent construction of the new condoplex on the site complicated ABC No Rio's plans.)

He also stated then: "We know that progress with the new building has seemed slow, but please be assured, we are moving forward. It's been tough, and we're glad that you've had our back."

Previously on EV Grieve:
• At ABC No Rio's last HardCore/Punk Matinee on Rivington Street (for now) 

D.A. Bragg announces sentencing of assistant in brutal 2020 Lower East Side murder of tech CEO

Photos from July 2020 by Stacie Joy 

A personal assistant who was convicted of murdering his former boss in his East Houston Street home after embezzling $400,000 from him was sentenced on Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison.

Manhattan D.A. Alvin L. Bragg Jr. announced the sentencing of Tyrese Haspil in the brutal July 2020 slaying of tech CEO Fahim Saleh in his condo on the SW corner of Houston and Suffolk. Haspil, 25, was also ordered to pay restitution for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Saleh's companies. 

Haspil was convicted on all charges, including Murder in the First Degree and two counts of Grand Larceny, in a New York State Supreme Court trial this past June. 

Beginning in May 2018, Haspil worked as Saleh's entrepreneurial assistant, handling financial tasks. Over the following months, he executed a series of elaborate embezzlement schemes. By creating fake accounts and entities, Haspil stole increasing amounts of money, eventually totaling nearly $400,000. 

Despite catching wind of one fraudulent scheme in early 2020, Saleh, showing mercy, offered Haspil a repayment plan instead of pursuing legal action. Haspil continued stealing and ultimately devised a plan to murder his boss to avoid facing criminal charges. (Press reports claimed that Haspil was worried his girlfriend would find out about the stolen money and leave him.) 

On July 13, 2020, Haspil ambushed Saleh in his apartment after a planned attack involving a Taser and a knife. After killing him, Haspil attempted to cover up the crime by dismembering the body and disposing of evidence. His actions were discovered when Saleh's cousin, concerned after not hearing from him for a day, entered his apartment and made the grisly discovery. 

Haspil was arrested four days later at an Airbnb, where he was celebrating his girlfriend's birthday. According to the DA's office, his PayPal embezzlement continued right up until his capture.

"While today’s sentence won't bring Mr. Saleh back, I hope it provides his family a sense of closure as they continue to mourn his painful loss," Bragg said in a statement.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Body of dismembered, decapitated man found inside residence on Houston and Suffolk

Holy Cow! A burger joint for 14th and B

Top photo by Jake Bowling 

Holy Cow, a burger joint that got its start on the Lower East Side in 2018, is opening an outpost on the SE corner of 14th Street and Avenue B.

Several EVG readers passed along this tip. The TradedNY real-estate Instagram account confirmed the new lease.

The expanding chainlet, with over a dozen locations around the five boroughs and on Long Island, offers a select menu with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. The menu can be found here.

The business takes over the corner space from M & J Asian Cuisine, which quietly closed earlier in the summer after 10 years. Ghost signage for a previous tenant, AlphaBet Cafe, was recently revealed. (See the top photo.)

No word on an opening date... renovations haven't started inside the space yet...

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included (with an opossum pic in Tompkins by Clay Roberts)... 

• The Loisaida CommUnity Fridge on 9th and B needs a new home — here's why (Monday) 

• RIP Hettie Jones (Tuesday) 

• A happy retirement to Jane and Billy, closing Katinka after 45 years in the East Village (Wednesday)

• Printed Matter/St. Marks is leaving St. Mark's Place (Thursday) 

• Gov. Hochul makes a splash with funding for new in-ground swimming pool at Tompkins Square Park (Friday) 

• German supermarket powerhouse Lidl is opening an outpost on the Lower East Side (Monday) 

• The multipurpose courts in Tompkins Square Park are closed for painting (Monday) ... Painting it black on the TF in Tompkins Square Park (Tuesday) 

• NYU buys dorm on Cooper Square that everyone already thought was an NYU dorm (Tuesday)

• Renovating 82 2nd Ave. for the arrival of Kebabwala from the Unapologetic Foods team (Tuesday) 

• At a 6th & B Garden Variety performance with Angela Di Carlo and Dirty Martini (Thursday) 

• A look inside Castellano Electric Motors on the Lower East Side (Thursday) 

• A late summer refresh for Bin 141 (Wednesday) 

• A signage setback at Ben's Deli (Wednesday) 

• A lot of hoop-la for this high-tech basketball backboard in Tompkins Square Park (Friday)

• '24 comeback for Elvis on Great Jones (Monday) 

• UWS hotspot Bánh Vietnamese Shop House opening a new restaurant in the East Village (Monday) 

• A quartet of murals for 2nd and A (Wednesday) 

• Summer ends on a positive note as the shopping soundtrack of our lives returns to Key Food (Friday) 

... and a reader shared this photo of some comfy new seats to wait for the M9 on Avenue C...

A look inside Castellano Electric Motors on the Lower East Side

Photos and text by Stacie Joy

Castellano Electric Motors Inc. has long captured my attention. Nestled in a modest, single-level building at 147 Ridge St., between Houston and Stanton, it stands as a relic of a bygone era.

Established in the late 1950s and operating at this location for over 40 years, Castellano Electric Motors harkens back to a time when the area was home to more independent service providers like this  ... and before most single-level buildings were transformed into high-end housing.

Jimmy, the owner, shared that he has no intentions of selling the building that houses the electric motor repair service. He satisfied my enduring curiosity by allowing me to photograph the interior (from a distance, anyway) ...

The Loisaida CommUnity Fridge on 9th and B needs a new home — here's why

Photo and reporting by Stacie Joy 

On the heels of our story that the 12th Street and First Avenue East Village Neighbors Community Fridge at S’MAC was being forced to close, we received word from Trinity Lutheran Parish that the Loisaida CommUnity Fridge and Pantry at Ninth Street and Avenue B also needs to shutter. 

I spoke to Pastor Will Kroeze from Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish about the situation. 

"Over the winter, we received violations from the Department of Health because of an increased number of rodents in and around our garden where the fridge is located, which jeopardizes our ability to fulfill our primary mission — to serve the community through our daily free lunch and food pantry," he said. "It is imperative that we maintain high standards of cleanliness and hygiene so that we can do this work, as we are regularly inspected by the Department of Health and have always been proud of the high marks we receive." 

He said that the church is now seeking a new location for the fridge "so that it can continue to be a resource for our community." 

"Given that the East Village Neighbors fridge on First Avenue is no longer operating, we feel particularly strongly now that the Loisaida Community Fridge must continue on; we are seeking the community’s support in securing a new location nearby."

The fridge arrived here in June 2021.

"It's been such an honor for Trinity to host the fridge since its inception. The fridge has been a natural extension of the work we've done for over 40 years to address food insecurity in our community, and we're proud of the many thousands of pounds of food that have gone directly into the hands of those who need it the most," Pastor Will said. "The success of the fridge is a testament to the dedication of the tremendous group of community leaders and volunteers who have poured their hearts into it in service to our neighbors." 

While the CommUnity structure remains in place for now, the East Village will soon be without any community fridges. The plant-based one outside Overthrow on Bleecker Street near the Bowery is currently MIA, with an Instagram post from last December stating a new fridge was on the way.

German supermarket powerhouse Lidl is opening an outpost on the Lower East Side

Lidl, the German supermarket chain with 12,000 stores worldwide, is opening a branch on Grand and Clinton on the Lower East Side. 

On Thursday, Lidl US officially announced that it had agreed on lease terms with affordable housing nonprofit Grand Street Guild for the 23,000-square-foot space at 408 Grand St. that previously housed a Rite Aid. (There were rumors of this pending arrival earlier last week, per the East of the Bowery Instagram account.)

There are several Lidl outposts around NYC, including Queens and Staten Island. When the Grand Street grocery opens next summer, it will be the third in Manhattan. There's one in Harlem now, with a location opening in Chelsea. (And more groceries are on the way.) 

Lidl US first arrived in Virginia in June 2015. The U.S. expansion hasn't been smooth, per a June 24 post on Grocery Dive: 

Renowned across Europe for the potent mix of low prices and high-quality goods that defines its thousands of colorful stores, Lidl arrived stateside with deep pockets, a highly developed private label strategy and a disciplined focus on efficiently running a complex business in a highly competitive environment. 

But instead of steadily growing its U.S. footprint as it had originally intended, Lidl US has moved ahead in fits and starts, prompting questions about why its value-focused business model has trouble gaining traction on American soil.

This retail space is on the other side of Grand and Clinton from Target, which opened in August 2018. (And yes — there's a Trader Joe's nearby too.)

Week in Grieview

Posts this past week included... (with a photo of the Moon and Kendall Jenner's elbow above the Bowery)... 

• Remembering Harold Meltzer (Wednesday)

• Prepping Theatre 80 for its next chapter on St. Mark's Place (Monday) 

• A new East Village home for Gizmo (Thursday) 

• That's all for the East Village Neighbors Community Fridge on 12th Street and 1st Avenue (Tuesday) 

• The new 24-story residential building on 14th and C begins its ascent (Tuesday) 

• Dedicating Raphael Sadonte Ward Jr. Way on the Lower East Side (Tuesday) 

• Why you'll be shopping at Key Food on Avenue A without hearing a random song from the 1980s (Sunday) 

• A second Rogue vintage clothing shop opens on the Lower East Side (Friday)

• Trash fire engulfs car on 4th Street (Saturday)

• On the CB3 docket this month: a new era for Lucy's, another operator for Lamia's Fish Market (Monday) 

 

• Veselka reopens front counter for dining-in customers (Monday) 

• About the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (Saturday) 

• With help from some friends, The Hard Quartet pays homage to the Stones on St. Mark's Place (Tuesday) 

• 9th Precinct issues headphone-theft warning (Monday)

• At the annual Festival Calle 6 (Monday)

• Get well soon, Currant! (Tuesday) 

• Tree down on Avenue A (Wednesday) 

• This week in lines (Friday) 

• A look inside the shuttered Starbucks on Astor Place (Wednesday) 

• FYI: It's NYU's Welcome Weekend (Saturday) 

... and from our ongoing Classic Cars of Avenue C collection...

A second Rogue vintage clothing shop opens today on the Lower East Side

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Above from left: Gabriel Celik, Kelsey Jenik and Sophia Romulo 

Today marks the grand opening of the second LES outpost of Rogue at 313 E. Houston St., between Clinton and Attorney. 

This offshoot of vintage clothing entrepreneur Emma Rogue's Allen Street shop offers more clothing options (this weekend with a bin sale of $5 to $20 items) as well as an events space.

This weekend also marks the official drop of the Rogue Zip-Off Jean Jorts (only 100 made), which promise to be a hot item.

Rogue, who was out of town when we stopped by, started selling clothes from her childhood bedroom on Depop and opened her first shop stocked with Y2K and 1990s vintage and secondhand at 53 Stanton St. in June 2021. 

She recently relocated to a larger space nearby at 154 Allen St., where she also showcases other up-and-coming designers. (You can read more about her in this Teen Vogue feature.) 

And info about the opening weekend...

 

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